Episode 38: Quinn Brodey

Quinn Brodey comes on the podcast and talks about his time at Stanford and then his 7 years in the minor leagues, as well as the transition to other parts of the field.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
All right, sweet, what's up? What's happening? Welcome back to the
minor League. Take I'm your hosprade case. And on this week we
have Gwinn Brody. Hello, how'sit going? Hopp it be here?
Uh So Gwen's had a very interestingjourney past couple of years and really excited
to dive into it. But Ithink the best place to start, where
I like to start with everybody iswhat did high school baseball look like for

(00:20):
Quinnbrody? High school baseball? Okay, great? High school baseball was in
LA. Grew up in LA,went to high school at Loyola High School
in Los Angeles. High school baseballfor me looked like I initially was on
the JV team for I think itwas a couple of weeks into the regular

(00:43):
season. And is this your junioror your freshman year? Okay, yeah,
so my freshman year was on theI got put on the JV team
and I was there for a littlewhile, and I think it was a
couple of weeks into the season thatI got called up to varsity, which
was awesome, and got an opportunityto play a little bit here and there.
Uh, not a ton by anymeans, But at this point I

(01:04):
was pitching and playing outfield, dida little bit of both, and then
sophomore year started the year on varsity. I can't remember exactly what year it
was, but there were a fewyears that I there was a year that
I was a year or two thatI was l CIF, which ISF is

(01:26):
the I don't know if it's justcouncil, Yeah, it's the conference or
were you were you mostly like,were you starting as a freshman? As
a freshman, I probably got acouple of starts. I don't remember.
I don't remember exactly how that yearwent. But then more or less from
sophomore year on, I was,I was in there, and I was

(01:46):
you know, I was grateful thatI could more or less assume that my
name was getting in the lineup andI was contributing, which was awesome.
And we had a great team.We had a lot of good players,
the older guys that helped us out, and then my class had a lot
of good players, So yeah,we had we had a lot of fun.
So, I mean, that's definitelyimpressive to be able to like at
least the physical changes that I wentthrough from fourteen to seventeen was a huge

(02:09):
jump. Like, I didn't getmuch taller, but I filled out a
lot more, which I certainly needed. And then I mean to be able
to play get some playing time onvarsity at fifteen fourteen, fifteen years old
is yeah, it's fucking it's hard, it's scary. Yeah, it was
definitely intimidating jumping in there with guysthat were for sure a lot more physically
mature than me. I would saythat I wasn't someone who saw any kind

(02:35):
of huge change physically in high school. I was always a little bit taller,
always a little more physically mature,probably than my peers. And then
obviously people catch up. But Ididn't have any kind of crazy growth for
anything. Ye were you Were youpitching or were you hitting? I was
doing both, Yeah, I don'tremember if. I was probably relieving starting
here and there. However, worksin high school. You just throw whatever

(02:55):
you throw. High school is morejust like pitch by committee. It's like,
all right, we're all available today, let's see who can get this.
You can get this dot? Yeah? Yeah, Because I mean I
went back and you know, tryingto do my research for this and try
to understand a little bit of howthe final details of how your career went.
I mean, I look at yourtime at Stanford. Well, first
let's talk about Sanford actually, aboutlike you know, about even just getting

(03:17):
the opportunity to play there. Howdtheir recruiting go to get into a really
prestigious place like Stanford. Yeah,for sure. So as high school went
on, I'm sure like we alldid, went to the showcases, went
to some different camps. Stanford's recruitingprocess was a little bit unique in that
they didn't they didn't travel to tournamentsand showcases as much as other schools did.

(03:38):
Okay, they they have they havea huge camp that they run every
summer that they I think they theyat that at that point they relied not
heavily, but they used that campfor their own recruiting to a large extent.
So I went to that camp myjunior heading in so summer after sophomore

(03:58):
year of high school, I wentto that camp, I think it was,
and I think it was that summer, not important, one of those
two summers, sophomore junior summer,and that's where I had been talking to
them a little bit here and there. I think they'd maybe seen me play
at a tournament or two in Arizonaor something like that. But I think
that camp is where I was ableto get in front of them, stand

(04:19):
out, meet them, shake theirhands, put a face of a name,
that kind of thing. After thatis when we stayed in more constant
contact. The pitching coach at thetime, Rusty Filter, who is now
the head coach of Santa Clara hehe and I stayed more in more close
contact after that, and then Iwent on an unofficial visit. Yeah,

(04:41):
this was unofficially, unofficial, unofficialvisit before my junior season started in high
school. And while I was there, they I'll never forget it, you
know. I was at restaurant withthe head coach and the assistant coach and
my mom and myself, and hegave me the pitch and gave me the

(05:02):
offered me whatever they offered me,and it was of course, we're both
just total. I mean, Igotta imagine to be a recruiting coordinator at
Stanford's gonna be a really fucking easyjob. Easy and fun because you're literally
like giving these kids their dream likeit's it's it's a beautiful camp. If
anyone that hasn't been there, it'sa beautiful campus, it's world class education

(05:25):
everybody knows about, and then you'regonna get the best facilities along with it.
I actually did that camp as well. I probably did it the year
after you, because I think yougraduated high school year before me. So
yeah, So I was there andI'm like, dude, this thing is
awesome. You go, you geta Stanford jersey with your name on the
back, and they do the pitchpretty well. Yeah, oh my god.

(05:45):
Yeah, Like every single kid wasthere was like, yeah, I
want to go here. And Ithink I think when I attended, it
was more of a like my dadknew someone through work who I think he
actually knows the son in law ofwho the of the head coach at Stanford
was, which I don't know thatI remember the guys na for yes plus
years. Who was my head coachfor all three years? Yes, So

(06:05):
I I only got to go becauseof like an end that we had and
we were like, yeah, sure, let's go. It actually reminds me
too. Was the the pitching coachyou were talking about? Was he an
older guy? Uh No, Russ, Rust, He's not too old,
Russ, He's probably Oh God,at this point I don't want to get
it wrong. Yeah, uh no, no, he's he can't be more

(06:29):
than fifty five. Okay, allright, I'm thinking of someone else then,
because there was someone who I thinkhe was just kind of like working
with the pictures one day and hegave me some He gave me like a
mental trick that I still use thisday, and it's hit. It was
he was telling us a story aboutwhen he was a high school pitching coach.
He went out to the mound andthey're like star pitcher who like everybody
at school loved, like he washaving a terrible game that when they really

(06:53):
needed him to like show up thatday, and this coach that he walked
out there looks at him and goes, uh, you're excited for the dance
this weekend. And the guy's like, what the fuck are you talking about?
And he was like, all right, you got a guy in first
face, let's get to here.And then whatever happened in the kid's brain,
like it just cleared it and loosenedhim up totally was fine. And

(07:15):
then the coach said that the kidsshoved the rest of the day. And
I've always used that. I've alwaysused as like Okay, I'm gonna like
step back, think about something Itotally shouldn't be thinking about right now,
and then get yourself going again.It works. It's a it's a really
bizarre thing. Yeah. But anyways, Yeah, so you commit, you
commit in the Millier junior year.Yeah, I committed right before the baseball

(07:36):
season started, so just you know, in January febru or something, I
think it was January. And thenI played my junior year senior year at
Lila, and god I still hadto get into school, yeah, which
which was you know there there theirstandards are not I was a good student,

(07:57):
but their standards are not the samefor athletes as they are for non
athletes. Is the best, Yeah, and it has to be the case
for probably most a lot of athletes, especially for Gouds trying to go to
Stanford. Like the people that werecompeting against academically are really really, really
talented. So it's not it's it'snot a it's not a given that you're

(08:18):
going to get in, like youstill definitely have They encourage you to take
aps, They encourage you to makesure that your schedule looks strong, like,
Yeah, they want to make surethat your application is strong enough to
get you in. They of coursehave their lovers, they can pull in
whatever, but you have to getin. And I remember I got in
sometime during my senior year. Finallygot my acceptance letter, which was great.
So then it was like signed,sealed, delivered, like good to

(08:39):
go. Yeah. I wasn't tooworried about it, like I was in
honors classes, aps like GPA wasgood, my SAT and ACT were good,
so I wasn't too concerned about it. But it was good just to
get it, like finally taking careof. Once you get that, it's
like the final seal. It's likeall right, now you guys can't take
this back. Yeah, exactly.So for people I don't know, I

(09:01):
didn't start the podcast off this wayby introducing you this way, but you
were you've been an outfielder. That'swhat you spend most of your time doing.
But I did look and see thatyou did pitch your freshman year at
Stanford, which is pretty cool.Was the plan always to be a two
way going into it? They did. They Yeah, they recruited me as
they recruited me as a two waypitcher outfielder with no you know, no

(09:24):
major plan of this is how muchyou're gonna do this. This is how
much you're gonna do this. Wasjust like you show up on campus and
you just got to figure out finda way to get in the lineup.
Yeah. Uh and yeah. Freshmanyear, I think I had a little
over tenanting something like that. Ihad maybe a start on a Tuesday and
some relief appearances and got my feetwet. You did solid. Ye're good,
especially as a freshman playing at Stanfordlike that. Those are good numbers

(09:48):
that you posted. Yeah, Idon't remember my numbers. Where I do
remember my first outing was, Idon't I think it was our first year
series of the year against Indiana athome, and you've been a sunken diamond,
beautiful field, beautiful. Yeah,it gets it gets very uh,
dewey and kind of wet there atnight. So I came into the game,
tie game, whatever, it's closegame something like that. I got

(10:11):
out of a leverage situation clean oneout or whatever it was. I think
I got to hit that game.I might have got my first hit that
game. In the next game,I can't remember, but then I came
back out for the next inning andI just completely like yipped the ball down
the line for on a bunch,like someone bunted the ball's wet. I'm
not wasn't particularly comfortable that anyways,just mailed it down the line. The

(10:33):
guy got the second or third orwhatever. Then they did it again and
mailed another another one. We endedup losing. You know, I'm obviously
just devastated. And yeah, soI don't remember what the stats were,
but I remember that one for sure. But that one, Yeah, that's
a that's a that's gonna stay.Yeah, you're definitely gonna pull coach aside
after that and be like, hey, can we can we work on this
a couple more times please? Oryeah, I had to figure that out

(10:56):
real quick. But yeah, Ipitched my freshman year and then got a
pretty good amount of playing time inthe outfield too. We had, you
know, you got to find away to get in there, and I
think we had a guy who uha junior at the time, who got
hurt a little bit. I gotto slide in. I had some success,
so even when he got healthy,I was still kind of the fourth,
third, and fourth guy in theoutfield that got mixed in. And

(11:20):
yeah, it was good freshman year. I got a chance to play a
lot, which was great. That'syeah, that's fantastic. I mean,
that's gotta be definitely daunting for Imean I went to a D S two,
so, like it was definitely alesser degree. But at Stanford,
you know, a big D oneschool. I gotta imagine the pressure really,
like you know, pours on especiallyring that kind of level. Did
you face that? Did you feelthat at all? Or is it pretty?

(11:43):
You got there and you knew thatyou could run with everybody from the
go. I knew. I knewthat. I I always believe that I
could be a part of what wasgoing on in the field. Like I
definitely believe that I could hang forsure. But like anyway, whether it's
the high school D one, Dtwo, D three, like you there's
there is that when you first showup, there's that feeling of can I

(12:05):
cut it? Like, yeah,these guys are older, guys are better,
guys have been around, Like that'sa draft prospect, that guy's this,
that as that. So it doestake a minute to just remember like
it's baseball, like you've been playingforever. It's gonna take a while to
adjust to the speed of the gameand your body's adjusting, and you're adjusting
to a new life at school andaway from home and whatever. And but

(12:28):
I think the consistent thing through allthat is just baseball. Like you get
out there and you get in thegame, and you're not thinking about all
the other stuff. You're just likein, you know, on a diamond,
and you kind of feel the sameway you felt whether it was high
school or whatever it was. You'rejust playing baseball. Yeah. No,
I try to tell kids that toosometimes, Like I'll like I'll watch baseball
when I get home with my littlebrother and there's a couple of guys in

(12:48):
the Yankees that I face and gottenout and I'm like, it's so cool.
And then my brother's like, howdid you do it? I'm like,
I'm telling you, they're literally justhuman beings. Like they yeah,
they're on TV and it make alot more money than I do right now,
but they're just it's a human game. It's it's part of you know,
there's a lot of mistakes that happen. There's a lot of guys that

(13:09):
have hit home runs off me thatI'm like, oh, that guy's made
a lot of money. And there'sa lot of guys that have hit home
runs off me that I'm like,I don't know who's Yeah, they're not
even playing anymore, and that's it'sjust part of it, definitely. But
then I see that, you know, your sophomore year, you don't pitch
anymore. Was there a conversation thathappened where they like, wow, you
have so much upside as an outfielderas a hitter, Like what did what
the process kind of look like there? Yeah, because I know that conversation

(13:31):
can be hard for younger guys,for sure, it can be hard.
Honestly, was a decision that kindof got forced on all of us because
I had I had a little bitof an elbow injury and elbow injury,
I had some elbow stuff going on, yeah, and the decision was,
hey, let's not even worry aboutthe mound, like, let's just focus
on making sure you can play everyday in the outfield, yeah, which

(13:54):
for me was a little bit ofa bummer. But I also I had
always been a two way player,so I had I loved pitching, but
I love pitching when I was onthe mountain like I didn't. I didn't,
I wasn't used to the practice.I don't know yeah, the practice
side of pitching. I throw bullpen. It's a lot of anonymous but y're
learning about now the stuff that I'mgetting back into now. But yeah,

(14:18):
they just decided, hey, let'sjust make sure you're good to go in
the outfield. So coming back inwhatever, it was the winner of my
uh sophomore year, that decision wasmade and rolled from there. I had
a decent sophomore year, went toCape Cod, which was awesome. What
teams you play for? Played with? Okay for Mike Roberts was my coach

(14:39):
there, and I had a Iended up having a really good summer.
Is he the shorter guy? Ithink the pirates have him now? He
was, Yes, Yes, heliterally is just our base running coach.
Yeah. Uh he's the man.He's a great guy. I am a
pitcher, so I never talked tohim, but uh, that's fun.

(15:00):
We had a great relationship. He'she's tough. He's he's he's a tough
Cape Cod is. There's a lotof pressure already built into that environment because
you want to impress, and it'sall the best players from here and there
and there, and you see peoplethat you've heard of and whatever. It's
there's a lot of hype around it, and he is He's the kind of

(15:20):
coach that you show him that you'rewilling to put the work in, and
you're you're willing to, you know, buy into what he's preaching, like
he will. He'll throw a battingpractice literally throws armfalls off, which is
never because he could throw forever.Yeah, but I know I had I
had an interesting summer. Like Igot there, I wasn't playing right away.
We had a couple of guys whohad been there before and who were

(15:43):
higher prospects, and they were gettingit at bats and I was working on
some things. I was still kindof figured some stuff out. And he
really helped me a lot with myswing that summer. And that was him
showing up early every day and throwingbatting practice all day long. And then
eventually I got my uh opportunity.And in this cap, it's it's all

(16:03):
summer, but it's I think it'sthirty forty games. Forty games maybe nothing
too crazy. Yeah, And Iended up having a great summer there,
which definitely helped me kind of launchmyself for my junior year and the draft
and all that. Yeah, whichthat brings me to I think, like
the most important question I like toask during these podcasts. For me,
there's something called the if to winmoment because your whole life, you know,

(16:27):
every kid is like, oh,that'd be so cool if I got
drafted, if I got to playin the big leagues, if I play
professionally, like that would be socool. But it does happen at one
point in time where your brain kindof goes oh shit, like it's not
if I get drafted, it's whenI get drafted, Like this is like,
this is coming, It's happening.This is definitely something that's part of

(16:48):
my future. So did you havethat moment in the Cape before? Then?
Was it in high school? BecauseI mean, going to Stanford,
I'm sure you had you know,a little bit of pro attention already going
into that. Yeah, that's agood question. I had a little bit
of interest in high school. Uh, for sure. I did some you
know, did the air codes andsome different stuff like that. And I

(17:10):
had made it as soon as thedraft started rolling around. I don't know
where I would have gotten drafted hadI just put myself in whatever, but
I had made it clear to anybodywho asked that I was my intention was
to go to school. Like IAs early as anybody was asking, I
had said, yeah, I'm I'mhonored that you're even interested, but I'm
I'm I'm going. I'm going toStanford. Yeah, I want to Stanford.

(17:32):
Yeah, I want to go toschool. It's important to me.
It's part of my family. I'mgonna get my education and play baseball there.
So I would say, you knowthat that made it a little bit
real of like, okay, likeeven if it is you know, any
round, like I could hypothetically goplay. We all know that. You
know that, you know, randomround guy that like says like, hey,
like sure if you meet this number, and then teams come back and

(17:55):
go, sure we'll meet that number. You go, oh ship, yeah
yeah, yeah. My situation wasnever quite like that. I wasn't as
I wasn't necessarily that kind of prospectout of high school. But then yeah,
I guess I would say getting ongetting on campus and being around being
around guys who either had been draftedhigh or were you saw it in their

(18:18):
future coming the guys that I playedwith that were starting to be part of
that process. And then especially afterfreshman year, you see the draft happen.
You go, oh wow, myteammates so and so get drafted here,
and so and so get drafted here. You start to play that game
a little bit in your mind oflike damn, okay, like you look
at their career and you think aboutwhat you could do and how you can
get there. And I don't know, I guess seeing it, seeing it

(18:40):
firsthand makes it way more real andmakes it feel way more attainable. Yeah,
So, I guess getting on campusand then for sure that Cape was
another place that as I started talkingto agents and start talking to scouts more
and stuff like that, like itjust it gets more real and you kind
of just, yeah, fall intoI guess you sometimes you forget to acknowledge

(19:07):
that moment of like, damn,this is cool that it's changed from it's
changed if to when, but youjust kind of moved straight to ye when
exactly. Well, yeah, that'sit just kind of blends together sometimes yea,
yeah, sometimes it kind of blendstogether. But yeah, I mean
yeah, so you go to theCape and I mean, you know,
like you said, you did well. Then you come back to your junior
and I checked out those numbers anddo you hit like fucking three fifteen with

(19:27):
like eleven bombs, which is prettypretty great to do because for there's a
lot of people out there. Idon't know how many games you guys end
up playing your junior year, butthere's thirtish games we hosted a regional we
know, fifty. Oh wow,oh my god, that's a lot more.
Am I thinking that? I don'tknow why? Yeah, no,

(19:48):
you're right, no saying once yousaid fifty out loud, they made me
realize that that does make much moresense to fifty. Yeah, yeah,
no, you're right, Yeah,it's fifty. Yeah, we played fifty
five, fifty six, fifty sevensomewhere in there. Yeah. By the
way, I mean three fifteen witheleven bombs at this point, are you
thinking, oh shit, top tenrounds? Yeah? I was, you

(20:10):
know, interestingly enough, I was. I was thinking I had I had
a good year. I had tofind you, like, in my opinion,
what was a fine year. Butlike I definitely didn't do as well
as I had hoped, which iswow. Obviously all of us probably all
the time, which yeah, that'sthat's a part of being an athlete.
You're always like, all right,I want to throw one hundred today and

(20:32):
then you throw ninety and you're like, yeah, no, there's there's that
part of it. But yeah,I had you know, I think I
had thought that it. I didn'tthink it would be day one. I
think I assumed it would be basedon what my agent had kind of been
communicating with me and how the yearhad gone. I was fairly confident it
would be day two. Sometimes Iwas hoping early on day two, and

(20:53):
it was early on day two,which is great. Yeah, which is
I mean, really exciting. Thirdround mess com calling. Were you hoping
for the Mats where you hope ofher than a couple of teams in the
mix, or were you like,oh, yeah, the Mets are gonna
take me, or like, no, I hadn't. I hadn't really had
any any conversations with anybody, anyteam in particular let me to believe it
would be them versus somebody else.They were all fairly similar conversations. They

(21:17):
try to get to know you,They try to figure out, like what
you're about. The Stanford guys havefairly or unfairly. I guess I'm I'm
biased, but I think I don'tknow what the statistics will tell you.
But someone unfairly, they get characterizedas like, are you gonna hang in
there? Are you gonna are yougonna tough it out in times? Are
you gonna stick around and times gettough? Are you gonna pull the shoot

(21:38):
and go, you know, getyour banking job or whatever job like that's
that's That's what a lot of scoutswill hit you with in those conversations,
is like, how do we knowyou're gonna stick around when things don't go
so well? Because it's true,like you have you have a really you
have a very enticing fallback plan.Like guys if yeah, I mean yeah,

(22:00):
Stanford education opens a lot more doorsif you don't see the path baseball
wise, and you have something inyour back pocket that can change your life
financially or whatever. Like of course, like some guys are going to choose
that option. I think I've hadthe perfect mix of the ability to continue

(22:23):
to do what I want to dobecause of obviously where I was drafted and
the financials of that, and asupportive partner and family and all those kinds
of things that have allowed me tocontinue to go for it. Yeah,
yeah, I don't know how muchin the details you want to get into
But I mean, you hit forfive seasons of the minor leagues and plenty

(22:44):
of experienced, plenty of at bats. What's something you would kind of give
to either a younger hitter that's aboutto enter this process or a younger guy
that's getting ready to think about makingthis turn into pro bawl. What's some
stuff that you've learned as a hitter? Yeah, I would say something that
keeps coming back to me even nowin my pitching journey and even as as

(23:07):
you know, current as today andtomorrow, Like, yeah, the stuff
I'm doing right now is really tryto understand your own your strengths and like
what makes you special, whether it'sphysically the way your body moves, the
way your things are put together,mentally, the cues that work that have

(23:30):
always kind of worked for you.Even if something cues work for a little
bit and they go away as weall know, but basically, like,
try to know your foundation of whatmakes you unique. And for all of
us who had if anybody in proball has had enough success to have something
that has made them successful, likeeven probably even probably anyone who's played any

(23:52):
level of any level of college baseball, you've had you've had to have had
enough success to put yourself at thatlevel. So yeah, really knowing that
before you try to be a versionof somebody else or something else. Like
as a hitter, I found myself. I don't regret anything. I wouldn't

(24:15):
do anything any differently than I didbecause it was always with the intention of
trying to be the best player thatI could possibly be. But I think
there were times that I leaned almostwent too quickly to the next thing of
like Okay, let me try tolearn this, whether it's this style of
hitting or whatever, these mechanics orthis drill without making sure that my foundation

(24:37):
was sturdy, of like, Okay, this is unorthodox or not or mechanically
perfect or not, Like this iswhat makes me me, and let me
make sure I don't lose that asI'm trying to add these other things.
Make sure this is still sturdy.So I'd say that's and that's not like
a that's not a straightforward thing todo. Like that requires a lot of

(25:00):
I don't know, self reflection.I mean, we we talked a little
bit about the other day about howyou like you go like like let me
try this, like one feel andyou're like oh shit, that worked,
or you're like, oh shit,that was terrible. I'm never doing that
again, Like either one happens.I'd still do those every single day.
I have that notebook that I constantlyand like am writing stuff down in because

(25:21):
I'm like, oh wow, thatall right? That felt that feel was
nice, Like let me try tokeep this rolling. And then you kind
of just build that from one thinginto another, and it's a very I
mean, it's a I feel likeyou're it's like running science experiments exactly.
You test something, it works great, you do hypothesis and you try that
out and it kind of works,kind of doesn't. But let's say you

(25:41):
know, you went to Stanford becauseyou said hypothesis, I said try stuff.
That's a different there just a fancyway of saying try stuff. Yeah,
But so yeah, I you know, the biggest I think the biggest
thing that I wanted to bring youon for though, was to talk about
this the really interesting transformation that youyou got to go through. And was

(26:04):
this twenty two right? It wasjust twenty yeah, yeah, twenty two
year in Syracuse and triple A,right, and then what happens? Tell
me, tell me what happens.Yeah, So I was in at the
time, I was in Syracuse thatyear. I had started in Syracuse,
went back to Binghamton, then backto Syracuse, then became a picture.

(26:27):
So tell me about how that conversationgoes. Yeah, I'd just sit you
down this farm director, what happens? Yeah, yeah, So I'd kind
of bouncing up and bouncing back andforth. I was sort of that guy
that was I was not having Iwas really struggling, and I was not
I was not enough of a prospectanymore to get the advats in double A,

(26:47):
and I was the guy that hadhad the experience and could slot in
in triple A if they needed aguy like I could be that for it,
that whatever. It's kind of inthat in that role. And I
had been in Syracuse really struggled,and down to Beningthon struggled, started to
figure it out a little bit,got called back up to Syracuse to fill
in, and continued to have someof use success. Was kind of felt

(27:12):
like I was getting back to thingsthat were more true to myself and that
were more sustainable whatever for performance.And you can kind of see the route,
like Sunday is always a very scaryday because rosters have moveing around,
especially when you're that guy that getsmoved around a lot. And in Triple

(27:32):
A things move around a tons becauseof injuries up and down the big leagues,
like things move around every week prettymuch, things shift around. So
got called in on the Sunday Ithink it was, Yeah, I think
it was Sunday, and I thought, you know, all right, I'm
going back down to Beington. Fine, like I'll just kind of keep rolling,
stay hot, like can hopefully figureit out the rest of this year
or whatever. And then they justsaid, hey, like what do you

(27:55):
what do you think about that?It was the manager who I had a
good relationship with, and he hehad been my manager at Double A and
then also on Triple A, andhe'd been our field coordinator at one point,
and he just basically said, hey, like what do you think about
pitching? And I was like,oh shit, like that's not That's not
where I was expecting this conversation togo. Yeah, No, it wasn't

(28:17):
my radar at all. And theyhe pretty much said like like you're probably
gonna get released here pretty soon,but before that, like we want to
get the or wants to give youopportunity to get on the mount if that's
something you want to do. Andso he said take your time with his
decision, like let's just like gothink about it, talk about it with
your agent whoever you need to talkto, but just try to let like

(28:41):
someone's gonna be in touch, likeyou gotta let us know by whatever.
And so I talked to my agentand everybody. And this was right before
the draft. This was me nothaving particularly good stats for a little while.
So it just seemed unlikely that Icould find a job if I did
take my release, that I wouldfind a job elsewhere. Teams aren't adding
guys before the draft. I wasn'tsomeone that they would necessarily be like eager

(29:04):
to add in those circumstances. Sodecided, like, hey, let's I'm
left handed. Let's see if Ican just kind of catch lighting in a
bottle on the mound, like andthen skip a shot. And so I
eventually told them yes, and Idrove down to Saint Lucie and spent the
rest of the year trying to justget comfortable to the mound basically, which

(29:25):
was a month or two or somethinglike that. Was was that pretty intimidating
or was tell me about that firstbullpen, because I'm sure there's a lot
of guys that are like, ohGod, like I don't even know what's
gonna happen right now. Or wereyou like, dude, I'm gonna throw
the shit out of the ball,Like what were you thinking? I was
probably somewhere in between. I wouldsay my my arm was not feeling fantastic

(29:48):
when I did. They got uson the mound pretty pretty quick quickly.
I actually ended up being doing thisalongside one of my other one of my
other teammates. They did it withhim at the same time. Oh wow,
mayor ad you guys who might haveplayed against at some point. He
was a middle endfielder. He's alrighty, but we'd played together forever, so
it was honestly kind of nice tohave someone who was one of my buddies

(30:10):
that was like, all right,let's go do this thing. And the
I mean, the best part.I don't remember my first bull pun.
I think I just was like justthrowing it, like I had no idea
what I was doing. But thefunniest part about it is I was using
my outfitter's glove because I didn't haveI didn't have a pitching glove, and
there was no I'm sure there werelefties down there, but like, there
was no one. There was noone I really knew. And eventually one

(30:32):
of my guys, one of mybuddies, was in rehab, who was
a lefty. He's like, dude, he's my glove. Was great,
cool, and then I got one. But yeah, it was It was
weird. I mean I had beenon the mountain since twenty fifteen or whatever.
It was freshman year of college,right, Yeah, so it's been
a really long time. Do youknow how hard you were throwing back then
in high school and college? Shoot, I mean on a bad day,

(30:56):
probably anywhere from bad day to goodday, probably anywhere from eighty eight to
ninety. I think I might havehit in ninety three maybe. Fuck,
that's awesome. I mean at eighteenyears old, though, to do that
from the left side, that's that'sfucking crazy to do, especially back then.
Like I I try to put thingswhenever I talk about, like my

(31:18):
high school experience, I try toput things back in frame of like twenty
fifteen. Like, dude, noguys throwing mid nineties, there was like
a handful of those in each bullpenin the big leagues. Now, it's
like, you don't sniff the bigleagues unless you're doing stuff like that,
or if you're doing something weird likeme, you gotta be funky, Yeah,
you get fucky. Yeah. SoI was not. I could throw
hard at times, but I thinkI was probably mostly around ninety and I

(31:42):
think I was somewhere around there inmy first pen. I was just probably
like ninety ninety one maybe, SoI was encouraged. It looked you know,
I of course jumped right to seewhat it looked like on film,
and it looked a little funky,and like I wasn't not comfortable yet because
I knew basically I am still butlike I know what, I know what
it feels like throwing someone out ofthe play, like when I really let

(32:05):
one rip, Like I know whatthat feels like and how that looks come
out of my hand and what itfeels like come out of my hand.
And I haven't quite had that samefeeling on the mound definitely not at that
time. That was it just feltlike a totally different throat, which it
is. I mean, it totallyis like from the outfield I'm running into
it, running through that and beingable to just let it eat. Oh
my god, it's totally totally different. Yeah, so it was. It

(32:30):
was. It was fun. II experienced a little bit of arm trouble
fatigue, like once I was downthere after a couple of pens and how
to pump the brakes a little bit, So that was not fun. But
they decided to bring me back.I didn't know, honestly if they would
have just to release me off seasonor if they were gonna see this through,

(32:51):
give me a chance to actually compete, because I didn't. I didn't.
I through pens and I threw onelovp down there and it was fine,
Like it was fine. It wasn'tlike insane. But I was ninety
plus from the left side, whichis which is I mean certain, that's
that's good, That's very very good. Can it can it can play like
it could play it? And Iwas like, all right, I can.

(33:12):
I think I can't improve this.I think get better. And that
off season was fine, like Ijust had again, just some as I'm
sure we all do, like someworking through some things arm wise, it
just didn't quite feel right and figuringout how to whatever try to get the
field that I want, and thenwent to they brought back, brought me
to spring training, which was great, And I tell me about those first

(33:36):
spring training things. Yeah, thefirst one, I think, did you
get a couple of rolls? Rollit? I don't know if I had
any rolls on I don't know ifI don't know if I got rolled.
I don't know if I did.Maybe in like a lit VP, but
that doesn't I don't know if thatit's a VP because you're just kind of
going for for people that don't knowroll it refers to when you're doing a

(33:59):
spring training game the backfield and you'redoing terrible and the coach is just seen
enough and you're at like twenty fivethirty pitches for the ending and they just
go roll it and everyone just walksoff the field. It's so as a
as a position player is great.Yeah, as a pitcher like, oh
god, damn it, they didn'tget through the inning. Yeah, So
I think I had a couple oflives that were fine, but live is

(34:20):
just different. It feels different.And then my first outing against another team
wasn't down in Jupiter against my againstthe Marlins, and one of my best
friends from Stanford, best friends tothis day. Is he played for the
Marlins and he was not pitching thatday, but he was there, which
was awesome that you got to watchwith Throb. But I was nervous as

(34:42):
shit, like I was. Iwas getting ready and like it went fine.
I think I don't remember exactly howit went, but I definitely got
a couple of outs, Like Ithink, I I don't know if I
might have given a hard hit ball, and like I don't think I walk
any But it wasn't anything crazy,Yeah was there was there a lot of

(35:04):
like just did you feel like youwere looking around and going, dude,
what the fuck am I doing rightnow? Oh? Yeah, I felt
really uncomfortable, Like I felt extremelyjust like weird on the mound on the
field, like I'm just so it'sso not used to being in that spot
on the field and being like inthat box, like in that that doing
that. So it was it feltreally weird, and it honestly continued to

(35:30):
for most of this past year,Like it's just it's just so weird being
in like a sitting in the bullpenand then getting on the mound and then
getting in the game and like youjust confined this little you know, and
you're on that rubber and you're notgoing anywhere else. And it could be
you could be in there for oneminute if you're in there for if you're
finishing an inning and you get oneout or two outs and you're like,

(35:51):
all right, my day's done.Yeah, it's over before you blink.
But I'm used to you know,three hours, three ish hours of focus
with like little pockets of more heightenedfocus when I'm either balls coming my way
or I'm in the box or whatever. So it was just a really different
experience of baseball. And I've alsonever been a po so even when i

(36:14):
was pitching back in the day,ye, back in the day, when
I was a pitcher, like i'dprobably be ye, i'd still be hitting
even and Stanford when I was whenI pitched, I'd pretty sure every time
I pitched, like I was inthe lineup, like even if I was
relieving like that, would come outof the outfield warm up for a second,
come in to pitch, stay inmy spot. They'd I don't remember

(36:35):
how they would manipulate the lineup.Yeah, So just doing that and then
sit down the bench like not doinganything else was. It's a it's a
very different like it feels like adifferent game. Honestly, I'm I'm personally
a huge fan of short relief,outing solid by a lot of sitting down
doing nothing. I love those.You're like, I'm done already. Hell
yeah, good luck, good luckguys. But even even hearing you talking

(37:00):
about though, like how like differentis and like I'm just sitting here thinking
to myself, like, dude,I felt different when I just dropped down,
Like I can't imagine just going tostand in the outfield like all of
a sudden, like just completely changemy game like that. That's that's even
more, that's even more eye opening. Definitely, it's an adjustment. It's

(37:21):
uh it really it really does feellike I'm doing something totally different. Like
it's still baseball, which I love, and there's parts of it to feel
the same, but it's definitely evenjust the day to day like as a
picture you can't you can't go ina cage for early work, you can't
go do there's you can't lift everyday like you can't you can't really have

(37:44):
a routine that way, especially asa reliever. It's harder to have you
as a as a starting pitcher,I freaking loved that I could plan out
my lift, my bullpen, mythrowing for each day, like I knew
everything that I was doing. Thetwenty nineteen season, I knew everything I
was doing every single day of theweek, Like I knew when my bullpen,

(38:05):
my next bullpen was, and whenmy next start was, and like
those are the only two things thatwere on my mind. And then I
would watch and scout and it wasso much easier. But as a reliever,
it's definitely a lot more of likejust oh shit, I'm in the
game. It might be end today, I can't throw as much,
but I need to get some workin, like I haven't been on the
mound, like yeah, especially forme, I was trying to accumulate experience
on the mound. So there wasa period of time where I had been

(38:27):
feeling terrible and I was just kindof like, I need to get on
the mound more, Like I needto get more more because even just throwing
like a touch and feel for meto do anything just because I'd like it
didn't feel at all the same asthe game, Like I wasn't I wasn't
experienced enough to have that be valuablewhere I could just feel my pictures right
away or whatever, Like I neededto feel closer to game speed, which

(38:50):
is tough because then I started throwingoff the mound more and then I was
really fatigued. Yeah, by thetime the game rolled around. So that
was like playing that game of howmuch to throw and the day to day,
even the end game is one thingthat's totally different, but the day
to day was very different because Iwas someone who as a hitter, like,

(39:10):
I love my routines. I lovegetting like by wagering routine, all
that stuff, cage routine, Likeall right, I don't feel great,
let me'll get a couple extra hacks. But yeah, sometimes it's probably kund
of productive, but I liked beingable to do that. Yeah, I
can't go throw more if you're notfeeling great. Yeah, you and you
got to just hang it up andgo lay down. Yeah exactly. Yeah,

(39:34):
I mean you go through your firstfull season. Well, first we
train at ATP That's how we initiallymet each other. Shout out to Shout
out to Josh Sheenan, Brian RyanLuke, b K Padilla, all the
guys there. We love training there. But you go, you know,
you go through your first full seasonand you got to arguably you got to

(39:55):
live my dream of playing in Brooklynand then living in Manhattan. I've always
wanted to do that. I thinkthat's the coolest thing ever, you know,
playing at Cityfield and yeah, obviously, okay, yes, obviously that
would be better playing in the bigleagues. But like being able to do
that probably was an absolute blast.And then it was a lot of fun
just seeing you randomly one day inDouble A, I was I didn't even

(40:17):
expect it. I just look upand it's the ninth inning. I'm like,
oh, all right, they gotleft you out there. Oh fuck,
it's Quinn. Yeah, that's fun. This year was it was fun.
Being in Brooklyn is unique for sure. I started my career there in
twenty seventeen when it was a shortseason, so a lot of the same
faces and like same vibe. Butliving in Manhattan and commuting down to the

(40:43):
field most days. I stayed downInwllen sometimes, but yeah, being able
to be like home and then gointo play it was totally weird, new
weird thing. Like sometimes it wasgreat, but also like I'm like kind
of in real life and like kindof see my friends. But also I'm
not like I don't know, Idon't want to get out of my routine.

(41:04):
I don't know. I'm a routineperson. So like I felt a
little weird to be like, itwas like blending. It was blending the
two worlds together. Yeah, itwas this weird gray area. But yeah,
then then getting up and that washonestly fun. I think that was
my I think that was Yeah.That was where Altuna was where I joined
the team, So that was funto have my first outing there. And

(41:25):
yeah, it's good. Yeah,I mean, I mean looking on the
back on the year, like Ithink, how many how many games did
you end up having in in doubleA? I think I think it was
like a couple of series. Imean not ye two serious, Yeah,
it wasn't just yeah, and likelooking at your numbers, like I think

(41:45):
if I look back on my numbersthrough my first like two three games in
double A, I think they werelike worse. It was so like I
it was like I don't know whatto do, like I can't. I
had become a reliever. I wasin the just thrown in Double A.
I had COVID like two weeks beforethat, Like I was still very like
trying to figure out what the fuckwas going on, and my numbers were

(42:07):
terrible, and like it's it's hardto be expected to be thrown into the
upper levels like that when it comesto pitching, because it's just hitters are
their toes are on the plate,they know what they're looking for, they
know what you're gonna throw, andyou if you miss it by a little
bit, you're in trouble. Yeah, exposed a little bit. I think

(42:29):
it's more of a like your numbersin high are good, especially as a
reliever. Like I think the mostimportant thing that I want, you know,
other people, I want them tolisten to this, but I want
you to listen to this more importantly, Like you just need time, like
you just like you haven't done thissince freshman year of college. Like it's
to go out there and have thatlevel of success. Is you did great,

(42:53):
Like you did great, man,and now it's just about getting more
experienced, which is gonna be it'sgonna be a challenge, but it's I'm
I'm excited to see what what kindof goes goes you know what happens next?
Yeah, me too. No,I totally agree. It's you know,
you, like anything, you justgot to learn by doing and you
get thrown into it and you justadapt. Like some things work, something's

(43:15):
don't work. And yeah, thejump was definitely I'd say nowadays too,
with the the consolidation of the minorleagues, like the jump from high to
double is probably probably where you're gonnafeel the Yeah, it might be like
the biggest I don't know if it'sthe biggest jump, but it's it's a
big jump. It's a bigger jumpthan when I had first made that jump.

(43:37):
I mean, now you have you'regoing from High where most of my
team was guys in their first fullseason, Yeah, which was that was
not the case when I got drafted. Like that, you started and you
started in rookie ball. I startedin the GCL. A lot of guys
had their first full season and rookieball, and like I had my first
full season in Low A, Ididn't get the high it till whenever.

(43:59):
But yeah, you go from basicallyguys in their younger guys first full season
nowadays to Double A, which isguys that are more fine, Like some
guys have been there for a minute, some guys are up and down triple
A, Double A, like,guys are kind of all the road place
I'm going for my senior year thisyear in double A, exactly is it?

(44:23):
Did you have a favorite outing?Do you have this year on the
mound? This year? A coupleof saves? Yeah, No, I
definitely did have a favorite out ofI think it was, Yeah, I
definitely I thought I did have afew saves. I don't remember any of
like the most higher leverage ones.I don't know. I feel like i'm

(44:45):
I'm I don't know if my memoryis bat or if I just if I
am unique as a like an outlierfrom an athlete standpoint, but like I
don't remember individual like Indians and outingsand batters and like I don't remember,
like I feel like I have someta what you mean? Yeah, we
were like oh yeah against this teamon this day and this inning with this
weird down by this and like Ihave never you know, as a hitter,

(45:07):
as a picture, Like I can'tremember that stuff. I remember like
generally, like the feeling around it, but I don't know, I don't
I don't remember we were playing thisteam and it was this situation, these
three guys came up and I don'tknow. There are definitely a couple where
there are a few oddings where youknow, I felt good and things were
sharp, and it's it's fun whenyou feel in control, when you feel

(45:28):
like you're kind of on the attack. There are some outings like that that
feel good, and then there's otherones where you might get out of it,
be completely unscathed with a good linethat you're like, geez, I
was kind of on my feels thewhole time. You're like, oh great,
three line drives my shirts top andI'm out of it. That's all
I needed. I felt like,shit, Yeah, all right, fair

(45:50):
enough. Is there anything else youwant to kind of cover before we wrap
this up? I don't know,get any more questions? Yeah, last
question to ask everybody is all right, you have to go back in time
talk to fifteen year old Quinn.What's something some advice you're giving them,
something, you're kind of guiding themwith anything? Do you what do you

(46:12):
what do you have for fifteen yearold Quinn? I would definitely reiterate what
I said earlier about know yourself andyour strengths, and add to that,
don't try to have don't try tocreate a new version of yourself. There
are very few guys that I've seenthat can completely recreate themselves. And as

(46:37):
you know, like you're trying tomove in an entirely different way, Like
it's really hard, especially at anyage. Honestly, it's really hard to
break movement patterns, different paths,Like it's really hard to teach yourself to
move totally differently. Like it's littlethings nuanced here and there, and certain
feels that might not even look anydifferent, Like I'm sure you've and that

(47:00):
we're like, oh, yeah,that was great. You look at like
that's the exact same as what I'vebeen throwing always, Like yeah, that
happens all the time. So Iwould say, know what you're kind of
your special sauces, and like makesure that that's something that we're all going
to always be trying to get betterof course all the time. Like that's

(47:21):
that's what drives pretty much every athlete, I would imagine, and in that
you can you can go too farand you can get away from like what
actually made you good, and thenit's it can be hard to get back
there. So I'd say, knowthat for sure. I would say don't
forget to have fun like it canit can be very fun. That's something

(47:43):
that I really admire about you,and like guys like you that are fun
to be around and like that bringbring the fun and like keep things light
and like and still get their workingand still care like it's there are times
that I and again wouldn't do itany other way because that's just how I
am and how I how I choseto go about things. But there are

(48:04):
times that I I think forgot,like you know, this is this is
a game, this is this isjust is what it is. Like You're
gonna have success, You're gonna havefailure, but enjoy, Like, don't
be afraid to enjoy it. Don'tbe afraid to don't be afraid to let
it be fun. Even in evenwhen it is a job and there's pressure
and there's expectations and there's your ownexpectations and everything, don't be afraid to

(48:29):
let it be fun. And similarlyto that, like focus sometimes, like
turn your focus outwards on your teammates, Like it's really easy to especially especially
in Pro Bowl when it's so differentthan college ball. Like I'm sure as
you as you feel, it's reallyeasy to not that it's not that it's

(48:52):
not that it's a selfish thing,but it's about how you're playing the game
or anything like that. But it'sit's much more isolated. It can't be
much more isolating experience, because guysmove up and down and over like you're
just it's not that same like unitof like team, let's win the game,
let's be a team like that kindof thing. I feel like it

(49:14):
becomes much more like, all right, well this is my year, ray,
this is my batting average. Thisis not like you lose that team,
that team vibe that it's nothing betterthan when you feel like the whole
team is pulling in that one directionof trying to win, of trying to
you know, be the best teamout there. Something that I like to
tell myself a lot and like toconstantly remind myself because I think it is

(49:36):
the most important thing. If youmake going to the field about everybody else
besides you, your time there becomesso much easier. Yes, there are
the things, there are There isyour lift, there is your running,
there is your throwing program like thatstuff. Absolutely have intent and focus in
that, But the rest of yourtime, like I try to make the
time easier for my for my teammates, or for my coaches, or for

(49:58):
especially the fans. Like in Altuona, we have some very loyal fans that
are in the same seats every day, and I always try to say hello
to them. I always try tomake their day brighter. And by doing
that, I've learned myself like it'sso much easier to do it that way.
I think that's well said. I'veI've I've I totally agree like I've
the time, I've found that I'venever had more fun at the field or

(50:20):
left the field with a better feelingthan when I do the random fan experience
things that you got to sign upfor, like that no one wants to
sign up for, or when youor when I you know, maybe it's
a day that I'm not playing,and I choose to the same way that
I'd say all the you know thatcan say all these shitty things to myself
about when things aren't going well,like I try to find someone who's having

(50:43):
how I see someone who's down toa tough day, one of my buddies,
and I you just say something nice, Like you say something nice,
and I'm like, damn, whycan't. I just why can't I say
that to myself? Like I justtold this guy, like, Yo,
you're Swingling's good, You're right onit, You're right there, keep going,
You're so close, like and Imeet it saying it's in like I
know it's gonna make it feel better, Like why can't I says to myself?
But more importantly, it feels goodto say to other people and to

(51:06):
be that person too. It's itwas easy for me to have things turned
inward and just be like focused onme and the thing that I got to
figure out and fix this and likehow to do that and whatever, get
back to whatever. But when youwhen you make it, Yeah, when
you turn it around and make itabout other people, I think it's I

(51:28):
think it's a more pleasant experience foryourself, and I think it's more pleasant
for everybody else. I think that'sa great place to end on. Is
there any socials you want to shoutout? Like any where? Where can
people find you? I'm not onInstagram, so you can't find me there.
Uh yeah, I'm really Uh allright, he's a ghost. He's

(51:49):
a ghost, I am, Iguess in person. Thank you so much
for coming on man appreciate it forsure. Thanks for having me