Fantasy Baseball Today - Bonus ⚾️ Talk: Most Underrated Pitchers plus Marcus Stroman joins the show! (1/6 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: January 6, 2021

Danny Vietti and Will Middlebrooks are back for January! Today on the show the guys are taking a closer look at the most underrated pitchers in the game today. Later on they're joined by New York Mets starting pitcher Marcus Stroman! Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday 'Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @AdamAizer, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the fantasy baseball today podcast from CBS Sports. I drive. Centerfield. This is magnificent. Got a fantasy question. Email fantasy baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy becomes reality.

Now here's Frank, Scott, Chris, and Adam. Party, people. Wait for it. Wait for it. People, what's good? Happy New Year. Thank God, it is 2021. See you later, 2020.

Welcome to the new year. Welcome to Fantasy Baseball today. Podcast, it is Wednesday, January 6th. Myself, Danny Vietti, along with my co-host, Will Middlebrooks to World Series champ. I bring the good looks. He brings the knowledge, right? You know what? We'll stick with that.

I'm not going to argue with you. I'm a team player. We can cut it in half. You can have either one. Either or I'll take either one. You have better hair than me. I'll give you that. Yeah, you're always wearing the hats.

But we both have fantastic co-pilots next to us. We both, let's be honest, we're swinging out of our leagues with our, my fiance, your wife. Let's be honest. You're not wrong. Marcus Stroman is going to be joining us today on the show. Super pumped for that, the Stro Show. We're going to talk a little ball with him. We're going about the New York Mets, the new direction they're going.

And we're going to talk about, of course, you can make the case. He's one of the more underrated pitchers in baseball. We're going to give you the 10 most. underrated pitchers in baseball today. Strowman certainly, you can make the case, he's one of those guys. He's only signed a one-year deal. He'd come back with New York. We talked about it a little bit before the interview, too. He actually mentioned maybe he could have signed a longer-term deal, but instead he's going to stay home back in his hometown. He grew up in Long Island, going to stay in New York. So we're going to talk with Stroh, a lot about the New York Mets,

a lot about maybe some recruiting that's going along with the New York Mets. Let's get right into it. most underrated pitchers in major league baseball today. And there's a, there's different definitions of underrated. There's undervalued. There's underrated. There's all kinds of different, you know, biases you could put towards that. But really, we're talking about guys that really don't get the attention they deserve. It doesn't really have much to do with their contract value.

It really just has to do with the attention they get on a day-to-day basis. Because I think a lot of guys, there's so many great pitchers in this league, especially nowadays, there's new bullpen arms coming in every single day. day. There's new starters coming in every single day. A lot of guys just really get forgotten. So we're going to go through this and we're going to give you 10 of the most underrated pitchers in Major League Baseball today. And first up on the list, we have Marco Gonzalez of the Seattle Mariners who really under the radar just had a really another really good season. He's a guy that just comes in and throw strikes. Analytic guys will. Analytic guys hate this guy because analytics aren't

impressive. It's just he comes out there. He throws strikes and he gets guys out. He gets weak contact. No, he does. I face this guy. I face him in AAA. I haven't faced him in the big leagues. So he was in AAA, kind of just getting on the scene. He was with the Cardinals at the time. So that's Memphis. I was in Colorado Springs with the Brewers AAA team. Beautiful, beautiful city, by the way. Check it out. Shout out Colorado Springs. But that's beside the point. So Marco Gonzalez, here's the thing. Like you said, he's not going to blow you away with numbers. He's not a spin rate guy. He's not a heavy movement guy. This Vila was around 89 last year.

Well, you know, when I faced him, he was in the mid-90s. All right. So a spin rate was probably higher then. But the thing that stands out with Marco to me, obviously his command, his first pitch strikes, strike percentage, he doesn't walk guys. How many walks did he have? Seven. And how many innings?

How many innings was that? Do you have that? Give me a second. I got you. I should have known that. I just know he throws it. He fills it up. He gets ahead.

But the thing that stands out was I felt like he was always on the first base side of the rubber. So that as a lefty, he was pitching to a righty, me. He loved to pitch in. That was a Skyrimor. Love to pitch in. And you look for a ball middle in. It's a four seamer. It's such a straight fastball.

You see it coming in and it looks like a beach ball and you start your swing. But since he's on that side of the rubber, it's coming across the plate. So it doesn't have cut. It's like I said, super straight four seamer. But you swing and you're hitting off the label. I literally had a bruise. on my thumb. That's how I remember facing him because the ball look middle in and you're trying to get the head out and hit the ball out off the scoreboard and I'm hitting it off my label and

it's like not cutting so it's not getting like way in like just in enough where your bad doesn't break and then just blows you up. And at the time it was 94, 95. But his command is what makes him who he is. I mentioned analytic guys hate him. So do hitters that you just mentioned for the perfect. Dude, he's so, like, smooth and mechanically perfect and fluid. The ball just gets on you because he's so smooth and fluid. You just, he kind of lulls you to sleep. And then boom, 93.

What was 93, 95. Now, like you said, he's around 90. But when you can command like that term we use in baseball, he could put it up a nats. That's how good he is. Sorry for the language. But that's a baseball term for you guys. I'm sure you've heard it before.

He can put it exactly where he wants. anytime he wants. And that's why he's a big league pitcher and one of our most underrated pitchers. There's certain guys that take the mound and your lineup starts, I don't want to say drooling, but they're foaming at the lips because they see him. They're like, ooh, meatball, fastball. Right. A good matchup for us. Well, I saw his numbers. I saw his numbers. I'm going, they can get this mixed up. I'm watching because the bullpen, the visitor bullpen in AAA there in Colorado Springs is right there. We're warming up running in an outfield. We can see him pitching and warming up. I'm going, this is the same guy. He's got all these

strikeouts? He's got all these strikeouts? He's got a 0.8 ERA. Like, what? You know, that's, that's insane. And then you get in the box and you're like, oh, okay, I'm going to go ice my thumb. And to add to your point, too, he's added a cutter to his arsenal. He added it in 2018. I was like two years ago, yeah. Yeah. And so last year, hitters hit just 1 88 against that cutter. So he's not only busting you in, now he's throwing it with movement on the inner half too. Yeah, it's rare that a pitcher, well, can pitch in. that effectively at a lower velocity. So that's why he added the pitch because he did lose velocity.

So you're going to see guys add pitches. You saw Kershaw throwing more changeups. He used to be hard in, in, and now he had to learn to command armside, which was always tough for him and Bumgarner and those guys. But now they've started to lose velocity and they're not going to be able to just blow your doors off. They have to pitch and they have to pitch to both sides of the plate. Analytic guys hate him.

Hitters hate him. But you know who loves him is front office. guys and coaches. If you want to get in a manager, throw strikes, get outs. And players behind him love that too. He doesn't mess around. You mentioned his first pitch strikes. I did my research for you. Don't you worry. He had the fifth best first bit strikers send his last year. But he was throwing a first bit strike 64% of the time. In his career, he's never been below 60%. So he's thrown a first strike six out of 10 years. As a defender, oh, you love that. You love that. Because I've played

I played with guys who were super slow, like a Clay Buckelts, who you feel like there's two minutes in between pitches. And the game's an extra like 45 minutes long. It's tough because you just, you get bored. You're like, all right. And then boom, a ball, you're playing third base. And Jose Batista hits a piss rod at your face. It's not fun.

All right. So speed it up. I can't watch Clay if I'm being real. Like, I give you, like, you should be in the Hall of Fame for playing defense behind Clay Buckles. I don't know that 20 times a year. I don't know about that. Next up on our list, we have Kevin Gosman who had, I don't want to say a breakout year with San Francisco because he's had success at the big league level before.

But he really found himself again last year with San Francisco. San Francisco is slowly becoming a destination to people finding themselves again. You know, they had Drew Smiley last year. He had similar, he had similar success. So San Francisco, that's what Fonzai do does. He just finds guys, lightning in a bottle guys. It's kind of like little Tampa Bay Ray-ish. But they have a little bit more money to spend.

Kevin Gosman was certainly one of those guys last year. I had one of the highest strikeout percentages in all of Major League Baseball. Yeah, I like the manager over there too. I think Gabe Kapler is amazing, the new age way of managing and getting the most of his players. He was my last manager I had when I got hurt in spring training with the Phillies. He just wants you to be yourself. We had so many meetings about just be yourself.

And that's why his players love to play. for him. Did they win in Philly when he was there? No, they didn't. They didn't. They're pitching fell apart. They're not winning without him either. Well, that's a good point. And they have some, they have some guys. They have pitching. But that's for another time. We're talking about Gosman. And so when I was in Boston, I faced Gosman a lot when he's in Baltimore. Since then, I didn't face him. But early in his career, LSU kid, right? See, you keep giving me. Come on, Danny. He's LSU kid. I said that was rhetorical. He's LSU kid. I

know it. All right. Nasty stuff. It comes from a good program. He knows how to pitch. Those guys know how to pitch coming out of those big, big programs like that in the SEC. Can confirm LSU. I know he went to LSU.

I told you that. It's rhetorical. Don't ask me then. I just wanted you to sound smart. Put me on the spot. Now I sound like an idiot. So you succeeded. I'm sorry.

You can edit that out if you'd like. So I face Gosman a few times when he's in Baltimore. His sinker was so good. like live arm, explosive sinker. And the best pitch, though, for me was his changeup. His change was unbelievable. There's one at bat. I remember, I want to say 2013, could have been 14.

It's a blur now. It feels like another life a lifetime ago. But I was in a hitter's count. It was 2.0, 2-1, 3-1, something like that. And he threw me a ball right down the middle. I'm talking, when you're looking at sinker guys, you've got to see the ball out over the plate. look middle and it's going to be off your back leg if you swing at it with the eyes like that.

So he, I mean, it was middle, middle. And I'm thinking, oh, I'm geared up. It was a change up. Cut it out front. And I'm, it was a really windy day. And I hit it really, really high. It was probably 10, 15 rows deep. And I'm standing in the box just watching it.

By the corner of my eye, I see J.J. Hardy. Remember him? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. So good. It's so good. Hulling. Hauling ass.

And I'm feeling, where does he take his? Like this ball's in the cotton candy stand. Where's he going? And I, it was really windy. I see it start coming back and I'm like, oh boy,

I better go. So I'm hauling, hauling, hauling, hauling. When I say 15 rows deep, this ball was foul, foul,

like somebody getting a souvenir. So it ends up dropping. It comes all the way back. He, J.J. Hardy dives for it, misses it. It lands right on the chalk or paint. It was grass.

It was paint. I go Superman. I hated diving head first, but I went Pete Rose head first barely, barely. I barely made it. I could have been out. They called me safe. They called me safe. I would have gotten derailed by the veterans in the dugout if I had not been on second base. I mean, I hit it a mile high and I was just watching it. So that's my Gosman story on how good his changeup was. Well, to add to your point, it doesn't make him underrated that he,

that I hit a double up. Well, I think maybe makes him overrated that I hit a double off one. But that's my Gosman story. Well, let me add to your. point hitters against his so he uses that split change up yeah hitters hit below the mendoza line against his splitter last year and well i got a double off it danny oh okay we're beyond that we're past your one double we'll look at the video later um but so i was a splitter guy when i was in college okay and okay i'm saying he's underrated because when his splitter's on he's nasty however splitter pitchers are very volatile it is a very very so it obviously the guys or anybody listening right now through audio they can't see this grip but for the

people on youtube right now watching your splitter grip is really hard to grip it's hard to control sometimes you have it sometimes you don't and so it have big hands too i feel like you have to have big hands uh somehow tim lendskum found a way to do it i don't know how but god's so the thing with splitters is you don't always know where it's going to go there are some seasons you do and some seasons you don't it just kind of falls away sometimes it cuts sometimes it runs it's kind of like a knuckle ball it really is sometimes it moves like a knuckleball and so i can speak to a splitter pitcher like gosman they're volatile because they're not always consistent uh the philly's closer hectorneris he's really good one year the next he's not that's how splitter pitchers are so i say he's underrated

because he's great when his splitter's rolling if we're talking fantasy and of course this is a fantasy baseball today podcast am i picking up on fantasy and am i taking a chance maybe if his is working, I'm absolutely taking that chance. But if the splitter's not working, probably passing on them. Yeah, the splitter's up, it's very hitable, very hitable, especially if that's his out pitch, which we know it is.

There's guys in scoring position, you know, high leverage situations. As a good hitter, you're going to, not as a good hitter, but as a big league hitter, you're going to sit on that out pitch because you're going to get it. Especially early in the count, when for some reason, pitchers still think we're sitting dead

bad heater. Not anymore. If it's up, it's going to get pummeled. As we find out, you know, with Stro, you're going to talk about timing of hitters, if you're not throwing off the timing and they're sitting off speed, good hitters are still going to hit it. Yeah. Well, another pitcher that hitters really struggle against is Gary Richards.

And he's a big analytic guy, too. He led to league in spin rate in 2017, led to league in spin rate in 2019. He was second behind only Trevor Bauer and spin rate in 2020. 20 problem with gritchards it's you know we've said this before it's injuries it's health and the best thing that you can bring to a table as any athlete is health he's got great stuff great slider and we were talking about it before you of course you took him deep off his slider but normally he's in my book dann he's in your book he's in well i don't know if we can call it a book well i'm gonna call it my pamphlet this will make it this will make you feel even better in his

career opposing hitters are hitting 181 against his slider you are one of those you are one of those my all right i can explain that homer if you have time by all means all right so my first at bat we're at anaheim i was with san diego so 2015 um really good hard sinker two seamer he'd like to throw in he would go away with four seamers go up with four seamers mid to upper 90s um but he had a good sinker all right so i had a guy on second base uh with no outs in my first combat and I'm thinking, all right, it's the first inning. I'm not really worried about getting this guy over. Probably not the best thought.

I probably should have got him over. I'm not, you know, that good of a hitter, but whatever. You know what, I'm going to get the head out. I know he's going to come in right here. It's the first inning. He's going to throw a sinker in right here. He's not going to get cute with off speed yet. So he throws me a sinker.

I kind of got in on me, but I was sitting in. So I got enough barrel and I hit a double to left. first pitch. All right. Next at bat. Fast forward to my second at bat. I was in the dugout with Justin Upton, and I'm like, he's not throwing me another heater first pitch.

He thinks I'm just dead red. I'm going to sit slider. And if he spins me one middle, I'm going to clip him off the rocks. All right. Well, he spun me one. He spun me one. It wasn't a bad slider. It was just like a, get me over, like, steal a strike because he thought I was sitting

Peter in. You know, if he swings, he probably pulls it foul, but I was sitting it. and I thought I hit it really well. It was a wall scraper, but Homer's a Homer in the show. Nothing better in the world than Homer in the show. So, but away from my, you know, experience against him, like you said, his spin rate is unbelievable.

So it's like you, with pitchers like that, they can split the plate. I feel like he's not at his best when he pitches in. I feel like he's at his best when he can command away. Because now as a ride, you can crisscross that outer corner. So you're throwing that two seamer away and it can come back to the corner

or you throw that hard slider that starts on the corner and then it's gone. It's a hitter that's really hard. You can see the ball when it comes out of the pitcher's hand in and you can lay off that. It's when they come out of that same window or tunnel. That's the term that a lot of pitchers like to use pitching the same tunnel

and that same tunnel that coming across their body away and it goes opposite directions. That's when he's at his best. Yeah, he's really been in his best just when he's healthy. The torn Patelor tendon, which you were there too. I was there. I was there for that.

So yeah. So we're at Fenway. Yes, dude. So the dugouts at Fenway are so far from home plate. There, I mean, it was built in like the 1400s. No. It was, you know, it's a cathedral. It's been there forever.

So I don't know why it was built this way, but it was. The dugouts are like all the way down by the bases. They're not closer to home plate like a lot of new. ballparks. Speaking of that, it's a worst place on earth to strike out because number one, the fans are so mean, bro. They hate you. You can be three for three with three five hundred and seven foot homers and you punch out. They are booing you, your mama, everybody on your way of the dugout. And it's like 50 yards to the dugout from the plate. But anyways, to the point, I can talk stories all day, but I can get off point better than anybody on earth. But the dugout is down by first base and I'm

sitting there on the rail. And so he's covering and he slipped right in front of the bag. It's like his clique came up from under him and slid like on the base. I can't remember. But when I tell you, Finway was silent and you could just hear him like screaming, it was like eerie, eerie. And it was it was scary because you never want to see anybody get hurt. We all thought ACL that was Patelitin, which is right there by your ACL can be just as bad. So it was scary time. but yeah, I witnessed that. And, you know, he's fought back from that. He fought back from TJ.

So that's hard to do. That's something that a lot of fans don't realize and think about is how many injuries guys have? Entries cost me my career. Like, I'll say it here. I'll say it here. I was really good. I will say that I was a really, really good baseball player.

And I had, I broke my wrist, at the end of my rookie year in August. You know, I was hitting like 280, eight, I believe. I finished that with like 15 homers. Came back the next year. Had 17 homers. We won a world series. Average was down, but still dealing with injuries. Got sent down back up, sent down, whatever. And then it's like from that point on, it was injury, injury, injury, injury.

And injury ended up killing my career too, broke my leg and dislocated my ankle and all that. But like, people don't realize how many injuries guys play through and how hard it is to constantly be hurt and constantly be rehabbing and starting over and Garrett Richards, man, he's been through it, like some bad injuries. And here we are, he's still got one of the liveliest arms in the league. Yeah, his fastball is still at 95.1 miles per hour. He's going to be a San Francisco giant. I can guarantee you. I don't have sources telling me that, but he fits that culture perfectly.

We have stroke coming up. Obviously, we are talking about underrated pitchers. He's certainly one of those guys. We promised you 10 underrated pitchers. of course Will and I like to hear our own voices so we went way too long of course so we'll give you the rest of our list here so the rest of our list we obviously had Marco we had Gosman we had Richards the rest of our list rounds out like this Lucas Sims who very much like Gary Richards has a very very high spin rate just doesn't quite have the experience yet but the Reds love Lucas Sims we have Corbyn Burns Chris Bassett Herman Marquez in Colorado not a lot of good pitchers come out of Colorado Herman Marquez is making the best of it. That's a tough place to pitch. Tough place. Eduardo Rodriguez and Brandon Woodruff. So those are

our 10 most underrated pitchers in Major League Baseball today. Let's get one of them on board. Let's get one of them on deck here. Marcus Stroman coming up next on the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast. Yes, sir. Welcome back. Stroh Show joining with us. I'll start with

the Blue Jays coming back for his two and a half season with the Mets. We want to see him a full 162 here. We're going to see him with a full 162 with the Mets. Marcus Stroman joining us on the show. Thanks so much for joining us, Marcus. Yeah, thank you all for having me. So this is exciting to me because I mentioned I want to see you a full 162 with the Mets. You got traded over midseason, of course, from Toronto after being an all-star with Toronto. And then now you're going back to your hometown. You grew up in Long Island. I'm excited

because we're seeing positivity with the Mets, not only on the field, but front office wise too. So I'm super pumped to see you in a Mets uniform for another season. Yeah, yeah, I'm excited as well, man like you said new york it's my hometown being able to have my family extremely close to play in front of them means the world to me um and like you said new ownership a lot of buzz going around the meds with an already unbelievable squad and now we're kind of adding to it with different pieces so like you said i can't wait to get back to spring training man and get gone how uh how how how fired up are you to see how active your new owner is on twitter i think that's so cool and i think that's good for baseball because we know there's been somewhat of a marketing problem with baseball.

We talked about this in the past, Danny. This is good for the game. There's not just Mets fans following along now. Like the whole league is watching and see what Cohen's tweeting every week. It's pretty cool. Yeah, man, like you said, it's cool. He's kind of a tycoon in his field. So for him to come in and like you said,

treat this as something for the fans, for the fan base, and go out and add pieces and put together a team that's going to be super competitive. It's awesome, man. It's awesome. And like you said, to see him being genuine interacting with fans on Twitter and their mentions, it's cool. It's cool because a fan would never, would never imagine, you know what I mean, an owner of a team reached out, let alone an athlete. So that's always cool and creates an awesome environment for the game. No doubt, no doubt. Has he reached out to you since you signed or before he signed? Yeah, man, I talked to him. I talked to him on the phone, like pretty, pretty like right away when he, when he accepted the deal. And the deal went through when he bought the team. He reached out on a phone call. We hopped on the phone for a few minutes, man, super genuine, super down to earth. And literally just said, like, he's trying to create an environment for the players, for the fans.

And he's coming into it with that attitude, not thinking about it from any other perspective. So, like I said, that's extremely refreshing to see in this game. I'm sure you guys have heard certain owners here and there. So to have this guy and to have the confidence that he has in us behind us and to kind of know that he'll go out there and do whatever we need to take to win. It's reassuring. Yeah, baseball is such a, when it comes to from offices and GMs and ownership, everything's so hidden and quiet and behind closed doors.

Yeah. Marketing agreements and then they won it public. But as we found out, you know, this past year with stuff like that. But I don't know. He's like turning the page of like how people are going to act, how owners are going to act, how they're going to interact and market their team. and something Danny and I have talked about when we talked about having you on the show

was you were ahead of the curve as far as the swag on the mound and you know the hitters like to pimp homers and do their thing and pitchers didn't really do it and it was frowned upon and you know when I came up in 2012 I had a very veteran oriented team

that said hey you hit the ball I don't care if you hit the best ball of your life put your head down and run the face you gotta earn it get some dirt on your cleats and then there comes this kid Marcus Stroman strutting around the mound. I can't like this guy. Yeah, yeah.

My teammates are going to kill me about, you know. So like I tried to make myself dislike you because I'm like, not only is he swaggy, he's punching me out and making me look silly and making everybody look silly. So you were ahead of the curve as far as where the game is trending now and what's welcomed in the game back to marketing the game and making it fun for the younger generation. So applaud you on that. I'm sorry for trying to dislike you when we played against each other. No, man, it's funny you say that, man, because that's like, that's this, that's why I get this, this cocky, he's a cocky, arrogant guy because, which I agree, man, when you're winning competition, you don't want to like your opponent either.

But I feel like a lot of athletes, a lot of baseball players think that that's me away from the field. Like, I'm a completely different person, man, between those two lines. Like, that's a different animal. And I'm able to kind of turn that on and off, you know what I mean? Exactly. He didn't say I chose to dislike you yesterday when we were prepping for the show. He said, I straight up hated this guy because he's cracking me out every single time. He was in Boston, man.

I mean, he's in Boston too. It's just rivalry, man. Yeah, and it's like with the vets, the vets that I had. You know when you came up and you had your old, like, who did you have like D. I was about to say now, I had, I had Mark Burley, LaTrox. Oh, yeah. So I, but I had a great balance too, man. I had them and then I had DP Price who came in the next year.

True. So Mark Burley was kind of like the guy who was very on top of me. Like, hey, I had a lot of those. A lot of those. But then when DP got traded and came over, DP said, Joe,

you better do whatever the hell you want out there, bro, whatever it takes for you to be dominant. And then I was punching guys out yelling and DP was top stepping at every single in, bro, giving me hugs, giving me that. When you had that support,

yeah, and you can be yourself. You're able to tap into a new level, right? And there's so many players that have been held back in the past. I mean, I think I was held back to a certain extent because I couldn't, they didn't want you to be yourself. But the game's different. The game's different now.

It's changed. I love it. It's for the better. A lot of the old heads don't like it, but it's just worse. I haven't even, I haven't been able to, I haven't been out there since it's been the new wave game. So I can't wait to get back out there. Dude, I'm fired up to see you out there.

I can't wait. Are you still being, for lack of a better term, condemned for, you know, showing out and showing your swag out there? Yeah, yeah, I am, man. As I'll continue to be, man, it just is what it is. But I'm at a point, man, where I'm so grounded and I know who I am, man. My family loves it. My family knows who I am. So it's not something where I feel like it's nothing forced, man. Like I work so hard, man, in the off season and away from the game when there's no light. So when I go out there, that's all about having fun, man, and showcasing in the world, like all the work that I put in. So I'm going to continue to be showy, man. It's in my nature,

I am and I don't care man at this point who's who's feathers or who it's going to ruffle man they're going to have to deal with it if not I'm like there so go ahead well on that same note like i mean Danny probably wanted to ask you this but i'm going to ask it anyways as far as social media goes like have you had teams say hey man like calm down on social media or like don't don't say as much on social media has that been a thing yeah yeah man my first my when i first got drafted it was like a big thing they tried to get me to delete my social medias man and i didn't man i just said i'm going to do this is something that i've organically grown since i was in college man i started throwing out positive quotes positive on twitters and i started to develop a follower of people from

all walks of life man were reaching out to me telling me i'm their inspiration like and they wanted me to stop this so it was like it wasn't even a question for me man because i saw the impact that i had with with certain individuals in the world just by being myself so So it's something I continued, man. And like you said, I had to get to a point where you have to establish yourself. I had to establish myself until I could really be out there and kind of start talking and be who I want. You kind of just weave through it because, like you said, there's always media and there's always other veteran players who are kind of like he's doing too much. Right.

Well, that's the thing, too, is establishing yourself is always going to be key. I thought this last off season, I know you wanted to go back home to New York, were there other offers on the table where you could have established, established yourself with a long-term deal? Yeah, there was definitely going to be opportunity, man. And I think if I had waited, I think there was going to be a lot of opportunity. But the buzz around New York, the new ownership, the climate of the market as well, everything just made sense, man, to kind of go back home. And I wanted to pitch in front of my family, to be honest, for a full year to have them

close to me before who knows what happens in free agency. So that's something that's kind of big in my heart to be able to go home and see. my family after a game and I've been away from my family since I was in college and I actually haven't had that much time to be around him. So I'm looking forward to this time, man. And like I said, I'm in a great place, man, my body, my mind. Like, I truly think I haven't even tapped in to my true potential. So I'm excited to get out there. I see your work on a new changeup grip, split grip. Yeah, man. I found that. I found that split grip, man. I think I truly found like a true four seamer. And I'm going to pair that with like one of the best thinkers in the league, which I think

in one of the best sliders. So I think I'm going to be pretty dangerous this year, man. I'm just excited to go out there. Who taught you this, like Chris? Gisellman, man, Robert Gisleman. So I'm just a big grip guy, man. I'm the biggest feel guy. Like, before I throw a pitch, like, it's got to feel super comfortable for me in my hand.

And he just showed me his grip that he had been using. And it felt super comfortable me. And the second I went and played catch with it, man, I was getting crazy tumble, crazy fake, crazy drop. And then I went through it on Rapsodo. and the numbers I was getting on and were insane. So that's a pitch I look to debut this coming year.

So in this episode, we're talking about underrated pitchers. And you're definitely on our list. And another guy that I think we can have on that list, somebody that I'm super pleased with is Seth Lugo. Do you think he's better as a starter or kind of a Swiss Army knife who can kind of spot start? He can close.

He can be like a long guy. He can literally do anything. and I think he's the guy that every team should need and want. What do you think he says that? I agree, man. I agree. He's almost too good in certain areas where you don't know what role to put him in. But that's a good thing to have, like you said,

where he can start, where he can come in middle of a leap and go three, four innings when he can't come in and shut a game down in the ninth inning. That's super rare to have. It's a weapon that I think, like you said, every team should possess. And as far as starting versus relieving, I honestly would never make that opinion or tell someone because I know my whole career broke coming up. They told me I was a reliever, reliever, reliever, reliever.

And I said, listen, I'm going to go out there to be a starter. And I needed to go out there and prove it. And I feel like Lugo wants to do that. So I would never be someone to doubt that. You know what I mean? But on the contrary, this guy's shut down. Like, if I toss him the ball when I'm coming out the game, I know the game's over. I know we're in a good place.

People don't know how hard that is as a pitcher to be able. to mentally be able to do both of those. Because you see a lot of guys. You remember Daniel Bard. I mean, he's one of the best set up pitchers in the game. And then they tried to make him a starter and it ruined his career. Yeah. I mean, he's back now.

He's back now, obviously, better than ever. But, you know, some guys can't handle that mentally because it's just coming out out of the bullpen or warming up and starting a game. It's just two different mentality. So that's really tough for guys. So that makes them even more impressive. I agree, man. Hey, don't let Will pull you.

He's been, I say this every week. He's been sh-in on pitchers the past. four weeks on this show. You're our first pitcher that we've had on this show and we finally get some love for the fellow pitchers. No, man. It's a, it's a battle, man. I enjoy it. I'll never give any hitter any credit, man, and nor should any hitter give any pitcher credit. That's just the competition that's the mentality you need to perform at this level. Well, what's the recruiting going like for the Mets? Because you guys are already good. You got Thor coming back, of course. You got the Grom. You got all kinds of talent on that squad. Are you recruiting? What about Springer? Springer,

Cohen to Queens too? We want them all, man. I mean, Cohen's like, I feel like Cohen's going to do some big things, but I love the squad we have already, to be honest with you. And I feel like any piece we add, it's just, it's just segmenting how good we're going to be. And it's just kind of putting us in a better position. So, yeah, man, Springer, Bauer, bring them all. Like, I would love to compete at the highest level, man, with the best guys in the game.

Like, once I feel like that environment, too, man, like, Will, you know what I mean? Like, once you get around the best guys in the game, it just creates, you start talking about this and that and it just creates an environment where you feel like you can't lose and you almost elevate your game every day. It pushes you, man. It makes you tap into a part of your brain that you didn't know you had and a part of your competitiveness because you start not only competing with other teams but competing within your clubhouse and which means you got to compete within yourself.

Yeah, I love that. Level. So that's what it's about. That's awesome. I love competition and talent, man. I love being around talent like you said. So, yeah, I want them all. I'll bring them all.

I don't know how this process works. works. Will does. He was the player. You're obviously a player. Are you guys texting each other? Are you guys like, hey, George, like, come on, bro, come to Queen. Or are you like, hey, Trev, come on, bro. Like, is that like a group chat or what? No, it's not. It might be in some of it. It's not for me personally. It's not coming. I don't know if that's legal or not, but that should be legal. But personally, it's not. But I mean, I think when you're in a clubhouse that wants to win, man, like everybody knows you want those guys. You know what I mean? Like, we could vocalize it, but it's like, we want to win. We want to win. We want to put everybody, the organization, the players in the best possible position to win. So anytime you can upgrade your roster, man, I always think that's that that's the best thing to do. And I don't think there's a single person in our organization who's going to who's going to not want any of these guys to come to Queens. You know what I'm excited, man, and we can't wait to get out there and compete. And we're looking forward to hopefully adding more to our roster as well. So before we get into, at the end of this, we'd like to do a quick rapid fire, but I just want to tap into your, your delivery. We talked, he texted about this a little bit the other day.

Yeah, I was just watching your flat ground and you kind of went to that slow-mo and I'm like, Yeah. Like plan this out. And then you started talking about your balance and your stability. And I see all the Pilates and yoga and things you do to put your body in the right, right, airspace. Just to think right, feel right, and be centered and have your balance really where it is. You have to be super balanced. What is your, what's your favorite variation of that?

I'm just curious, if you have like a go-to, this is my thing. To be honest, man, I haven't debuted a lot of them. Like, I finally now, like it took. my body, man. This is why I don't recommend it the younger way the pitchers to necessarily replicate or do what I do because it took it took me so long to get to the point where I'm this stable, this strong, this mobile, this fluid where I can mess with my delivery and timing without messing with my arm slot, without messing with my body, without putting more pressure on any part of my body. That took a lot of work. But like you said, I'm at the point now where

I haven't even debuted the slow moan a game. I haven't debuted some of them and I'm super excited, because, you know, Will, like baseball and hitting his timing. And when I first came into the league, man, all I did was sit in cages with Toulowitzki, Bautista, Encarnacion, Melki-Cabrera, Josh Donaldson. Like, I had the sickest hitters, man, to go and sit. And these are the best hitters in the league. And they would tell me, Stro, the only thing that throws me off when I'm, like, when I'm in a groove is when guys start messing with my timing.

They're like, when I'm on time, they're like, it don't matter what pitch you though. Throw a slider. Throw a heater. They're like, when I'm on time, I'm a smash it. So Bautista was actually the first guy, man. In my first big league start, this guy's crazy, but me and Bautista mentally are like on a similar wave. My first big league start, we're up like, I think, 6-1.

I'm pitching against KC. I'm pitching pretty good. It's my first big league starts. All I'm worrying about is getting out. This guy, Bautista comes and sits down next to me. He's like, Strow. He's like, we have a lead. He's like, my timing is like a little off.

He's like, you see how that guy quick pitch me? He's like, start trying to mess with your timing. Like, Batista planted that in my mind, day one, big league starts. and I started to think about that, man, and I started to see pitches are robots, man. Like, hitters can close their eyes and almost be in sync with a pitcher and be on time with them.

And I'm like, why are we like this? Like, so I'm going to completely change the game, man, in this next year. I'm looking at like, I don't even want to have the same timing my delivery either pitch. I'm going to go slow. I'm going to go fast.

I'm going to pause my leg. I'm going to add slowmo. Anything I can do to get that hitter on his front leg or he wiggles his bat another time or he's a little out front. That's all I'm looking to do. Hitters have so much movement now too with like that tip and leg kicks like all that. There's not many guys just spreading out and having like a two strike approach.

Just like slapping it through the poor. Like people are trying to slug and hit the ball on the second deck. So that's that's cool. That's, I mean, that's so true on timing too. I mean, all I, most of the time all you have to deal with is a quick pitch here and the guy out of the stretch, you know, and then you're doing 15 different. Nothing in their delivery. Exactly.

Exactly. That, I'm glad I don't have to deal with that. So it's good to these rapid fire. I got a few rapid fire, just, you know, fun things. Just, I'm curious.

All right. I'm going to put you on the spot to start. Top three starting pitcher. Not starting. Top three pitchers in the MLB right now on your mind. The Grom's number one, hands down. Cole.

I'm not going to be there, man. This is hard, man, because I'm such a thinker and I want to throw someone out there that's like, let me come back to it, bro. Okay. There's so many. It's hard to.

I know. I want to throw names out there, but then I don't want to like make it biased toward my thing. Yeah, exactly, exactly. All right. Who is the one hitter you, you absolutely is your kryptonite? Like, you hate facing. Nobody truly. But I knew, how did I know you were going to say that? Man, I truly don't care, man. Like, I'm so confident in myself, man. It comes from the work that I put in. Like, I feel like I already won before I hitter even stepped in the box, truly. Like, that's my mind. that whoever steps in the box, whether it be Barry Bonds, whether it be, whoever it may be, bro, I have that mentality truly. But like you said that, Padroia was my least favorite hitter to face, man, because I would throw the most- He'll just foul it off, fell it off, foul it off. Dude, foul it off, foul it off. Then I leave one slightly up and it's a knock. Like the most

frustrating hit it. The clavicle ball, he'll hit you over the monster. That's for sure. Well, that being said, is there a certain hitter you're just like, this guy can't touch me? Like I always get this guy out. If you say me, I swear to God. No, man. And I would never even put a name out there like that. I'm saying there's no hitter like that, bro. I would never, I don't demean hitters, man.

I just like to compete when I'm out there. Okay, okay. All right. So best, let's say you got a day game. One o'clock game, you're done by 430. You're home, showered up. Where do you like to go out to eat in New York? Man, honestly, this year will be a lot on the North Shore, man.

I've been like, earlier in my career when I was younger, I was a big city guy. like cities now i truly try to get away from cities man like i like my peace my com so probably like prime in in huntington uh somewhere in port washington somewhere somewhere somewhere in those areas man that are on that shore all right uh favorite visiting city favorite visiting city any city uh as a player with a team there uh let's go san diego or callie man i always like I was like getting to Cali like whenever you can get out to Cali and get out to the beach for like a few days and just soak those vibes in I feel like those vibes just like last you for the for a while no doubt just know I'm trying to recruit you to California for the past like three seasons throw I've been trying to get out here the west coast we need to make it happen we'll see next year we'll see next year I got I got one more this is just uh give me one thing on your bucket list that you've yet to do

I have an extensive bucket list man but I've actually just checked off two of them that I'm starting. My bucket list, man, I honestly, I want to, at some point I want to live in, in, in, in, in Europe, in the Amalfi Coast, somewhere in Greece, somewhere in Switzerland, or somewhere remote out there, man. I'll end up there for sure, most career. Amazing. Cool, man.

So we always have, I always have one more question that kind of pops up, like, as I'm talking, and it always, like, extends this conversation way longer than it should be, but I'm going to ask anyways, you're five foot seven, and you obviously have the tattoo, height doesn't That's your heart. I mean, people know that you, you take pride in that. Do you think you've been treated differently for being five foot seven? Do you think you would have been a first round draft pick or a higher draft pick coming out of high school? However, you went to Duke instead and made yourself a first round draft pick.

Do you think you would have gotten a longer contract earlier if you were a different height? 100%, man. My whole career, it's comical. I just had this conversation with my dad, man, who's down here. but my whole career, like, when I got drafted, it was, oh, he can't be a starter. He's going to be a reliever because of his body. He's going to break down. I mean, 800 innings later, they're still going to say the same thing.

Oh, he's going to break down next year. Like, people can't understand the work that I put in when they're going to watching. And you can't measure work ethic. So I know that my body, my mind is in a way better place than any other athlete. Like, I put a priority on that, like, an extreme priority. So at the end of the day, yeah, it's cool to have the. the perfect body type, but what if he's not putting in the necessary work? That's not going to be me.

I know that truly my body, I'm going to go out there for the next five, seven. I'm going to be able to pitch for the next 10, 12 years if I want to. I can truly say that because I know I have to take care of my body. And I'm talking 180, 200, 220 innings every year. Like, I'm not just saying that. Like, I know the work that goes into this. I know the team that I have around me. I know my family.

I can't lose, man. I can't lose. So, but like you said, being that undersized, 100% it hinders you from the scout perspective. from the owner perspective because they want to see the prototypical pitcher out there who's long and this. But like I said, I enjoy being the eyeball, man. Like I'm the outcast. I enjoy that because at the end of the day, I'm going to go out there and outperform a lot of

those guys because of my work that goes into it. Well, they're comparing you to the history of guys that size. When those guys didn't put the work, maybe they did, but they're not you. They can't stamp that on you when they don't know the individual. So that's pretty cool. Yeah, we need you to send us your Pilate yoga stuff because me and Will are getting our dadbods on lately, especially with like quarantine. Man, I'm going to tell you, get on Pilates reformer work. Like the machine that I've been on, I got one in my house, both my houses now.

Is that like the one that slides? Yes. Yes. It's a spring base. But honestly, just search on your phone. Like, I have like a mind-body app where you can search on your phone for classes wherever you're at. They come up with a location. You can really bop into wherever you can set up privates.

I'm telling you that some of the best work that I do because it's a focus on corn stability. It's working all the muscles that you should be working. There's no low back pain. You're getting all the things you should be getting. I got my little brother doing, I got my little brother in his team on it now, man, doing Pilates. Who's a stud, by the way?

Yeah. Yeah, he's going to be a stud. He's here now. Him and my dad are here now, but he actually just went to a week camp at IMG. Cool. But yeah, man, he's going to be a stud. I think he's going to honestly be better.

He's going to hit some super. bombs, bro. He's going to be a hitter. The video went viral last year if I'm going D. That was awesome. I know. And this year, man, he's hitting him out. He just hit the first ball out of a big league part. He's 13. Come on. He's how long? He's 13. Oh, my God. It's 5.59, man. He's lanky. We have different moms. My mom's short. His mom is like 5'8. His mom's check. So he's like half check, half black. I'm half black, half Puerto Rican. So he's like lanky. He's the opposite. I'm small and compact, man. He's like super lanky, like tall. So he's going to be wiry.

You throw hard? Yeah, he's going to throw hard, man. He's going to be a little beast, man. He'll carry the torch. Yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited to work with him, man. Maybe you'll get the pitch against him. He's already got college coaches called, bro.

That's amazing, dude. That's crazy. That'd be awesome if you could pitch against him. That would be, yeah. Honestly, that's like, that's another reason, man. Like, that's another goal of mine, like to preserve my body long enough to where that could be a possibility. But I told him, man, I'm like, I'm like, you better put in work, bro, because I'm not

waiting around until you're like 23, 24, you better be one. you better be one of those 20 year olds in the big piece. Yeah. Love it. Good stuff. Thanks so much, Stro. All-Star, Gold Glover. We're really looking forward to what you have in store for us next season with the Mets.

Thanks so much, Strach. Thank you, sir. Thank you guys for having me. Love to have him straw on the show. And like I mentioned it before, he really is underrated. The fact that he's 5'7, which he mentioned, he often gets overlooked. And he's constantly having people telling them he can't do this. He can't do that.

He needs to be a reliever. And he's proven everybody wrong. I love seeing that from a guy. He's really an inspiration to a lot of smaller undersized players. He's a lot of fun to just talk to, man. He's so just on top of who he is and his work and who he is as a pitcher. That's really cool to just hear the confidence out of his voice. People think he's arrogant.

He's really not. He just believes in his work. Well, I mean, you have to be, man. I don't care if you're six, nine you on the field you have to be cocked you have to be arrogant to at least maybe it just inwardly that's how you compete with the best of the best if you doubt yourself at all as a big leaguer you're done so as we wrap things up here who's like the one guy that you face like in your experience um that maybe people don't know much about um but he was just nasty like he had you

he had you like you talked about kryptonite with stro he was kind of your kryptonite is there anybody out there that sticks out in your mind that this guy's nasty? Well, Criptonite was Max Scherzer. He was everybody, really. But you know what? I have one quick story. I can tell stories all day. You know this.

I'm so bad it just like telling stories. But I was in I was playing in Greenville, South Carolina. I was in A ball with the Red Sox. We're playing in Hagerstown, Maryland. Any Hagerstown Suns fans that are listening, that place is a dump

bro it's so bad that's not even relevant to what I'm about to tell you so I'm this was the first time of my life I was overmatched I felt overmatched now I was like 20 it was like my second full year in the minor leagues and up to this point I was having an alright season I was probably in 270

I wouldn't ever a high average guy but I was having fun I was squaring balls up playing good defense you know I was playing well this guy just got drafted and he comes up this guy named drew storin ever heard of him yeah national's i think he went over to the blue jays at one point yeah stanford stanford stanford guy he never really panned out to what i thought he was going to be so i step in the box and i see him warming up and i'm like okay he's not a big guy but that ball it's coming out pretty good it's coming out you can hear it it's there's some hiss to it you know what

me you could hear it you know yeah that's and that was on deck and i'm on all right like whatever I can hit this whatever I hit anything so I get in the box I'm like I'm gonna see one I've never seen this guy before he just got drafted like two weeks ago see what it looks like first pitch uh sinker it started middle and I'm thinking I'm seeing it coming and I'm like it's middle middle bro it ended up being a ball like in and I kind of looked at the umpire when he balled it and he kind of, you made eye contact with him and I was like, damn, like, that moved a lot. And it was like 94, 95. I had never seen movement.

I'd never seen movement with velocity like that. This is a ball. Like, you see guys that throw hard, but not both. So I'm like, all right, I'm going to get the head out. Here comes the sinker. If it's middle again, next pitch slider, like disappears. At this point, I am lost. It's one, one.

It's 1-1 and I feel like a good hitter And I am like, oh no Like do I just not swing And just hope that he throws four before three? All right. So he ends up making me look silly. All right. He goes another heater.

I take it because I think it's going to be a slider. It stays a fastball. Next pitch, I swing and miss a slider by like four feet. Probably the worst I've ever swung and miss it a slider. And from that point on, anytime I saw his name or saw him on TV, I would always flash back to that at bat

and just think that was the most overmatched I ever was in my entire life and I knew I wasn't going to get a hit. Well, you're not alone. He had 43 saves in the second season with Washington. He was filthy, man. I don't know what happened. I don't know the, I didn't really

follow him. But I do remember thinking, if this is what a big leaguer is, I'm never playing in the big leagues. Oh, you're not alone there. This has been a fun, Bixie. We got all January with the fancy baseball day podcast. up. Let's do it up. Can't wait a few more episodes. We'll get some more great guests for you, too.

Thanks so much. Especially thank you to Marcus Stroman for joining us. We'll see you next week.