Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Former MLB and Iowa baseball player Matt Dermody joins to talk about his baseball journey

Episode Date: August 25, 2020

Matt Dermody, former Toronto Blue Jay and Iowa Hawkeye baseball player and current member of the Chicago Cubs organization, joins the show today to talk about his journey in baseball from a prep star at Norwalk to pitching on the world's biggest stage. Matt was drafted four times (once out of high school), and had an unfortunate and unknown injury that resulted in him returning to school after planning to sign with the Arizona Diamondbacks. He eventually reached the majors after working through the Blue Jays minor league system, and is now trying to get back to the show after recently signing with the Cubs after pitching in an independent league.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you.ManscapedGo to Manscaped.com and use code LOCKED to get 20% Off and Free Shipping. Manscaped is #1 in men’s below the belt grooming and offers precision-engineered tools for your family jewels.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON,” and you’ll get $10 off your first order. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I thank God I was born on the good arms of the Midwest, and not on the battlefields of the U.S. It's a time of panic, and it's intercepted! It's picked off right away! Intercepted by Marty Hooker! Pick six! Eight seconds into the game! Buffen sets up deep in the pocket, goes down the field for Smith!

Oh! He's got it! Smith! Touchdown. 85 yards. High on. Touchdown, 10. Taking a shot in the end zone.

It is caught. No offense. Touchdown. That's either one or you have it. Go ahead and three. Yes. Two-point lead for the Hawkeye Nation, to another episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Locked On Sports Network every single day.

As always, I am your host, Andrew Wade, and we have another exciting episode coming at you today. I've been teasing this for a little while, and I finally decided to drop it. There's been a lot of stuff kind of going on within the Iowa Hawkeye athletic program, and I wanted to talk a bit about the Gary Barta news, but I felt like it was just the right time to get the Matt Dermody interview out. Matt Dermody is a former Iowa Hawkeye baseball player and a current member of the Chicago Cubs organization. He's pitched in the major leagues with the Toronto Blue Jays and has kind of been in

the pro baseball system for the last several years. So really, really exciting interview, really exciting opportunity to get to chat with him considering the fact that I actually played against him in high school a couple times. So fantastic interview, really excited to share that with you all. And we'll get to that in just a few moments. But I do want to quickly touch on the Gary Barta press conference. He did do a press conference over Zoom yesterday talking a little bit about the decision to basically terminate four programs within the Iowa Hawkeye athletic community to get Iowa down to 20 sports and hopefully reduce their budget deficit a bit.

He made a couple comments, not enough to really go into for a full episode, so I just figured I'd touch on them quickly. The first comment he said was that it was one of the toughest days of his life. He also went on to say that he didn't think there would be any other sports that he would have to cut at this point. He felt like these were the right ones to cut. And that a full fall season is absolutely what they want and need to do. So they're keeping that in mind with the spring

season discussions. And obviously any opportunity to have a spring season will hopefully get into that budget deficit a little bit, cut into it a little bit. And that looks like Iowa is going to need to take out a relatively large loan to cover some of those budget deficits that have occurred due to the coronavirus pandemic. And kind of along those same lines, if you're not following Dargan Southard, D-A-R-G-A-N underscore Southard, S-A-U-T-H-A-R-D, he's keeping track of what is going on with the Iowa athletic programs and the transfer rates. As of a couple hours ago, women swimming and diving had 79% of their roster in the transfer portal. Men's swimming and diving, 70%. Men's tennis, 67%. Pretty large numbers. And honestly, at this point, it'd be interesting to see if Iowa can even field teams in those arenas,

given the amount of players currently in the transfer portal today. Also, the Iowa Hawkeyes football program opened up the AP poll at 24th. Even though they're not going to be playing a fall season, great to see the opportunity shown that they were considered a good team coming into the season. I know we all thought that there were a lot of strengths to look at on this team. And I think that's one of the reasons why we're so disappointed. There's not Iowa football. But yeah, so Iowa opened up at 24th in the AP poll. And again, for the rest of the rest of the conversation, we're going to hop into that Matt Dermody interview. I think you're really going to enjoy it. So let's kick that off right now. All right. I am joined here by former

Iowa Hawkeye baseball player and current member of the Chicago Cubs minor league organization, Matt Dermody. Matt, thanks for coming on, man. How are you doing today? Pretty good, man. Awesome. So it seems like you've got a whirlwind of a couple of days. It just sounds like you just got signed a couple of days ago. Was that something you were expecting?

Honestly, yeah. I mean, I was hoping you kind of got to keep it optimistic in the baseball world. There's a lot of ups and downs, but I was hoping somebody was going to pick me up there and defend the ball. Definitely. You were playing pretty well, too. It looks like you were posting below one ERA on the last four outings with the Skeeters, which is pretty awesome. 17 strikeouts, 11.1 innings pitched. Do you feel like you were playing pretty good ball at that point? Yeah, it was. Other than my first outing, I watched four guys in one inning. I was pretty bad.

But I was commanding the ball really well and throwing my off-speed pitches. So, things just worked out for me down there. Yeah, man, is there anything that you were changing in the offseason that kind of led to doing so well down in Southland? Or Sugar Land, excuse me. Yeah, Sugar Land, Texas. Yeah, I definitely had to develop my changeup. I made it a point to throw up more this season.

Early in my – well, I guess pretty much throughout my pro career, I was pretty much a fastball slider, a lefty specialist. So I kind of had to go down there in Texas and rebrand myself, kind of prove that I can get multiple innings and get righties out with the changeup so definitely man and so you kind of obviously coming up through high school ball and especially in Iowa you were you were a starter at Iowa you were a starter as well going to the you know minor leagues and major leagues you've kind of been a relief pitcher has that been an adjustment for you was there a big change for that for you yeah I mean that's being a starter and a reliever is

very different um I think I think the main thing is uh mentally uh starting it's like you know when you're going to pitch uh relieving you don't really know and kind of have to be ready every day um but yeah I mean after you you after you've made those changes it's it's kind of easy you know go uh to to do either one you know start or leave so definitely man so I want to touch back on the Norwalk days obviously played in the little Hawkeye conference and pretty much dominated most teams I believe if I remember correctly South Tama you threw either a perfect game or no hitter is that correct yeah perfect game or a no-hitter. Is that correct? Yeah, perfect game.

It was actually a double-header that day. Didn't your buddy throw a perfect game, too, or a no-hitter as well? He threw a no-hitter right after me. Yeah. What was that like? Did you – I mean, obviously it was South Tama, but did you feel like you were especially on that day? I mean, what was it like throwing a perfect game? I feel like that's something that kids kind of draw up dreaming about.

Yeah, I mean, I was just, I mean, shoot, it's that was almost a decade ago now, now that I think about it. I mean, I just remember we were all just having fun on our team, you know. We were hitting the ball. I was just throwing fastballs and curveballs in the dirt, and that was just working out for me.

And then the next game, Cole Klocko uh comes in throws a no-hitter so we were just having a fun day that day yeah that's that's awesome poor poor Saltema um so as far as playing at Norwalk when did you start getting recruited by Iowa um I actually got a letter from them when I was a freshman in high school but I didn't think much of it because I mean, I was kind of a skinny freshman. I didn't really get much exposure then. But my junior year is when I started getting some contact from coaches in 2008. And then I committed that after that year. Awesome, man. And were you looking at any other schools at

all or was Iowa pretty much the main choice um Nebraska I had a home visit from the coach from Nebraska and uh Creighton so it was it was Iowa Nebraska Creighton so I said what made you choose Iowa were you a Hawkeye fan growing up or no yeah I bleed black and gold oh yeah man well same way man I'm glad you didn't go to Nebraska obviously that would have been I feel like flirting with the devil so um so obviously what was your I mean what was your best memory in high school then for high school baseball I mean it's it's tough to beat the state championship win that we had that year um speaking of that, my high school just won the state championship this year. They did?

I didn't realize Norwalk won. Yeah. Yep. They won this year. Are they a 4A school now or a 3A school still? 3A. Okay. I don't know, man.

Some of those suburbs are really booming up around Des Moines. Yeah. Every year they kind of go back and forth um depending on like the other schools I think they're they're right on the bubble there so nice do you get a chance to make it back to Iowa at all um normally just like for Christmas and holidays so makes sense um everyone that I've talked to on the podcast who's from Iowa I had to ask him obviously is Casey's Pizza kind of your go-to? We're going to take a quick break from the interview with Matt. I know it's going really well and I'm really excited to let you listen to the rest of it, but we do have a very important

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How did you hear about Usbox? So they know we sent you Amazing selection, reliably low prices, all the parts your car will ever need, rockauto.com. Oh, so when I was driving up from Texas, I was going through Illinois, and I didn't know Illinois had Casey's General. Yeah, they do, so I stopped in there for some pizza. Heck yeah, man.

Drive on up to South Bend so yeah Casey's Pizza that's legendary gas station. Yeah do you uh what's your favorite go-to for pizza? Oh shoot I mean the the breakfast pizza is by far my favorite but I mean just the pepperoni I mean that's hell yeah hard to beat that. I feel you, man. I live in Colorado. So anytime I drive over to Iowa, there's a Casey's three hours away exactly from where I live. And I hit it every single time. You just got to hit up the Casey's. I feel like I didn't take advantage of it enough when I was back in Iowa. Yeah. Well, so then you obviously went to Iowa, played there for a couple of years and you got drafted three times. You also got drafted when you're in high school. What was it like getting drafted out of high school?

Did you expect that to happen? Have you been talking to MLB teams before that, or was it kind of a surprise to hear your name called? I mean, it was definitely a surprise. I remember filling out the professional questionnaire forms where they send you, like, letters in the mail, and you fill out stuff and send it back. So I didn't know, like, how serious that was.

And then getting called in high school was definitely a surprise to me, and it kind of opened my eyes, like, maybe I can do this, you know, as a career. So, yeah, that was a whirlwind. Was that the first realization you had that you could make this a career? I mean, yeah, it was definitely a confidence booster you know going into college just just being drafted and saying that like just knowing that that proteins kind of want you and it's it's definitely a confidence booster and kind of you you know, gives you a little more confidence.

Definitely. And was there any inclination to actually go and sign with the Pirates at that point? Or were you pretty much like, this is I need to go to Iowa and develop a little more? Yeah, I was, I was definitely considering signing. That's, I mean, that's kind of my drilling, my, my dream as a little kid, you know, being a, being a professional baseball player. But like with the certain circumstances and that I mean being a huge Hawkeye fan that was yeah I mean it was it was a tough decision for me but I'm I'm glad I made the right decision

definitely man obviously it seems like it's worked out a little bit for you at Iowa you got drafted four times so I want to touch on specifically the Dimebacks though that was kind of an interesting situation that kind of played out it sounds like you were going to sign with Arizona and then you found out you had a 40 percent tear did you know you had a torn ligament in your arm no I mean I pitched the whole season just fine if anything I started throwing harder I mean I was I was uh like 87 to 90 touching 90 at times, guy. And my junior year, later in the season, I started, like, going like 89 to 91. So, I mean, I started throwing harder.

And then, yeah, after my junior year, I said my farewells to all my coaches. I flew down to Arizona, met the Diamondbacks, and they came up with that news and sent me back home. So I was kind of really disappointed. Definitely, man. So what was going through your mind at that point? Were you just like, you know, I have next year, I'm going to refocus and try to get back to it?

Or was there a point where you're like, is this worth continuing to try to do? Yeah, I mean, obviously, well, first I had to ask my coach, Jack Don, back on the team. And luckily, he's a good guy and stick to his word. He's treated me with so much respect and just allowed me to come back after I said goodbye. I mean, that's – yeah, just really grateful for him, you know, allowing me to come back and pursuing my dream.

And then getting drafted by the Blue Jays in 2013, that was kind of your senior year. That was where you were going to go at that point. Did you feel kind of grateful at that point that through all things that kind of happened, you were able to get drafted by the Blue Jays in 2013? Yeah, yeah, I was definitely grateful. Since the Diamondbacks sent me back on that 40% tear on the MRI. I kind of was a little flagged, you know, like maybe this guy's prone. So I'm glad the Blue Jays took a chance on me, you know, and gave me a shot.

That's great. I never thought about that. I guess, you know, 40% tear, people start looking at elbow injuries and whatnot, and can this guy actually come and pitch? I didn't even think about that, but obviously glad you're able to get drafted. Do you follow Iowa baseball at all anymore? Yeah, I mean, it's tough to follow them every single game, but yeah. What do you think about Rick Heller, then, as the coach? Yeah, I've met Rick a bunch. He's

my first couple off- off seasons in Pro Bowl. I lived in Iowa City and I would come and work out with the team at the facilities. So Rick Hiller always welcomed us with open arms and all the pro guys to work out with us, work out with the team, I should say. Great guy. I mean, he's doing some great things with the program uh this year they were off to a hot start I don't know if you saw yeah dude they're crushing it yeah they're batting like 300 as a team and their their pitching era was like a low three so they're on their way to a good season which which kind of sucks you know this pandemic going on yeah man it feels like uh Iowa Hawkeye sports in general is kind of peaking right now, and they're peaking at the worst freaking time. I don't know what your thoughts are about, you know, college football obviously getting canceled with the Big Ten, but I guess, did you

expect that to happen, or would, if you were an athlete at this point, what would your thoughts be if your season got canceled due to coronavirus right now? Oh, man, if I was called deathly right now, I would be livid. I would be so mad. I don't know. It's a real bummer that the Hawks are going to get canceled this year. I mean, I guess there's talks that they might join like the SEC or Big 12 or do some kind of crazy conference thing, you know, where they all go in. So that'll be pretty interesting. Yeah, I mean, I hope personally if they do decide to do that, it's not the SEC. As much as I love the Hawks,

I think the Big 12 would be a little bit easier for them to maybe win and actually be successful in versus the SEC. I just don't feel like that is where Iowa needs to be at. It could be an opportunity, you know, to show the country, like, you know. Yeah. What's going on. You got a lot of positive outlook than I do. Yeah, I just could not imagine going up against Alabama

on a consistent year-to-year basis. I think it would be fun to play them once in a while, but I just don't feel like that would be great. Yeah. You know, with right now the minor leagues are kind of canceled um you were playing down in Sugarland though what was it like what were the precautions that were being taken to handle the coronavirus uh down Sugarland yeah yeah so uh I mean the biggest kind of biggest kind of shock was the no showers, which totally sucked. You got to put on your clothes after the game all sweaty

and drive home kind of like high school days. I was going to say, just like high school. Yeah, that was kind of weird. But, no, I mean, a lot of the guys wear masks. I mean, in the locker rooms, you know, when it's close quarters in the training room. We had to take all of our bags in and out every day so we can disinfect the lockers every day. Huge props to the clubhouse managers and the trainers in keeping everything clean.

I mean, once after the first week when everybody got cleared, I don't think there was any new positives down there. So that's awesome. Yeah, we're pretty clean and, you know, being safe. Yeah. Better than Major League Baseball could say right now. Marlins and the Cardinals are really struggling with that. But I digress. So you played the minor leagues for a few years. What was it like being in the minor leagues? You know, as a – growing up as a baseball player, you probably think, you know, I'm down to play wherever.

I'm down to play professional baseball. That sounds awesome. But everything you hear about the minor leagues, you know, there's the good times and there's also the downside or kind of the thing that people don't really see with the minor leagues. What was it like for you? What was your experience like playing in the minor leagues? And was it better the further up you got in the food chain?

So I had a crazy road with the minor leagues because our rookie ball in the Toronto Blue Jays system is up in Vancouver, Canada, and that's where I was. And Vancouver, Canada, it's on the west side of Canada, so that's their only baseball over there. So every game was absolutely packed. It was one of the best baseball atmospheres I've ever pitched in, and we won the championship there. So that was my

that was my minor league baseball first season. So that was kind of that was crazy. I got super spoiled. But then the Florida State League that is

that is a very tough league to play in because in the summer it's super hot and humid and nobody goes to the game. So you got to really love baseball to get through that to get through that to get through that level yeah the dog days man get up to uh triple a uh it's it's pretty fun

because you get some good crowds um so it's it's a lot easier to play when you got a good atmosphere you know with with a lot of fans so but when you're playing with an empty stadium you really got to dig deep, you know? Yeah. So where was your favorite place to play? If you had to take out Vancouver, because it sounds like that was a pretty awesome place to play, especially starting out. Where was your favorite place to play in the minors?

I don't know. I mean, there's – for some reason, Charlotte, North Carolina, they're a triple-A for the White Sox. That's a really good atmosphere. Really cool stadium. That was a good place to play. I mean, Buffalo New York was a really good place to play when the weather was good. It's super cold there. They get a good fan base there. It would be a great place to play right now,

especially with so many Hawks up there for football as well. Have a little Hawkeye reunion. So when you actually got the call to come up to the MLB, A, were you expecting it? And B, what was your initial reaction? And then C, who did you call first? Yeah, I mean, I think every player in the back of their mind expects to get called up, you know, because you want to be ready. But, I mean, I was just, everybody in AAA is hoping, you know, that you're going to get that call.

But, yeah, when I got it, I was ecstatic. I was super pumped. First person I called was my mom and dad. Yep. And the rest is history. That's awesome, man. So what was your first, like, surreal moment of, oh, my gosh, I'm playing Major League Baseball?

You see all those movies where people kind of walk in and there's, like, they stare at the ceiling and, oh, my gosh, I'm here. But what was your welcome to the MLB moment? That year in 2016, the Blue Jays were in the playoff hunt and they made the playoffs. So September was, every game in September mattered. So the atmosphere there was unbelievable. It was packed stadiums every night. You would show up to the field to start throwing, usually when like it's an empty stadium and people would be coming early and it would be just packed

during BP um just throwing balls into the field I mean I guess I guess just my first day there was just like wow like this is unbelievable yeah was that the year that Josh Donaldson won the MVP was that the same year no that was 2015 okay well either way what was it like playing with guys like Josh Donaldson um Edwin and Carson and Cart I I cannot say his name. Troy, whiskey, those kind of I mean, those are guys that, you know, even just kind of growing up, those are big name guys, then you were finally able to play with them. Yeah, don't forget Jose Bautista. Yeah. Yeah, those guys are, I mean, they're, they're, they're they're they're human just like you and me you know they're they're great guys I mean uh the one thing I liked uh watching them is just their work

ethic you know those guys are there for a reason they played so many years in baseball for a reason that's because they they put in the work and they just they have the the right mentality you know just got to kind of follow in their footsteps, you know? Yeah. And what was the food in the clubhouse like? Unbelievable, man. Good? Anything you wanted. Yeah. That's amazing. Like literally anything. If you said, I want this,

they'll bring it over. Yeah. I mean, they got, they had two chefs there, which, I mean, if you wanted a burger, they would cook you up a burger. If you wanted, you know, sushi, they had sushi. Like, it was just, yeah. That's amazing. So what was your pregame routine? You know, you talked about warming up and stuff.

What is kind of your go-to for warming up? What time do you get to the stadium? All that kind of stuff. Pregame routine, I'd probably show up like 12 or 1 o'clock, eat some lunch. I would always eat at the field. And then I would head to the weight room probably like 1 o'clock, roll out my body, warm up. Depending on like how my body was feeling, I would like to add some sore legs.

You know, I would roll my legs out. roll my legs out. If need be, I mean, I would, I'd get a lift in, you know, around like two o'clock, then three o'clock would be the like the team stretch to throwing. So I get my throwing and then then BP afterwards, shag BP, and then come in, eat a pregame dinner meal, and then eat a pregame dinner meal and then kind of just mentally prepare for the game. Awesome, man. And so what was the biggest adjustment for you from high school to college and then college to the pros? High school, I didn't really know anything about baseball. Yeah. So that was kind of going from high school to college was it was a big jump for me. That was kind of going from high school to college was a big jump for me. I think I learned how to pitch a lot from that step,

whether it be like different situations like runners on second, like so-and-so many outs, throw this pitch to get the ball hit on this side of the diamond, kind of like those scenarios. I learned that in college. And then I was a starter in college, and I got in pro ball. I started my first couple seasons, and I had a real tough time adjusting to the five-day rotation.

So I got moved to the bullpen. And then once I got moved to the bullpen, I kind of just made that my niche and kind of worked on getting lefties out, kind of made that my craft, and then made my way up that way. Yeah, wait, so what were the rotations like? I mean, in high school, I believe it was like an 85 pitch count depending on the day. So what were the rotations like in high school and what were the rotations like in Iowa?

High school, man, I must have some bad memory because i'm i mean we at least had five days you know yeah starts but i mean there'd be games where i'd be pitching 120 uh pitches you know in high school but uh college it was a seven day uh rotation so you got that extra two days of rest. And I did that for four years. And then the minors is, I mean, pro ball, it's obviously five-man rotation. So every five days you're going. Definitely.

And at this point, what are you throwing right now as far as pitching speed? Speed? 90s to mid-90s. Yeah. I would like to be 93 to 95 dang so you've kind of has that been something you've progressed on since you've gotten it sounds like at iowa you were throwing around you know upper 80s low 90s um so something you've gotten a little bit more consistent consistent into the mid 90s when did that kind of jump happen um was it a gradual climb or was

it recently yeah definitely in college uh if i hit 90 on the radar gun, I was cheering and jumping up and down. You know, so I'm definitely throwing harder nowadays. But, yeah, I think just watching, I think mechanically I was pretty flawed and wasn't using my body very efficiently. That's why I didn't really throw that hard in college. But just being around a bunch of people in pro ball who threw upper 90s, you know, you kind of look at them and how they throw and kind of compare them to yourselves and what you're doing.

And you figure out the differences. And just by mechanical changes, you can throw a lot harder. And I think just by age, you know, I got a little bit stronger, you know, so it probably helped too. Definitely, man. So at this point, you just turned 30, I believe, not a couple months ago. How much longer do you think you're going to kind of keep working

on that baseball dream? Shoot, I mean, there's guys 38 still playing. So, I mean, I hope to play eight more years if I can. At least you're still loving the game then. Oh, yeah, yeah. I don't feel like I'm going to stop anytime soon. That's for sure. I love it, man.

So what would be the plan after baseball when you do decide to hang up the cleats? What is your post-baseball plans? Yeah, I mean, baseball is a passion for me, man. I've been at it for so long. And just by doing so many, like, kids camps, you know, back in college, summer ball, we do even, even in pro ball, we do all that with like a bunch of kids camps. It's, it's awesome. And it's, it's a good feeling teaching kids, you know, how to play,

how to play the right way and just seeing them, you know, become better. So I could see myself being a coach down the road for sure after baseball. I love man. Well, any last words that I want to take up too much of your time. I know obviously you're getting kind of busy and doing your training and whatnot in Indiana. So any last words for Hawkeye nation that you want to say? Yeah. I mean, just good luck to the Hawks, you know, baseball and football and every other sport, you know, stay safe. And all those Hawkeye fans to stay safe out there. Go Hawks.

Hell yeah, man. Well, thank you, Matt. I appreciate you coming on and we'll be rooting for you and hopefully you'll get the call up soon and help the Cubs make a little run there. Yeah. Thanks for having me, man. Awesome. Talk to you later, buddy. All right. And that will wrap up our show for today. I hope you all enjoyed the interview with Matt. A big shout out to Matt. He had just been signed with the Chicago Cubs only a few days earlier

and still was willing to come on and talk to me. And I know it's tough when you're kind of changing, moving from Texas to Indiana and getting into a new organization and all the things that come with that. So really appreciate him taking the time out of his day to chat with us about his experience playing Iowa baseball, his experience playing in the major leagues, and some of the cool stories he has from that. And I hope you all enjoyed it as well.

As a reminder, on tomorrow's episode, we do have some talk about the NFL training camps coming up. We're getting a few guests from the Locked On NFL channels to come on and talk about the Iowa football players currently in camps right now and talk about how they're performing, what to expect from them this season. I think it'd be a really cool, kind of some cool crossover episode. So make sure to tune into that tomorrow and on Thursday. And again, thank you all for tuning into today's episode. Really appreciate it. Hope you all enjoyed it. Make sure to give us that five-star review if you did. Tell your friends about it as well as we're trying to break a listener record this month. And Thank you all for tuning in.

Have a fantastic day, Hawkeye Nation, and let's go Hawks.