Rates & Barrels - Jackson Holliday Joins The Show & Breakout 2nd Year Bats

Episode Date: March 26, 2025

Eno and DVR are joined by Orioles star Jackson Holliday to talk about his love for donuts, struggling in his rookie season, the big difference between AAA pitchers vs MLB pitchers, if he looks at his contact point and much more. They also talk about some of the big news of the week and look at some breakout 2nd year bats that they have their eye on Rundown 0:45- Cal Raleigh gets a big extension 2:10- Evan Carter gets sent down to AAA 5:45- Could Luke Jackson be the closer in Texas? 8:45- Landen Roupp makes the Giants starting rotation 10:38- Breakout second year hitting candidates 23:24- Orioles Star Jackson Holliday joins the show Follow Eno on Bluesky: @enosarris.bsky.social Follow DVR on Bluesky: @dvr.bsky.social e-mail: [e-mail] Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/FyBa9f3wFe Subscribe to The Athletic: theathletic.com/ratesandbarrels Hosts: Derek VanRiper & Eno Sarris Producer: Brian Smith Executive Producer: Derek VanRiper Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Anna Lee Ashford and Dennis Quaid star. I am not responsible for what my dad did. Let's go on how you hoped. Happy Face, new series now streaming exclusively on Paramount+. ["The Daily Show Theme"] Welcome to Rates and Barrels. It is Wednesday, March 26th.

Derek Van Riper, EnoSar is here with you on this episode. We are looking for breakout bats, mostly players in their second big league season, trying to find players that will take a massive leap forward. Got a special guest joining us later in the show. Orioles second baseman, Jackson Holliday, joins the program, so Enos gonna have a chat with Jackson.

We're looking forward to that. You know, we got some news and notes here as we get started. extension another one Cal Raleigh gets a six-year 150 million dollar extension to remain in Seattle takeaways on this deal I mean it's possible he is the best young catcher I mean do I have to put young on there I mean it's it's really close. Once you look at offense plus defense. I mean, you can look at something like the bad ex war projection. He's second to William Contreras. It's a lot more bat forward for William Contreras and defense a little bit more defense forward for Cal rally. But. rally, but you know, those are the two standards right now of the position among young players. So congratulations to him.

And I don't even think he has to cut the K percentage to continue being a just a really great player for them. If he does cut the K percentage, that's what might make this deal, you know, a good one for the Mariners beyond what it is, whatever sort of cost certainty they get out of it, right? It's three years before Raleigh hits free agency So good long-term security for him phenomenal defender gets to that power consistently Nothing has to change for him to make good on that deal It seems like he's become you know one of the leaders along with Julio Rodriguez like that is

Those are the two faces of the franchise and the position player side alongside a great rotation So it's the question of whether they can add to that just that little bit extra to close the gap on the other top Teams in the American League Cal Raleigh there for the long haul the more surprising news I think out of the AL West Evan Carter Optioned to triple-a on Tuesday and there were some little Warning signs if you were reading the tea leaves closely you may have noticed that Evan Carter was not in the lineup for a couple Of the exhibition games for the Rangers to begin the week Those are basically dress rehearsals the way they tend to use those so Carter goes down to AAA to begin the year He's still really young man. He's 22. He won't turn 23 until August

I don't think this means Evan Carter will never be a fixture for the Rangers, it's a little surprising they're gonna use Leodi Tavares ahead of him to begin the season, but Carter didn't do himself any favors this spring, struck out 35% of the time, didn't really get to the power, and is still working his way back from a back injury too, so you just wonder if it's gonna take a little more time for Carter

to kind of push himself back in the direction of the guy we saw who destroyed AA, got the promotion to the big leagues in 2023 and really hit the ground running upon arrival in Texas. Yeah, I think there's a toggle there where he's, you know, uber patient and maybe too patient at times. I mean, even when he was playing well, his rookie season, he was struck out 32% of the time,

which was weird with a 10% spring strike rate. Then he tried to be maybe a little bit more aggressive in his second try at the league and then he had the back injury. So I think it's one of those just fits and starts kind of things where he just hasn't had the long runway in the big leagues. I would love to be the team that gave it to them. If you know, if Texas doesn't want to be that team, but also this is a Texas team that wants to be competitive this year and isn't really

going to leave a spot open for someone to kind of struggle through some lumps I guess. If there was a player that I would do that for I think it would be Carter. I think that there's a chance here still for a really special player because of his combination of speed and defense and on base percentage. I think he could still be a better center fielder than Leodi Tavares like this year. But we have to admit that spring training numbers do matter to some extent in this process,

especially if they're trying to see if he's healthy or not. And that the number one thing that does matter in the spring in a small sample like this is strikeout rate and swinging strike rate. So, you know, he's seen hundreds of pitches at this point, I would assume maybe 200 pitches around there. And he's swung and missed 14% of the time. That is way too high.

They're signaling that. So there's something going on. I hope he gets it right. It's bad day for some of my teams. I had thought that this would be a perfect time for him. And it kind of dovetails into our rest of our conversation, which is, you know, at least I saw from him a good, really, really elite level sense at the plate. And, you know, some okay, hard hit numbers, like in his rookie year, the 46%, you know, there was enough there where, you know,

7% career barrel rate going into this year. I was like, this guy hits the ball hard enough, has a great sense of the zone and has good, really good swinging strike rates. And so I thought this will be the year where he has the strikeout rate that matches the swing strike rate. And he kind of does something where he goes 2020 in centerfield for the Rangers. I guess that's out the door right now. And to some extent, you know, his spring numbers mattered in this.

Yeah. It seems like they definitely played a role in the decision. It could just be a month before he's back in there. Leading to various, doesn't seem like a very high bar to clear to break back in and claim that spot in center field for the Rangers. Let's talk about Luke Jackson for a second though. There were some rumblings that perhaps the Rangers

were tipping their hand a little bit as far as their plans in the back of the bullpen. We've talked about Chris Martin, Robert Garcia, a couple different guys they've had in the mix. Mark Church was a buzzy sleeper a couple of weeks ago in this bullpen and now some folks are thinking maybe Luke Jackson is going to be that guy. So what is your read based on what the Rangers are doing,

what Bruce Bochy is saying about his bullpen, who actually is the favorite to lead this team in saves this year? Who are you at least drafting or trying to put on the bottom of your roster? Yeah, the quote was something along the lines from Bruce Bochy, was something along the lines of, you know, somebody asked him like, oh, is the bullpen like, is the bullpen all set? And just to your point earlier about, you know, these exhibition games are, you know, generally thought

of as, you know, dress rehearsals for the regular season. He said, yeah, what we used was pretty close to what we'll do in the regular season. So people are running with that and saying, well, Luke Jackson pitched the ninth, so if he's saying that is pretty close, then that's gotta be it. And Luke Jackson's had an excellent spring with a 45% strikeout rate against a 5% walk rate.

The one thing I would say though is, first of all, that he is a guy that really pushes the needle when it comes to sliders. In fact, this spring he has thrown 40 sliders to 20 four-seam fastballs. So he pitches backwards out of the pen and you know, Stuff Plus says he's right to do so. His slider is his best pitch. I just don't trust pitchers like that as closers. Also, his fastball Velo this spring has been 94. He was 95 before.

So he's a guy who pitches backwards that has less Velo than he's ever had and has had a good run in the spring and oh Chris Martin pitched the eighth and when you look back at Bruce Bochy saying pretty close to what we were doing what we will do in the regular season that could just be yeah about what we did except Chris Martin will pitch to the ninth so I still have my money on Chris Martin and maybe eventually other as leading for saves in this bullpen over the course of the season. Mark Church looks pretty good. He pitches a little bit backwards too. He has better VELO and he doesn't pitch as backwards. I mean 40 curve balls to 11 fastballs. That's how you get a 45% strikeout rate in spring.

I don't think that's how you get through over major league season. It's a completely renovated bullpen though. So watching it closely, no matter who starts the job is going to be important because whoever starts with it doesn't necessarily finish with it as you try and project what's going to happen in Texas. I do think Chris Martin looks like maybe the best

all around bet for the short term if you're trying to throw a dart there. And it could be a good team that generates lots of opportunities as well. I think that's the other part of the appeal. We did get some clarity from the Giants. It's Landon Rupp ahead of Hayden Birdsong getting that final rotation spot for the Giants.

Yeah, that's what I've been saying here. I did get a little nervous when Birdsong made the team and I thought, well, you're not gonna put Birdsong in if he's not gonna start. I think that there's going to be some opportunity for Hayden Birdsong to function like Jacob Junas in the short run and piggyback with some people. If he does transition to the bullpen fully,

I think he would be excellent. He would be really, really good. But also, this is a veteran rotation where somebody could grab a hammy at any moment and they would need Birdsong. So maybe they'll do a secret six man. This goes back a little bit to the idea that like we think a lot about what happens on opening day and the roster is a sort of a fluid, you know, it's a working document, as you might say.

It's like something that will change over the course of the next few weeks. I think maybe the most likely, if everyone stays healthy, is that Jordan Hicks, who hasn't looked that good, great this spring and would be a great addition to the bullpen, was a guy that was a closer level and has paid kind of closerish money or even set up his money, just send him back to the bullpen

and make good on Eno's bold prediction of the Giants have the best bullpen in the big leagues. Bonus, bonus bold predictions. I mean, yeah. Because I know that's why they would, that's what they're thinking. How can we make Eno right? That's what every team's thinking about.

How can we make Eno right in this instance? But no, Landon Roop, I think, of the guys that have emerged to win a fifth starter spot this spring would be pretty high on the list of actual sleepers if you haven't drafted yet. If you're drafting the night before opening day or on opening day or a little after,

Landon Roop should have a circle around him as a late pitcher that you actually do want, even though all of those spots are very fluid at this point. Are you crushing your bills? Defeating your monthly payments. are very fluid at this point. credit card bill in full and on time every month. Level up from bill payer to reward slayer. Terms and conditions apply. Let's get to a few bats that we think could be primed for a breakout in 2025. You know I think this comes back to a conversation we've had a few times in that the gap between AAA pitching and big league pitching might be as wide as it's ever been. Layer on top of that, the automated balls and strikes system and the zones being different between the two levels and I think you have a case where it is more difficult than

ever for a young hitter to make adjustments against big league pitching. So I think a lot of our big step forward guys are year two maybe even some year three players if they were up and down for a couple of seasons. So who do we like as potential bats primed for a breakout that fit into this group in 2025? One of the things I wanted to do is just look backwards. First, I wanted to look at the guys who have broken out. So I was like, what, who, how did the top 30 players in the big leagues of the last three seasons start their careers? And so I went and I looked through the top 30 guys.

I should, I did their, their career, their careers their careers that the first year of their careers and I sorted them by reverse OPS so here are the worst starts for guys who are in the top 30 over the last three years Kyle Tucker it was only 72 played appearances but he had a 439 OPS Kyle Raleigh had a 532PS, Aaron Judge had a 608 OPS in the 95 plate appearances that came before he turned into full Aaron Judge. It was 95 plate appearances of that and then the next year he hits 52 homers. Trey Turner, 44 plate appearances of a 620 OPS. Jose Ramirez actually took a couple of years to get going.

Somewhat similarly, Jose Altube, those are the biggest sample guys with an OPS that starts with a six. Marcus Simeon, Xander Bogarts, who I turned into a meme, has no space in between, love that. William Contreras, 185. Nolan Aronado had a 7.06 OPS. One thing that I take away from this

and maybe it's just an ongoing narrative for me, but the guys that you look here that you have hard hit and max EV data for, you basically, the Trey Turner's the only one that doesn't fit into a bucket where either you made good contact even in your poor beginning sample or you hit the ball really hard.

I mean, William Contreras hit the ball 114.2 in his first year. Aaron Judge, even in that crappy little 95 PA sample, 115.2, Cal Raleigh 113.1. Cal Tucker had 18% strikeout rate. The only one that doesn't fit my narrative really is Trey Turner. Because even Jose Ramirez and Jose Atube made a lot of contact and you're just kind of hoping for them to add power later. Marcus Samian may not fit, you know.

Sometimes you just have guys who it's a really small sample and just things didn't go right. I mean, you know, things just didn't fall into place and it was 75 play appearances, the first taste of the big leagues, they got hit in the mouth and they got sent back down. So those are hard to sort of figure out, but also you could also just use pedigree where it's like, oh, this guy's supposed to be really good and he had 50 play appearances last year,

I'm not going to say he's bad. I mean, I think, yeah, if you were talking about a sample of a half season or less, you really have to err on the side of caution before drawing any conclusions about someone's first exposure to big league pitching. You could have up and down situations, you could have a crowded roster like the Orioles had last year, but even, I keep pointing to this example, there's two good ones. I mean, Wyatt Langford and Jackson Churio, as great as they are and have been already in their big league careers, it wasn't from day one. It took some time for both of those guys to get comfortable and to start producing at the levels they were producing at by the end of last season.

So one area that you want to look at for possible surprises too, what were strikeout rate improvers in spring training? Are we starting to believe there's a little more value in some of the spring training numbers than we previously thought? Well, I looked at what you want sample-wise from strikeout rate, and you do generally want more than 60 plate appearances or whatever that they've had this spring.

However, you actually start going past what's 50% noise and 50% signal. You actually cross that 50% level? somewhere around 50 to 60 plate appearances and so you know this spring it's meaningful that these guys have Reduced their strikeout rates by incredible amounts in some cases shade Langley ears has a spring strikeout rate of 2% Percent struck out one time in 44 plate appearances And it's really weird because he's hitting a lot of ground balls and Maybe he's trying something different and the pitchers haven't adjusted yet to it yet

But it does tell you that like maybe his true talent strikeout rate is south of 27 percent where he was last year But hunter Goodman has an eight point five percent strikeout rate this spring Which I love so down Rafaela has really cut his and that's been part of what makes him a less attractive player to me. If Sudan Rafaela is a guy who swings at everything, but makes contact at everything, then he fits a sort of profile that I understand. You know what I mean? It's like the, the guy who can fly like the wind hits the ball hard, swings at

everything, you know, like a maybe like a younger Luis Robert Jr., right? You know, like that I can understand, but if he's going to strike out 26% of the time, then he also has the Robert Jr. downside, right? But when it's like Marcel Azuna, who I have age on here, he's 34 years old, I don't know how much I care about that, but Tyler Soderstrom also being down to 8.8% strikeout rate. There could be two breakouts on that athletic athletics roster. So you know Goodman and Soderstrom I think fit in our second year breakout window which

is to say they weren't that good their first time at the big leagues but they both hit the ball hard and struck out and then, Oh, look, this spring they're not striking out. So I would circle those two as being pretty interesting. I don't know if they rise to the level of you needing to put them on your 10 or 12 team league yet, but if they're playing every day and you know, playing pretty well in Soderstrom's case, I think he's closer. He could be somebody you could pick up. And I, and I did say something mean that I said, if. In Soderstrom's case, I think he's closer. He could be somebody you could pick up.

And I did say something mean that I said, if you have Soderstrom as your corner infielder, you messed up. Also, somebody in the Discord was like, I feel attacked, I have him. They also had Cabrion Hayes on their bench, so they had a backup plan, you know. I can see having two or three guys

of which Soderstrom has won. So if you wanna put Soderstrom on your bench in a 12-teamer right now, especially if he's catcher eligible, could be a fun time to do so. I think there's another hack to sort of get into some high-growth potential players. Just take a rookie leaderboard from last season and sort by WRC Plus from the bottom up, and then start looking at who's actually going to play

on that list Jordan back at the playing time situation in Colorado is better for him with the Nolan Jones trade now among rookies that Qualified for my leaderboard. He had the worst of you RC plus a 32 in 184 plate appearances, but there's power There's speed and there's a playing time opportunity and he goes so late You could throw that dart see what happens and just move on if it Doesn't work right Victor Scott similar situation looks like he's gonna play a lot to begin the season It's won the starting center field job for the Cardinals and we think about how we felt about Victor Scott this time last year That's part of it as well

Like thinking about the long game analysis for all sorts of players and not just throwing that all aside Because of a third or a half of a season that just didn't go to script. Yeah, I think defensive position matters a little bit. If you think back to my original one, Trey Turner and Marcus Simeon were the ones that didn't fit, that didn't really have anything good to say about them. What do they do, though? Play a premium defensive position that kept them on the field long enough to show what they could do. defensive position that kept them on the field long enough to show what they could do. Victor Scott struck out 27% of the time last year. Max CV 107, hard hit 33%.

None of these speaks that well to what he did, but small sample, premium defensive position I'm in. I also think that max CV is useful here. Max CV gives you power potential. So when I, I did my sword, I did it by negative, by war in a negative fashion. And Noel V. Marte at the very top was the worst, you know, rookie eligible player last year that had at least 50 plate appearances. He still hit the ball 111.5. You know, and if you look at people who've hit the ball 110.5 or better, you actually start to collect an interesting list of names that you should be thinking about. Hunter Goodman,

Jordan Beck is on that list. Another name that's two names are on that list are Addison Barger and Ben Rice. You know, Ben Rice looks like he might be the starting DH for the New York Yankees. Addison Barger, you know, there are question marks about his K percentage and his role, but you know, he's still being able to hit the ball hard. Curtis Mead and his role but you know he's still being able to hit the ball hard. Curtis Mead made that roster you know 112.4 last year. Zach DeCenzo premium, premium bat speed in the spring could still matter for that Houston team. I don't know exactly what his role would be either. Those are some names that I have that I have circled that I think will still matter this year.

Yeah, it's good to get more of these names out there now because some of these guys, I mean, Brooks Baldwin's kind of interesting to me because the playing time's starting to fall into place. He has some speed, even though he doesn't hit the ball as hard as some of the names we mentioned. The opportunity to play a lot,

multiple tools to fall back on. Brooks Baldwin could end up being a useful middle infielder in deeper leagues this year, and it wouldn't be that surprising and his first run against big league pitching was nothing to write home about and I think I mentioned him back in the players we've rostered the most this season part of our show last week. Colt Keith is a guy that I keep looking at and I just keep saying there's probably one more level there. His first couple of months last year he was just working through trying to figure it out,

changing positions, moving from second to first this year. Probably gonna play against some lefties, so it's not a strict platoon situation. You look at the power he was tapping into consistently as he moved up through that Tigers system. It would not surprise me at all if Colt Keith comes in, pops 20 homers this year, nudges the average in OVP up a little bit,

because he did a good job tempering whips, and I think now it's just adding the quality of contact, getting that back up to the levels we've seen as he moved that system. Yeah, and near the top, if you just look at the top in war last year among rookie eligible players and then look at max.v's, like you're getting Merrill, Kouser, Churio and Mason Wynn and I know that people right now are a little bit worried about Mason Wynn let me tell the person on discord right now who's waiting for my reply sorry I had to start podcasting I would not drop Mason Wynn for JoyRTs even though I'd put JoyRTs in Hall of Fame pants yesterday in the bold predictions but I would say if you could have both on your roster,

it's a good idea. Cause Mason wins 17% strikeout rate last year, 111.1 max EV. There is still massive breakout potential here. Cause he could steal more. The defense is going to keep him in the lineup. You know, more higher end type breakout prospects that I like Austin Wells.

They're talking about him leading off, you know, a lead off catcher that looks a lot like Will Smith under the hood, you know, in a, maybe a nicer park for that power. It's a good part power handedness matchup. So, you know, I think Austin Wells, especially like in 12 team leagues, if you run the calculator, you'd be like, Oh, Austin Wells is the 12th, the 12th, 11th catcher. Just do that. Just piece out on all the catchers and take Austin Wells 11 or 12 because he could, he might be the sixth or fifth best catcher next year. He might even be top three next year

if he comes out and just does what he could do. I think he could hit 250 with, you know, 25 homers this year. If he does that on the Yankees team, there'll still be a lot of RBI in there. Yeah, you're going gonna get good counting stats to go along with it. Even if Wells doesn't stay in that leadoff spot all year, that could be a little bit fluid, but it's at least the plan they might be rolling out to begin the season based on comments

Aaron Boone made recently. So a lot of different sources for these second year breakouts, and a lot of guys I think are gonna be on some teams that bring home fantasy titles at the end of the season as well. That's right. And then James Wood is my LA Della Cruz this year.

That was my bold prediction that just made a lot of sense. He hasn't stolen a base this spring, which makes me mad, but his team stole a lot. So I think maybe eventually he'll steal some bases. We'll see. Maybe it's more only like a 30-20 season. But hey, if I told you he was going to be Elie de Cruz, you got a 30-20 season from James Wood, would you be that angry at me? I would not. I would not be angry at you. Joining us on behalf of the Orioles hospitality partner Brick and Whistle, which is operated by

Levi, is Orioles infielder and donut connoisseur Jackson Holiday. Jackson, we saw your Instagram video. It was pretty hilarious. Tell us, do those donuts taste as good as they look? They're actually really good. Yeah, I happen to love donuts, so it was perfect for me. But yeah, they were they were very good. And anyone that comes out to the game, I highly recommend them for sure. That's awesome.

I don't think of donuts as a baseball food, but it makes sense to me. I mean, what other fun stuff is cooking up at Camden Yards this year? Yeah, I mean, I think they have a lot planned. I know there's a warehouse burger that they've been talking about. I know they've got the $5 menu, however that works,

but just trying to encourage guys and people to come out to the games and just create an awesome environment at Camden However that works, but just trying to encourage guys and people to come out to the games and just create an awesome environment at Camden as far as the outside and the experience. And obviously we're out there doing our thing, playing the game. I know as a kid going to Cardinal games and getting food and going to different places, that was always something fun for me as a fan. And yeah, I think they're doing a great job.

I actually have two young kids and I feel like food is the first thing that you love is something fun for me as a fan. And yeah, I think they're doing a great job. I actually, you know, I have two young kids and I feel like food is the first thing that you love about a baseball game because sometimes when you're really young, it's like, you can't figure out what's going on, you know, but you can figure out you got your cotton candy and you got your donuts now. I love that park, dude.

And it's such a beautiful park, such a great place to debut. You know, we were talking about some fun stuff that's happening at Camden Yards. Was last April, like, the first time you didn't have fun playing baseball? I mean, I was looking at, like, your high school, like, your high school batting averages started

with sixes and sevens. Like, I mean, this is the first time, and in the minors, you kind of just tore through. I just talked to me a little bit about sort of maybe emotionally what it was like to come up and have all that in front of you and then, you know, have a little bit of struggle at first. Yeah. I mean, it was a lot coming up with being first pick being a top prospect and then going up there and you can't go anywhere without a camera in your face.

I mean, obviously I'm very blessed to be in that situation and have all of that. But, I mean, it's a lot. It's a lot to try to debut at 20 years old with a lot of pressure and a lot of outside kind of things as far as just being able to play the game of baseball. So, obviously, that was difficult. And then, obviously, playing in the big leagues is just as hard.

So, it was a great experience to go up there and struggle, I think. I think I'm gonna be better for it as a player, but to go up, struggle, get some back down, kind of work on some things. And then when I got called up again, I was a whole lot more comfortable, more settled down, and I'm very excited for this year.

Yeah, I wonder, you know, I think every great player has struggled at some point and had to come out the other side. So that's really important. But like, what was kind of the separator? Because people talking now that the difference between AAA and the big leagues is larger than ever, maybe because of pitching. When you talk about major league pitchers versus AAA pitchers, is it the VELO?

Is it the number of pitches? Is it the command? What is the, what do you think was the big separator? Yeah, I mean, I think a little bit of all the things that you just said, I mean obviously there's great pitchers in AAA and guys that are prospects and probably gonna be great pitchers in the big leagues. So, uh, it's definitely I think a little bit of everything. Command's different the way that they attack you where they kind of expose your your weaknesses but uh they all have like five or six pitches that are all really really good so uh it's definitely definitely more challenging but that's what that's what we're

here for competitors try to get better each and every day and and you want to be in the big leagues facing the facing the best but yeah i mean i think there's a reason that they're in the big leagues because they're probably a tick better than the guys in AAA. So, yeah. I hope you're cool with this one. I mean, it's a little bit specific, but you're talking about game plans that they attack your weaknesses. And, you know, I think one thing is like they're really effective at it. Like maybe in the minor leagues, you're like, oh, I know what the book is on me.

But like, you know, they can't hit that spot three times in a row. You get to the big leagues, maybe they't hit that spot three times in a row. You get to big leagues, maybe they can hit that spot three times in a row. I was, I was looking through your heat maps and it looked like they were really attacking you low and away. And, you know, I noticed two kind of big things when you came back, there was a single off of Cooper Criswell. That was more of a, like a kind of a hard ground ball, but I saw one in particular, you hit a single off of Ryan Pepeo.

I don't know if you remember this It was like early September, but it was blown away and it was a line drive in the air and You know, I was like, yes Like so was that something that you had to adjust a little bit and were there mechanical adjustments or sort of approach? Adjustments that got you out of that. Yeah I mean I think growing up like that was always like, hit the ball the other way, hit the ball the other way,

like kind of looking at our half. And I always covered down the way very well coming through high school cause I always hit change ups cause I just had a, an approach that my dad taught me from a little kid of fastballs the other way and you can adjust. So I think the way my swing was kind of at last year, I wasn't able to cover that as much. I wasn't able to adjust as much.

And I think that's just kind of what happened. I mean, if you can throw three pitches down the way, usually you're gonna get people out anyway, but to be able to stay on, change the ups down the way, to stay on heaters, I think I'm in a lot better spot and my swinging in the position that I am whenever I'm about to launch than I was last year. But yeah, I mean, it's usually a good sign

if I'm hitting pitches down the way and hitting changeups and hitting line drives the other way, it'll help me stay on pretty much anything and be able to adjust to all sorts of pitches. So you made some sort of a bit of a preload adjustment like a load adjustment something? Yeah yeah a little bit. Last year leg kick this year more of like a toe tap kind of shortened stride. Just trying to simplify everything to because of the V-Lo and because of you know just trying to. Yeah I'd be able to put my foot down whenever I

want be able to just swing whenever opposed to having to kind of perfectly time up the leg kick, even though I've kind of done it my whole life. I've gone back and forth with the toe tap kind of load thing in high school, um, with two strikes and I think I'm a little bit stronger than, than I was then. And it's been great. I've cut down swing and miss and spring training. So I guess we'll, we'll find out in the season, but I feel pretty good right now. Yeah, I did notice that.

Nice strikeout right this spring. You know, one thing about, you know, development is just such an interesting thing because it comes in fits and spurts. You have to be challenged. You have to struggle to make these adjustments, but you also have, you know, kind of a famous father who went through these things himself.

And then an organization that's really well regarded for producing hitters and for coaching hitters. You know, did you ever feel like you had too many voices in your ear? You know, just in terms of your coach and your dad, your dad's telling you to do one thing. I mean, was it ever a little bit too much like that? Or, you know, was your dad always like what the organization tells you, you know, work on that with them? Yeah, you know, was your dad always like, what the organization tells you, you know, work on that with them? Yeah, I mean, not too bad. Luckily, like the coaches last year were kind of communicating a little bit with my dad,

like some of the stuff that he sees, obviously hitting with him my whole life. They're very good about that. He's not too kind of up in your face or too hands on, like just little things. Kind of when I was going through that in minor leagues like hey what I mean What do you see compared to like what I was doing the year before whenever I was? Really really good. So it's just kind of kind of simple things. He knows your swing about anybody I mean, yeah, yeah I mean just just hitting with him my whole life and obviously the guys that we have now are

Great and we have last year great. So just kind of leaning on a little bit of both. I think that's what good players can do is take bits and pieces from all your coaches and people that you trust and use it to the best. So I'm very happy with how I am feeling right now and the coaches staff we have right now and yeah, I feel really good. Cool, one last question. There's just some new stats out. You know baseball savant like this.

The stat wing of baseball, you know has you know they have bat speed. They have all these things. These new metrics. The newest metric is contact point and kind of where your feet are in the box. Like how close you are to the plate and how close you are to the back of the box.

Do you think about those things ever? Are you are you sort of monitoring your contact point, thinking about where you're making, trying to get the ball out in front or trying to let it travel? Like is there anything you track or even think about without tracking it?

Yeah, I mean, I haven't tracked. I saw the stand in the box thing, but that was pretty cool. But I mean, I think it just depends on certain pitches and locations. For me, either way, you probably don't wanna make super far contact out front or else you're probably gonna hit it first

or break your bat. But I think- Rolling it over, right? Yeah, yeah. And so I think it just depends on the pitches. Obviously it's pretty cool to be able to see an inside heater because you can't really pull an inside heater with late contact point.

You gotta kinda get your barrel out there. I didn't know that was an option, but I think that'll be pretty cool. But it's something you think about intuitively like as a hitter, right? Yeah, yeah, you come back, you're like, oh, if I would've hit that a little bit more up front, I probably would've hit a homer or a double.

I think I would've. If I wouldn't have been so early, and if I would've stayed behind it and kinda drew the ball the other way, it would've been a lot better. So definitely something to keep in mind. The other word for contact point is timing, right? Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure.

Well, may your timing be beautiful and on time all year. Just your contact point be exactly where you need it and the donuts be warm and fresh. Thank you so much for your time today, Jackson, and go out there and have a great season. Thank you, I appreciate it. We gotta go, a slightly shorter episode today with travel schedules but be sure to come to our live shows at Bear Bottle Brewing Company that's on Thursday March 27th, Friday March 28th, 430 start time, the

Bertel Heights location, we'd love to see you there, no tickets required, come get some Kayakers Cove, the beer that Eno helped brew. We're really looking forward to seeing and meeting a lot of you at those shows. Join our Discord with the link in the show description. Thanks to Jackson Holliday for joining us for an interview for today's show. Thanks to our producer, Brian Smith,

for putting this episode together. You can find Eno on Blue Sky, enocerous.psky.social, I'm ddr.psky.social. That's gonna do it for this episode of Rates and Barrels. We're back with you on Thursday. Live. Thanks for listening. I like you.

I like you a lot.