Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 122 | Rhys Hoskins Joins to Talk About his HR Splurge in 2017, Playing LF, New regime in Phillies Camp & His Slow HR trot

Episode Date: March 26, 2020

Rhys Hoskins Joins to Talk About his HR Splurge in 2017, Playing LF, New regime in Phillies Camp & His Slow HR trot Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We are joined by Philly Slugger. First base left field. I'll ask about the left field because there wasn't a ton of it last year, but we're with Reese Hoskins. Reese, how you doing, brother? I'm doing great. I appreciate you calling me a slugger. Thanks for hopping on, man.

And yeah, I mean, well, especially with present company, we'll take some digs at Trevor, too, if he's going to take digs at us, but you are the slugger on right now. Dude, just how are you doing? Like, where's your headspace at? As we're recording this, it's Friday and, like, New York City kind of just got shut down. Like, how are you doing with everything? I mean, obviously, it's a little weird. I got home to Philadelphia late Tuesday night.

What's today, Friday? I don't even know what day it is. Yeah. And we just been, I mean, it's been okay so far. I have, like, a driveway that I've been able to get some workouts in. But, I mean, other than that, it's how many movies can you watch in a day? Are you, like, garage door open? working out in the garage in the driveway blast in the 80s music like a scene out of stranger

things i mean i should uh no we have so we live in like a little community and in between the the houses there's a long shared driveway uh okay you guys are you guys going to the yard right now you're going to the stadium so i actually just tried to go today and they turned me around wow wow yeah did you say the do you know who i am I was like, well, is anybody else in there? But yeah, I'm going to guess maybe for a week that we're going to be, you know, locked out of the stadiums and I'll be running up and down the stairs as much I can

and carrying around a band and doing push-ups randomly. We'll get it done. Yeah, it sounds very similar to my life and my quarantine lifestyle. When you joined us, Plouffe called you Rieser, and I wanted to ask if Gerardi has given you a nickname yet because he gives, I were Yankees fans, so like everyone got, like if I know Gerardi, he calls you Recy, which I think is weird. Yeah, he doesn't.

Okay, good. That's a huge win. Yeah, that's what my mom called me. Okay. You see. I think I've talked about this with Trev in the past, but no one's called by their real name in baseball or maybe even in all sports, right? So like Trev's Trev or Pluffy or most of the time I'm Haas.

Okay. Short and sweet. It works for me. And then leads to Big Hoss. Sure. Big fella? That's a nickname on a baseball reference for you. Yeah, that's a player's weekend.

Okay. That's your players weekend? Yeah, my college roommates called me that. So it's kind of a little ode to them. I wanted to ask you about Plufe, go ahead. No, so that's a good nickname. It is. want to have that, especially if you're a guy that hits homers, like, called Bigfellow.

It's great. It's great. It fits, perfect. I wanted to ask you about your time in college because the one tidbit that always floats out there is that you got the scholarship to go to Sacramento and then you foregoed some of your scholarship money so you got, so the team could bring out a pitcher. So first off, is that true? It is true.

I foregoed some of my college scholarship, my junior year. Was it a freshman pitcher that got brought in or a transfer? It was a Jucco guy Okay Transfer yeah And then did you hold it over his head? Like hey man I'm paying for you to be here

No I should have You should have You should back on it Trev you might know this guy's name His name is Alex Palsha He went to Long Beach State for a little bit I don't know if I recognize the name No

It really is an incredible story by the way Like I don't know many people That's like you and Tom Brady You're the only people to do that So you're in good company Tampa Bay. I still don't understand. You know, we were kind of looking you up, doing the Wikipedia and stuff, and I knew a lot about you, but 4.0 GPA coming out high school.

You're a banger. But Sack State is the only college to offer you. How does that happen? Like, how does that miss? So, I played three sports in high school. So I never really did the summer ball circuit. I was always, you know, playing football. In the winter, I was playing basketball.

And I could remember three seasons in a row, I ended the basketball season, like, on a Thursday. And basically just showed up to the baseball diamond the next day and was on the team. And off we went. So I didn't play football in my senior year, so I kind of finally got to do summer ball there. But at that point, I feel like you're kind of late, right? Yeah. So I guess the way they scout now is just all those AAU and Summerball. So that makes sense.

It's not as disrespectful as it seemed when you just read it. You just weren't showing up. I had a couple like preferred walk-on opportunities in some Pack 12 schools. I don't know, growing up in Northern California, I always wanted to go to Stanford. Thank God I didn't. But SAC State is a good school It's a good baseball program

And a good conference So it's not like it's a bad thing It's just interesting to me That you know When you read up on you It's like Rees got one College scholarship offer And to me it's like

That's a huge mess Yeah I mean How people did it But My biggest Reservation about going to Sack State It had nothing to do With the school or baseball

It was just being at home home. You know, I didn't really feel like I was going to get that college experience, big football school, party as much as I can, which, I mean, we still did our fair share party. Sure. And hey, but being close to home is cool. Do you ever go up to Chico, float down the river? I didn't. But we floated in the American River, which Sacramento. That's a badass sentence to say.

It's floating down the American River. Plenty of times. That's his American. as it gets. There you go. And yeah, hey, that one scholarship is still more than half the people you're talking to right now and things worked out pretty well for you. I'm interested. We touched on this the other day because all baseball people are kind of losing their mind right now. Everyone's losing their mind. Sure. But leaving, leaving baseball, what was your basketball game like? Were you six, four, and thick, or were you a little thinner? Or what was your

high school basketball game like? I was definitely thinner. Okay. So I went to an all-boys Jesuit school in Sacramento. And I was the biggest guy on the team. Okay. So I was kind of the do everything that nobody else wanted to. Yep. Guard the big dude, box out, take charges, pass the ball, you know, four points, eight boards.

That was kind of the standard. Oh, love that. Love that. Just a game or a grinder. That's the hero. Every team needs it. Honestly, though, basketball practice was sometimes way more fun than the games. Just punking some of the younger kids.

Did you play against anybody that ended up being in the NBA? Yeah, a complete mismatch. So the school that I went to holds a tournament right around Christmas that's pretty big. We would get, you know, schools from all over the country, Texas, Denver, and we played a guy from Strait Jesuit in Dallas. His name's Tim Frazier. Oh, yeah. He's now in the NBA.

Penn State. Yeah, he went to Penn State. We played, I played against a, God, I can't remember his name. He went to Duke, who's in that same tournament. And then the biggest one is Aaron Gordon. Oh, my. Yeah, yeah. He went to Mitty, Archbishop Mitty, which is a Bay Area school.

Look at that. Boom. Oh, there it is. There it is, yeah. Was he different back then? Like, was that the guy you saw in the corner and it's like, oh, all right. Yeah, so he was a freshman when I was a junior, which is crazy to think about. But he was as athletic back then as he is now.

How about football? When you get high school sports, it's like, yeah, football is, I think football for me is when you see those guys, like the clips of Derek Henry or someone like that in high school, it's dangerous. Yeah. You're just like a little kid going up against a grown man. I mean, you can get hurt seriously. Have you seen the video going viral today of that the little white kid guarding Zion in high school? And he's like clapping in Zion's face. He's like 5'3.

It just had to be a joke. Zion looks at the bench and goes like, this can't. What? This? What's going on here? Was baseball your favorite sport in high school? You played all three? Honestly, my favorite was probably basketball. I had the most fun playing basketball. I just knew I wasn't going anywhere. I was a six-four forward. Miles and miles of hard. I just was always the best at baseball of all three and knew that was my best chance to get college paid for. How far do you and Trev go back? Because Trevor's kind of introduced us to this California

baseball world. And I know you are a NorCal guy, Trevor's SoCal. But California, I mean, it's its own beast. And Trevor walks around like he's the mayor of everywhere he goes. When did you guys link up? Was it when he joined up with the Phillies or before that? Yeah. Yeah. So the first time I'd ever met him was last year when he joined the Phillies. Obviously, I'd heard the name. I knew he was a... man California guys you still got a little juice at Philly camp we were walking around a little bit of juice

I got a little juice there not too much Not as much as Reese It was actually two years ago Reese Time flies Holy cow no way Yeah and I have heard a ton about Reese Playing it was 18 Lehigh what's that

That was 18 Yeah Wow so I was in Lehigh and everyone was just singing your praises and I knew who you were I'd seen you go off. You know, in 17, you came up and hit a zillion homers, which is awesome. Which was fun. Congrats.

We'll talk about that. Yeah. And like I said, in Lehigh, everyone was just really high on you. So I got called up kind of randomly that year, and I was really excited to meet you. And then I really, that team was great, like the camaraderie on there and just like cast of characters. It was one of my favorite teams to be a part of. And I'll tell you what I love about Reese. Like he's a great guy, smart guy.

I love a swing. A lot of good things about you. My favorite thing about you is your batting cage attire. So Reister walks around in a crop top. Oh, yes. So he just kind of like shows off the abs. And he goes in there. He's kind of like a 90s football player that's got like the tied up shirt.

And he just goes in there and rakes. and I'd be honest I'd never seen it until Reese did it and I'm kind of I've been looking for it ever since I think that started in Lehigh Don which

Treb knows Dong he's our assistant athletic trainer he was in Lehigh when I was there and we were in Durham and where do the Braves play Gwynette

Gwynette in the middle of July. So it was balls hot. And he was like, let's go outside and work out. So I just cut this crop top up and it kind of stuck with me.

Jake's a big crop top guy. Yeah, I went, it's whatever. I went viral. There was a whole thing. There's this like supermodel that was at a Yankees game posing and like Barstool posted something and then it became this whole, is it sexist? Is it not?

So then I went to the. stadium the next week and post it. It got like 10 million vues, Bill. We're not here to talk about that. No, no, no. We're not here to talk about that. I want to talk about your 2017 come up when you went crazy hitting home runs. At what point did you take a breath and be like, what the hell is going on right now? This is easy. Yeah. And I think I was just looking at your minor league game logs, and you were hitting home runs that whole August at AAA, too, which makes sense. They brought you up. And then it just stayed. Yeah.

I think the most like, okay, what the heck is going on moment was we played the Cubs four games at home for players weekend. I think it was like the middle of August, maybe towards the end. And I hit Homer's four games in a row. And I remember thinking, like, I was 0 for four in the last game. It was off KG, Aihara. And I was like, dude, this is it. Like, I'm going to hit a homer. It doesn't matter.

Like, it was a craziest feeling. You get those feelings, right? You're just so locked in that you don't know what's going on. You're not thinking. Like, I could have gone up there and tried to hit the ball at the handle. And things would have gone off. You were going to the ballpark. You were going to hit a home run.

Yeah, yeah. It's an incredible feeling. And you don't get that too often. I mean, you probably had it more than I did. I had a run not as good as yours, but there was a time, it's like 2012 where I just knew I was going to hit a home run. Yeah. And when you're in it, you're like, I'm this is going to happen forever. I'm the best hitter of all time.

Ever. But it eventually comes, well, for me, it came to a screeching hall. But that feeling is incredible. I remember telling reporters after, like, because I kept feeling like I was given the same interview over and over. I kept saying like, look, this is going to end. I don't know when. I hope it's not until next year. But at some point, it's going to end. And I was just like, I'm going to try to ride the wave as long as I can. Yeah, that's, that's a pretty good spot to be in when you're raking so good, you have to tell the reporters, like, this will stop. Relax. This will not continue.

And then, yeah, flash forward. I mean, 2018, you do your thing. And then last year, you know, They add a couple dudes, Harper, McCutcheon. I mentioned you did. Did you get one game in left field last year? Did you get in left field? I don't think so. I mean, does that hurt you? Do you like left field?

Or were you like, no, those guys are cool. I'm fine with that, or how did that go down? I mean, if I could pick, I would not pick left field. Okay. That's fair. That's fair. And I think the other thing I was wondering. Not enough conversation for you out there?

Well, you just kind of get lost in your thoughts, and that's not good for any baseball player. And I never played the outfield. I played three games in the minor leagues. Oh, wow. Yeah, I read that. I read the scout said like, keep them at first base, then the Phillies put them outfield right away.

And I'm okay with that. In the big leagues, I mean, it's not like, in the minor leagues you can get away with it. For sure. You're not going to be on sports center if you mess up. But you get thrown in there in the big leagues. That's a tough thing to do. Do you have a highlight from left field?

I do. I actually turned a triple play from left field or started the triple play. Hell yeah. We're on that. That's when you walked back and you're like, all right, I'm good. I've done everything I want to do out there. It doesn't matter. What I do bad, I got a couple assists though.

I thought you were good up there. You know, I saw you work and, you know, the first thing they said when you were doing that was this guy's working his ass off. And that's kind of what you have to do. But it's not fair to ask a corner infielder. to go play the outfield and expect him to be like an Alex Gordon transition. That doesn't happen very often. It's very hard to go out there and adjust, especially in the big leagues. I mean, the ball's different, the stadium's different, the third deck, right?

And you got guys. Fans yelling at you. Exactly. That's exactly what I was going to ask, because I feel like on this side of things and, you know, Twitter world, Instagram, everyone is, oh, you know, catch a fly ball. And, A, half of those people can't. We went down to spring training, and we just made asses of ourselves recently. But is the biggest thing at just the different stadiums,

or is it just doing it day to day? Or what was hardest for you? Yeah, I would say different stadiums. Like, obviously, we get a ton of work at home. So I obviously felt way more comfortable, like, just with sight lines, the lights, you know, things like that that you have to know and get used to. And, of course, my first road trip was San Diego and San Francisco. So trying to play outfield for the first time in San Francisco was a nightmare.

No, it's not good. The Yankees just did that to a prospect in their organization as well. They're in San Francisco and never played left field ever. They put them out there. They go get them. Yep. It's crazy. fun kid.

Geez. Now, you're kind of perfect for this new age generation of hitter. And I'm interested to see your question because we asked this to Kevin Bgio, and he gave us an interesting answer. But, I mean, man, you got the power. You got the on base. What, at the end of the year, when you're going back through your season, are there certain stats you look at?

Is it the whole body of work? Is it OPS? I mean, it could be anything. What do you look at? the end of the year. Yeah, so I usually look at two things. OPS is definitely one of them. Obviously, you know, if I can slug in the middle of an order,

we're probably going to score some runs. And if I can get on base for the guys that are hitting behind me, which, I mean, this year is even more important with the guys that we have, we're also going to score runs. And then I was always, personally, I've always been, a fan of RBI's. Okay. You know, knocking guys in,

which doesn't mean a whole lot anymore in the game, it seems. But the last time I checked, the more runs that we score, if we score more than the other team, we're going to win. It's better, yeah. It's better, right.

I think that's good. Yeah. Trev's a big run differential guy, so it's huge. I mean, I think that's telling for a team, but I love that you said that you, still look at RBI is because yeah, they're circumstantial and you have to have opportunities

and whatnot. But hitting in the middle of the order where you're supposed to be a run producer, it's a different kind of at bat. When you have guys in a position, your numbers should be up over bases empty or whatever, but it's still a tough at bat. You have to be able to do it. And a lot of times you got to be selfless with it. You know, you can't go up. up there and try to get your ace swings off when you need one run and a guy's nasty. And a lot of guys do that and they're not successful. And the guys that are most successful year after year after year driving in runs. And I always used Miguel Cabrera as the benchmark for this.

If you watch him in his prime years, he was so good at just using the opposite way and inside outing balls and just getting that one run in. Like that's what he'd always tell me. if there's a runner at third base with less than two out, I am going to get him in. It doesn't matter what I have to do. So it's a different at bat,

and it is a skill. Yeah. For sure. Like, you use Miggie. I've gotten a chance to watch Anthony Rendon for the last three years. Just pound 85 hoppers through the second base hole, right? For a run and an RBI.

Yeah. Well, I looked it up. Your OPS with the runners in scoring position. is pretty good. So good job. Congratulations. There we go. Trev was telling us that he had guys around the league when he would prep to see how a pitcher

would attack him or what he wanted his approach to be, that he had kind of like comparison guys, right, Trev, that you would look at, like, how did this pitch attack him? Do you do that? And if so, do you have a guy that you look at, like he's your comparison? How did this guy attack this guy? Now I know what I'm going to do? For sure. Yeah.

one that comes off the top of my head. And like, you know, we're obviously a little bit spoiled. We get this information basically daily if we need it. But I always, maybe this is me being hopeful, but I always try to look at Goldie. There you go. There's a big right-handed hitter handles the outside of half of the plate better than he does the inner half. But can pop you if you go in there. So I always try to look at some of his at bats off the pictures that I face.

Yeah, that's a good one. My current only one is your new teammate, Ronald Torres. We might circle around on him. Similar body types. If you slice Jake in half. Vertically. If I stopped with the late night Reese's, but that's another thing. Reyes, something that caught me that you said before,

and I was looking you batted a bunch cleanup last year. And you guys have a lot of on-base dudes, and I'm just coming from our Yankee world and everything we see around baseball and knowing Philly Sports Radio, has there been a lot of discussion about like where you hit in the batting order? Because with the high OBP,

I'm sure some people scream to go up top. Some people still hate that and they want to see the meaty guy in the middle of the order. Do you care? Do you just show up in wherever I am in the lineup? Or do you like having kind of that cleanup title? The title doesn't mean anything to me for sure. I always tell managers that if they ask,

look, like at the end of the day, I don't care where I hit. As long as I get to walk up to the little square on the left side of the plate, you know, facing the pitcher, that four or five times a day, I don't care where I hit. No, it just so happens that most of my career, it's been in that four-hole. Sometimes a little bit to two. I let off a little bit last year.

But as long as I get to hit, I don't care where it comes from. Dude, there's nothing better than hitting in the middle of the order. It's such a cool thing. It's a little bit more swagger. I got to do it a few times, not a lot. And when I did get to do it, yeah, it feels a little bit bigger when you walk up there. Did you walk up a little bit bigger, Trev? Yeah, you know, spread the legs a little bit more.

Yeah. Pop the chest. Yeah, it does. I'm telling you. I don't know what it is. It's just like you're supposed to be the guy that drives and runs. You're the extra base guy. But it's fun, man.

How long did it take you to go, okay, well, your second game of your career, you were batting cleanup. I hit seventh my first, my first, or the debut. Trevor, your thoughts. Yeah. I love it. I mean, didn't you hit like 40 homers in Lehigh and Redding the year before? In Reading, I hit 38. I mean, this guy's coming up.

You know he's going to hit homers. Yeah. Yeah. That's nuts. Hey, speaking of home runs, you had the slowest home run trot ever last year. A little showmanship against the Mets who came high. Awesome. High at you.

That was your response after hitting a home run. How early on was that planned? Or was it once you hit the home run, okay, I'm going slow trot on their ass? Or was it way like, if I do, I'm doing this? Yeah, it wasn't planned at all. Oh, I love it. I hit it, and if you go back and watch, I knew I got it. And it barely got out, but it counts.

And I was just like, you know what? I'm going to take my time. Hell yeah, dude. It lasted a lot longer than I thought it was going to. Well, once you go slow, it's not like you have to ride it out. You can't just, like, put the burners on after second. You even gave the bullpen. I think I did a little breakdown.

You gave the bullpenny little shout out. I remember seeing it. I remember seeing it. Yeah, I compared you to Joe West because you were running at his max speed. It's true. Did anybody chirp you? Any of the guys in the infield? No, nobody.

Did anyone say anything? Did anyone say anything after? Yeah. Well, the Mets can't do. The catcher didn't say anything to me. That's because they knew. I mean, doesn't have say something? If they were to do the same thing, they would have done it.

Well, and they were the ones thrown at his head. Exactly. So. And then. It was a crazy, crazy couple days. Bryce Hart. later on in the season had like the fastest home run trot when he had to walk off.

Oh, I know. I thought he was going to catch me. I was on first. I synced them up, though. You're slow and his fast, and he almost does two laps before you finish your home run trot. If he didn't... Hey, you never know when the last one is going to be your last one. You got to savor it.

Do you think you'll try and beat that record moving forward, just a slow lower? Unless I get thrown on my head again. I think that's great. That should be your response to whatever... Throw a team throws at your head. I'm a slow trot at your ass. It's coming.

It's good. The worst part about that, or maybe best, was I heard our AAA team because the pitcher, the young, the young guy that got sent down that threw at me, they were playing Lehigh like a week after. And they played the video as he warmed up in the game. Oh, that's tough. All-time troll level.

That's tough. Iron pigs, man. Minor league teams are Ruth. They got to entertain at all costs. I mean, we could do baseball stuff all day, but we like the silly stuff, too. What do people need to know about you, Reese? Like, what's Reese Hoskins off the field? You said at the start there's only so many movies you can go through, but are you a movie, dude, music, hunt fish?

What do you got? Honestly, I'm pretty plain Jane, and I'm completely okay with that. I don't really like to hunt. I really like the fish. I have a dog that I spent a ton of time out with or outside with. Like that. What kind of dog? He's an English golden. Oh, okay.

Yeah. I love shoes. I have way too many shoes. Yeah, I mean, we're from California. We got it. That's right, baby. Yeah, I love shoes. I have a really weird collection of socks. Oh, wow. Sock game strong. How many different pairs? Do you have to flaunt those sneakily or do you go shorts in high socks? I'm never.

Well, I wouldn't say never. It's more sneakily for sure. Okay. I think in high school, it was shorts and high socks. All right. Now you just pull the pants up a little bit when you sit down and hope someone peaks. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. I like that. Just a subtle swag. Are they like just like patterns and colors? Or are you wearing like Superman, SpongeBob, socks like that? All sorts of all of it. All right. I got to ask you this question.

Okay. Because I think I've talked about this before. We're talking about Arieta. Okay. Just our guy, you know. He's one of a kind of guy. Ecentric. When you're really rich and you're strange, they call you eccentric, which is great.

But his personal style is, you. is something I've never seen before. I mean, we know, like, he comes back from a road trip. He's got 50 boxes in his locker. And the way I've described his style before, it's like a rich, homeless person. It's great. He wears this one brand that's like four different shirts

patched together to make one shirt. And it just kind of looks like he's a hobo with really good style. I don't really know how to explain. it. It works really well for him. And he is one of my favorite teammates I've ever had, but he's just out there. And I love it.

Yeah, and it is spot on for him. And I couldn't imagine it any other way. Obviously, I've only known him for a couple years now. But he is unapologetically himself. He's done the body issue. If the body issue, if they reach out

to you, would you be down to do the ESPN body issue? This is a burning question. and people, they tweeted this in, make sure you ask him if he wants to do the body issue. It's Jake's one goal in life. Yeah, I will. See, I feel like that's a kind of thing that you can't say no to. Okay. I agree.

Showing off, baby. Let the world know. Who's your plane buddy? So I always sit in between Scott Kingery in front of me. Kinger. Hi, T. and then Jake is usually right behind me

All right So you ever fuck with your seat You lean back on them? No Yeah Sometimes I was giving my heads up You remember what the plane rides were like in Philly

I didn't spend that much time With you guys It was really quick my time there End of 18 Yeah They make you sit with the reporters Trev Oh my They were like who is this guy

Tommy's really loud. Tommy Hunter's really loud. A little bit of card playing. Yeah, a little bit of card playing. I think 18 was when Mario Kart was huge. Yeah. With the switches. So I think there was some of that coming out.

Good stuff, though. Did the vibe around, like, we talked to some people when we were at spring training with all the new managers and kind of a whole new, like, regime with Joe at the helm. Did it feel any different? Was there tangible differences right away? Just more feeling. I think one underrated thing that maybe not a lot of people realize is Joe being back with Rob Thompson. Yeah, Topper does everything.

His bench coach, everything. Yeah. And just the trust that they have with each other, just the interactions are seamless. You can see that. And you can feel that in game, in the clubhouse, around the whole camp. Was Larry Bo was at camp too, right? Always still chugging along. And Pena, that was the crew.

It was Topper, Joe, Bo and Pena for like a decade in New York. So you got the whole gang back together. Yeah. Joe's fun. He always did like a big event. Well, I guess spring never ended because of the damn virus. He always did a big, like, pool day. I like a lot of camps do that.

We didn't have a big event. We were playing family feud in the morning. Okay, that's fun. Any good stuff? I mean, it's family feud. It's not clubhouse feud. Did you guys have the ping pong journey again this year? We didn't.

No, we didn't. Are you good at ping pong? I'm okay. All right. I'm okay. We got a couple guys in a clubhouse that have expensive custom paddles. Oh. And I'm more of sandpaper, piece of wood.

Yeah. That's it. I can't. More the defender. They better be good. If you have a custom paddle, you better not get beat. That's like the risk you run there. You can't do that.

Yeah. You ever seen a, go ahead, Jay. I was saying Arieta won it last year in spring training. And it was a really good match. Yeah, I want to say it was him in cousins. against somebody. Who was it? Was it Cousins?

It might have been. I mean, Cousins is really good. But I don't think it was him. Too big. It was somebody else. And it was a big match. And Jake was down. And then they rallied off like three or four points in a row to take the crown.

Was it, was it kingery? I don't know. I don't think it was king or either. But I'm sure Jake's one of the guys with his custom paddle, right? That's a good guess. We talked about you in a slow home run trot against the Mets, which is a nice dig at them. But even without that, you fucking crush the Mets, man, especially they're good pitchers.

What's up with that? Like, your numbers against Sindergarde are as if I don't think I could beat those numbers in a video game if I was playing as you against Indigar. It's insane. I mean, some guys you just see really well. Some guys you don't. and oftentimes it's you see guys that a lot of other guys don't see well and a lot of other guys see someone well and you don't. Is this a thing? Do Mets fans like chirp you?

Do they hate you? Are you known as a Mets killer? I'm not too familiar with the NL East, but I mean, listen to this trap. Versindigard de Grom and Mats, he has a 1.164 OPS. That's like 64 plate appearances. Like he fucking crushes these top Mets pitchers. I think Matt's not just Syngard, it's DeGrom as well. Yeah, he's in there, but Syndegard numbers are like mean.

Yeah, Senegal is for sure the best. DeGrom's definitely the worst. I have some, like, if he doubles off him. That still count. Yeah, Don Base percentage is there with DeGrom, though. Yeah. I think Matt's, I'm like three for 18 with like three homers. Yeah, a lot, yeah, yeah.

And the Wheeler, Wheeler was the one pitcher that, you didn't crush, but now he's on your team. So that was a great move. Yes, the best move. What's the flip side of that? You know, because, yeah, like you said, there's some guys that you see well that other guys don't. Who's a guy that you don't see well? And other guys, like, always rake him.

I can find him for you if you want. I mean, I know I don't see Scherzer and Strasbourg well. I think that's okay. Fair. That's allowed. Me either I'm trying to think of guys In our division because we see them a lot

I haven't faced freed that many times But I don't think I have any success off him And I feel like Trevor's point We crush it He's a friend of the pod Yeah Nice hair

For me it was Ubaldo Jimenez And it was late career Ubaldo And we would just score a ton of runs off him And I would strike the out four times And I'd I mean, somebody has to make the outs. I just knew it. I'd walk up to play like, this is going to suck.

That was the problem number one, trap. Come on. Well, that didn't happen right away. But after like the six or seven at bat, when you just like struck out the entire time, it happens. But, I mean, we'll let you pass with Scherzer. Yeah, that's good. What about a good conversationalist? Do you have someone in the NLEs that like when they get the first base?

Like, all right, what's up, man? How you doing? And it's, they're fun the chat with? I really enjoy talking to Freddie Freeman. That was someone else's answer as well. Freddy's just the most like guy in MLB. He's got like this dry, sarcastic humor that I think will always be funny. I mean, I'm sure you guys saw the mic'd up stuff that he did.

Yeah. That's who he is. That's not something that he's putting on for the cameras. Are you all for the mic'd up stuff? Like if they fully tried to implement that, are you in on that? Are you kind of like, nah, or what? I'd be curious to see how it would go in the regular season when the games count. I think spring training, there should be at least one guy on both teams miced up, like, no matter what.

Just for fan engagement. Yeah. What if they, because we were talking with Flaherty about this and like the NFL has done the sounds FX or whatever the next day, like every Sunday, every team besides two, play a day game. They should mic up a player on each team or the home play dump. Or first basement would be good as well. And then, like, put it out Monday night as a half hour show. Would you be down with that? I think 100%.

I don't know why they don't do that. Come on, MLB. Doing it live is a little strange. I don't even want it. As a viewer, I don't want it live. Like, I like it in spring training. But I want to watch the game. Like, you know, I'm into the game.

So, like, I don't want a player talking. Right. I'm showing the highlights the next day with those. guys talking would be really cool. I think so. Or maybe do someone on the dugout who's into the game, right? And you can hear guys break down certain things. It's a hitter talking about pitchers or bullpen guys or whatever it is.

Right? Like I think you just get some more insight into the way that each guy thinks. And I think people would like that. I mean, everybody loves hard knocks. Everybody loves hard knocks So I mean why not Do you plan on getting ejected again next season Plan? I don't know if I ever plan

The man My first one in the big leagues I didn't even get my money's worth it Was it last year or was that 18 It was last year What was the scenario? Gabe was hilarious with his ejections last year year. It was like the fourth

inning. I struck out to end the inning on a pitch that I did not think was a strike. Okay. And I supposedly threw my equipment too hard. No. I thought for that. Come on.

That's what they said. Who was it? Yeah. Should I name names? Name names. I mean, anyone, we could find it. Yeah. It was, it was Will. little. Ah, okay. That's the guy that, no, no, no.

Joe West crew. Yeah. Sometimes the younger guys have a quicker trigger. Yeah, and look, like, if, I just didn't, I just don't think it was for the reason that he said. He just, that's just what he said. Oh. You think there was something else to the story? I do.

I think there usually is. Oh, okay. Seamatic Gabe? Maybe. Gabe was really good with his ejections. Gabe? It's hilarious. I mean, his breakdown for me is gold because you could read his lips and what he was saying just was so naive.

He'd be like, in one ejection, he wanted them to change the call and they wouldn't. He was like, you're really not going to change the call? It's like, Gabe, no one's done that in the history of baseball. Come on now. They're stubborn as hell. I think you should go for one ejection of season. I think that's just good fun. You've got to make it worth it.

And you've got to speak really enunciates. So I think. I can read your lips. So you can do it? Okay. That'd be much of... One thing that I saw, it wasn't that long ago, actually, maybe during spring training, was the guy argued, went back into the dugout, grabbed the trash can, and put it behind

home plate. Yeah, I saw that. I just walked off. That was good. I think that's classic. I don't know. It might even been in the minor leagues. I think it was minor leagues.

Yeah. Bryce had a good one last year, just straight up calling the ump soft. You're fucking soft, bro. In New York? Or was that? I think it was home. Yeah. Do you ever if you could switch styles with Bryce Harper and then he run and then you run out with the headband on and the tapered pants?

You think you'd look good? I don't. He pulls it off though, man. He does. That's right. Yeah, it's flashy. He got like he turned baseball pants into joggers. For sure.

Yeah. They're way different. When you're really rich, you can do whatever you want. on. You win an MVP. That's true. MVP is how. And we'll see when baseball comes back, whatever that looks like when it does. What should we know about this Phillies team that we can't just by looking at the roster and being like, oh, Didi's a nice added shortstop? Like what what should the people know about the Phillies team that you saw in spring training this year?

That Scott Kingery will be much, much better because he'll play one position. Okay, interesting. And it's most likely his natural position. Big year for Kinger. All right, all the fantasy geeks are into that. Perfect. I think if he plays second base, you'll talk about him as a gold glover.

Ooh, okay. I like that. High T guy? Perfect. High T guy? It's great. It's good stuff. We'll get a full list by the end of the season.

I love that that term's thinking. I'm going to make my all high T team. I'm going to make an all low T team. Perfect. Yeah, it's tough. There's a lot of low T guys in the league, you know? That's okay. That's fine.

It just makes the high T guys that much better. Who's that, Ploof? Mitch Morland? He's low T. He's a low T guy, like. It's not a bad thing. It's just kind of like takes his time. Okay.

He does this thing. Scotty is definitely more of like I'm running everywhere. I'm sprinting. I'm going balls out. High T guy. All right. I can appreciate it. Tough for the low tiers.

Oh, one of them. I don't know. Anything you got to shout out, Reese? Are you going to, are you pumping the Instagram game during this time? Or what do you need to shout out? Or questions for us? I've thought about it, you know, trying to be more engaging because we have time. I mean, I follow Trev. He's always on the Twitter. I'll probably do a couple of Q&As throughout this or just, you know, real interactive with some whoever wants to talk about whatever you want. That's what's all about. I mean, we got the time. You're in the pod now. Yeah.

I will say I'm wearing this hat here, which I'm trying to. This is one of the sneaker shops that I shop in Philly. Okay. The guys become a really good homie. And obviously with all this stuff going on, small businesses are hurting. Name it out. We can't really see it. Wait, hold on.

BBD is doing his magic. I got to go the other way. There you go. Beautiful. It's called Laptone and Hammer. Laptone and Hammer. Nice. Perfect.

Obviously, support your small businesses. Yep. Love it. Especially shoes. I love that. I texted, wait, one last thing before you go, because I don't have great style. I tried to.

I texted Nappy. Mm-hmm. And I was like, nap. Like, where do I get cool shoes? And T hooked it up, so I appreciate that. because you guys kind of go hand in hand with the cool shoes. And I've just been like Vans guy, and I wanted to get some, like, sick Nikes.

Okay, what did you get? I showed him to him. He didn't like him that much. Oh, no. They're like the Blazers. So they're just kind of like standard. White with this black swoosh? Yeah, black swoosh.

Hey, that's, it goes with anything. Yeah, I'm trying to step my game up for you. Versatile. I'll see what I can do. Do you have a favorite pair of shoes race or is that like picking Picking favor kids? So I took a like a grab bag on my way back to Philly

and sent a bunch of stuff on the truck And I took probably 20 pairs of shoes Down to Spring Tourney How many times How many times do you put on a pair of socks And then you go to get the shoes And you're like, damn, these shoes don't go with these socks And then you have to decide which one do I want to wear more today

The socks or the shoes and then you have a whole big internal decision to make over the socks and the shoes. Well, the shoes are always going to win. Okay. Okay. That makes sense. They're out front. But I had to take two pairs to put in this grab bag.

I was like, all right. If something were to happen, what two pairs of shoes do I not want to lose? It's like an icebreaker question come to life. There you go. So I have the Travis Scott Jordan one that I love. And then I have the It's an Air Max 97 The Sean Witherspoon

Multiple colors, Quarteroy Sean Witherspoon Quarteroy I know those shoes Man those sound sweaty Cool Those are my two Now we all got shoes

We'll get the whole John Boy Media crew Some nice new shoes from your recommendation So you can have some ploof I need some Yeah Yeah it seems like yours that you went with Are in a hit aren't a hit No, they're kind of just too standard.

Like anybody can go out of shoes. No, no, no. Good starter shoe. Yes. That's how you wrap that up in the compliment. Cool. All right, man. Thank you very much for joining us.

We appreciate it. Hopefully we get baseball back soon and you can go do your thing. But in the meantime, enjoy the movies. Yeah, appreciate it. Appreciate you guys having me on. Thanks, man. Thanks, man.