Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 125 | Brian Dozier Loves Taking Off His Shirt

Episode Date: April 1, 2020

Brian Dozier joined the show to discuss how he developed his power, working out with a propane tank, why taking off his shirt became a rallying cry for him, and much much more! 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.

All right. We are joined by, me and Jimmy are joined by two failed shortstops from the Twins organization. Trevor Bluff and Brian Dozier. I told you I was going to come in hot. I guess I could have gone World Series champ. I could have gone a lot of ways with it. But Brian, how you doing, dude? Yeah, good. Thank you guys for having me. Fail shortstop? Yes, 100%. Yeah, we are. Spolted of us, baby. It's okay. We were looking at the game logs. It's funny because 11, ploof comes up, they ride them at short, and then they're like, nah, nah.

And then 12, you came up, you replaced Jamie Carroll, who was 38 playing shortstop, and then kick back up next year his second base, but been there ever since we were like, man, they were really searching for short stops. Do you guys have a new appreciation for Jamie Carroll

picking it at short at 38 or what? Yeah, so I came in and they moved him to second base, and then they saw that I was so bad, that moved a 39-year-old back to shift. So, yeah, it's true. It gives you a real appreciation for what, like, he did, JJ Hardy, all these guys are able to stay at that position, man. Like, you know, not only that, earlier in their careers,

they had, like, the range and stuff, but what really separated those guys and, like, allowed them to do it was, like, the positioning and, like, the anticipation, like, those guys were so good at that. Like, they were where they needed to be. And this was before. teams would print out like exactly where you need to stand. They were doing that on their own just by like their own baseball acumen.

It was awesome to see. Yeah. How are you doing with the quarantine and everything? We talked a little bit before, but you said you're, you're chilling in Mississippi, a little golf, little what else? Yeah, so we drove back from Arizona, about a 22-hour drive.

My wife and I, we thought that it would be, we have a seven-month-old and wouldn't be the best to get her own. a bird and come back so we drove and we didn't even stop to sleep. We just, right through the night put the kid in the back and let her cry for 20 hours and turn the music up and we made it back, but we're just chilling.

We kind of, when my first few days we didn't take it all that serious, we were still like going to play golf with the guys and still going out for lunch and stuff, but now it's kind of the last week or two. It's been full lockdown mode and And yeah, you find out a lot about you and your family whenever you can't leave one for a little bit.

So it's good. Yeah, the guys that we've been talking to, like Jack Flaherty said he's searching for a hobby. And then who was it? Kipnis was like, yeah, working out sucks because I feel like I have to work out. But like home workouts blow. He had a yoga mat and some eight pound weights. What you just said, you did a, doing a workout. Is this like something you've been doing?

Are you in the miss is searching for things to do? The honest truth, the very first workout I did, I was on my back porch. My wife had her yoga mat. I get out there. We have no weights at the house whatsoever. So I'm like digging through the garage to try to find something to like lift. The only thing I could find out, I had a half full propane tank. And I was doing like shoulder pressure and stuff holding up on my head and doing squat.

It was bad. But then a gym that I work out, they said I can go up there and get some weights. so my wife picked them up this morning. So I've got dumbbells here. There you go. Because they're all out of like academy and stuff. Thinking about you, like lifting a propane tank is the most Mississippi thing. I remember.

I wish I had a video. I got my shirt off, my dad by going, everything. Oh, man. That's beautiful. That's beautiful. Well, let's, I mean, you guys go way back on the way back at this point. You guys came up through the Twinsorg. I obviously made my bad joke.

But, I mean, you guys ran the infield there for a little while. What's a I mean what what are your guys early stories? I mean did did you hate the Cali first round pick or what Yeah, he was a little flashy at the Cali go it was still does He's looking at that genius But no he uh chelvin I've always been close friends Um from day one I remember him and him and anthony soarzac kind of took me and uh Umo remember him kind of under their wings

and kind of through our rookie year and kind of showed us the rope and everything so it's been good I remember Delman Young talking about you and you would like come up I don't think you were in spring training at the time but you were doing like the back and forth thing

and he's like man this kid Dozier he's like I remember this he said he's Marco Scootero but he can hit and I was like dude Marco Scootero was a pretty damn good player and then you came up and yeah you were into shortstop and you know I knew you were a good player but I didn't think you developed into

the best power hitting second baseman in Twins history I gotta be honest with you and then sure as enough you did it was really cool I had like a front row seat to all that you know especially in 2016 when you hit what did you get 42 42 yeah it was incredible it really was cool to see and that was I was doing that research I you and I and I I remember that year was my last year with the twins and a funny not a funny story but kind of a cool thing about that year is you started out like horribly terrible and terrible and Ramos was willing to send me a triple A in May I

remember that so they we were in Kansas City and they were and I remember them talking and there was like some whispers around the clubhouse that Brian Dozier and all star in 2015 like one of our leaders of the team might go to AAA and I was like this is crazy And Molliter took you aside and he said, I don't know what he said to you, but you can tell us this. But he said basically, we're in Kansas City, you're not playing this whole series. Yeah. Like shut up, sit down, watch the game, take a mental break and we'll go from there.

And you did. And then after that, it was like go time. Yeah. So he, yeah, I thought I really was going to AAA. Terry Ryan actually mentioned he pulled me aside and said, hey, you better get your shit together, you're going down to AAA. And so that series, it wasn't against Kansas City. I can't believe you remember that.

Did you look at it? But yeah, it's Kansas City. And he said, I'm not playing any of the games. And there was a four-game set and ended up playing the fourth one. And I remember my first at bat, or Nunia has let off with a homer. I let off with a homer. And I guess I just need it kind of,

we all need a little humbling in the game. So that's what I was too. Damn. I mean, that was all second half. It was like, I remember it was like a crazy second half surge, right? What was,

because you ended up with 42. They couldn't have all been second half. But when you're in the middle of that, does there any like AAA fuck you? No, absolutely. I think once I kind of finally turned it around and you started getting back on the track and stuff, everything started,

I guess, looking up and no more AAA talks and all that. you kind of got that behind you. But I remember it being like a really cool feeling with all the homers coming in bunches and all that kind of stuff. But we were the worst team in baseball. So it was kind of, Triv, you remember. It was almost 100 of the ones. And it was just, it was so bad how we were playing and stuff.

So it's kind of the way in the homers versus playing really bad. But it was still pretty cool. Well, how. It was really cool. I guess I should ask this to every Major League Baseball player. I was going to say, how do you get there? But it was kind of what Trevor said before is, you know, I mean, middle infielers for years were not looked at as power hitters or anything like that. And you do end up, you're hitting 40.

You get MVP votes in like three straight seasons. I mean, are you, were you just a 1% better every day kind of guy? Or was it once you started hitting a couple out, you started turn your focus at? or how did your kind of game develop into what it is? You know what? I owe a lot to Tom Brunanke. He, from college till really my rookie year, I was always a flat single guy,

get high average and get on base and not much power at all. Then Tom Brunanski, we actually playing golf together, and I was driving it a long way, and he's like, dude, why can't you hit a baseball, anything like this? And I was like, well, you know. And so literally that next day, we get to the park early, and he starts teaching me how to use my legs and my hips in order to create power like you're doing a golf spleen.

And I remember just sitting out there days on days just taking a fungo and just throwing the ball up to myself and just trying to hit the ball out to left field every time. He's like, don't even think about right field because I was always inside out, punching Judy right field. And he's like, don't even think about right field. to try to hit the ball out every time the left field. And it's like when it gets everything I was ever caught,

everything that the twib that ever caught me. Yes. So I was like kind of flirting with, oh, gosh, this is about to go south really quick or be really good. And finally got my whole approach to the day is trying to get the ball on the left field. That mirrors like a lot of stories you hear, the swing revolution we've had where it's like, Oh, get your A swing off as much as possible.

Let's see if we can get him back. Yeah, he's reconnecting. But yeah, no, I think I could talk about that. The twins for a long time were that, like, hit the ball the opposite way, like, be a tough at bat, like just put the ball and play type organization. And that just doesn't play in today's game. So for Bernanke to talk about golf was pretty cool

because we weren't really using technology at that point, like they're using now, and like I think I've referenced on the show before, a lot of the baseball lingo and the technology comes from golf. So it really does make a lot of sense. And I even remember Jim Tomey way back in the day, he told me when he had his best offensive seasons, it was him playing a lot of golf.

And he said, I play every day, and a lot of people would say, oh, it's going to mess up your baseball swing. And he said opposite of that. I think it helps your baseball swing. It keeps you centered over the ball. Like Doge is talking about it makes you use your legs. And you just kind of learn a lot of things about your swing

when you swing a golf club. I think any baseball player will tell you that. So to kind of combine those two things is really kind of ahead of the curve and obviously help Doge out a ton. Yeah, let's see if he comes back. That answer itself is just not something you expect to hear. Like how did you become the home run hitter? well, I took my golf swing and then I took Fungo and just did self-self toss and tried to hit bombs.

That seems like, you know, like if a high school coach told a kid that, I think the dad would be like, what the fuck? That's the thing is, yeah, it's got to click for you, you know, it doesn't, a lot, there's a lot of different cues for different guys, you know, a lot of the hitting Twitter people, like they think they have the one answer and if you do this, you're going to be successful, but that's just not the case and you see it time and time again you hear it time and time again from big league guys it's like i tried this and it worked right tried this and it didn't work and it's just really it's all about how it clicks for you and like brian used to do a bunch of weird girls hey oh we got him back

we're back all right after some technical difficulties we're back doja i want to get into some fun stuff postseason world series two world series in a row for you and last year was how do you was crazy i mean because there's so many i want to talk about the davy martina's getting ejected in that whole saga you had like a front row seat to one of the wildest moments in world series history because a manager hasn't been ejected in forever were you uh just watching back and kind of taking that all in or were you actively like mad and yelling on the bench as well well everyone was kind of mad because i mean you know we could see it perfectly how was running. It was kind of weird

because I was on the top step and our general manager Brinz up was right behind us the first row. So he was like relaying to me what to tell the coaches of like during the whole thing. So I'm like looking back at him,

he's telling me to do this. It was just like a, like I don't know. I don't know if you know the like real story. Apparently the reason Davey got thrown at was not because of arguing the thing, the umpire told Davy to get a hold of his, get control of his

dugout. Oh. And then Davey basically said, don't tell me what to do with my dugout. Yeah. And that's why he got mad. So it wasn't the whole, the rule and the, you know, if he's out or stay for any of that kind of stuff. I think, and that's out there.

So I don't know if you guys knew that or not, but that was the whole debacle and everything. But it's one of the worst plays in baseball. It's one of the worst rules. You ask a guy to run on the outside and then come right back in. And it's like it's the dumbest thing ever. They got to change it. And what this stuff starts happening. What we didn't like is the fact that when you usually see that,

the ball is like right in front of a home plate. This ball was up the third base line. Like it wasn't even like a, so it's like, okay, it's not even like interfering with anybody. Yeah, that was crazy. What a crazy call. You guys are heroes, by the way. I mean, if the Astros had went on to win the World Series,

I mean, it wouldn't be the same. Like, the fact that you guys came back and won it, I mean, that changed everything for everyone. I made everyone very happy, especially in retrospect. Oh, definitely in retrospect. Were you always a shirts-off guy, or did that just happen and you just kept the ball rolling on it? Like, what, how'd that play out?

was always was always a what guy? A shirt's off guy because I mean No shirt So Trevor's saying yes Trevor's saying yes

You've always been a shirt off guy In the club My goodness Hey so how that came about Is and I can I can tell you guys So when we were like one of the worst teams In May

We're like 17 and 40 or something. Our team, what it made it so unique is we have like, we're the oldest team in baseball by far, a bunch of veterans, guys that's been in the trenches, guys that's done well, whatever. So it's like nothing ever phased us. And so nothing, like the whole month of April and May, everyone kept, every interview was like, why are you guys still dancing in the clubhouse and having fun? And we're like, you know, nothing really fazes us. It'll turn around. So in late May, I started doing this thing after every win that involved my shirt off. A lot more than my shirt, but it involved my shirt off.

I was really good a boy. And it became a thing after every win. And we started running off a bunch of wins in a row. So I had to keep doing it, right? And it came a thing where I kept adding more things to it. So sure knows. after, so I did it all the way up until the end, but when we clenched, I was doing everything before the media came in, and then when they came in, I still had just my shirt off.

Everything else had been put back on, per se. And so I've got to put my shirt on and all the guys, I remember shirts and I was like, leave it off, let's go. So I was like, all, 40. And so I left it off. And then so sure enough, after we kept winning in the playoffs, I had to keep it. shirt off so it became a thing and then obviously once the parade started and you know everybody on the parade and making me take my shirt off and so it was um so yeah it was my wife had

enough you you you joined a list of guys who have just taken over world series parade so it's like you napoli who's the guy from the from the calves they was doing jr smith yeah they are he had no shirt on forever. There's a hockey guy that was just like going crazy. You joined that list and that's a great list to be on. I mean, to accomplish that and then to be like the face of the party. Well, got to say I loved it. Well, the parade started like noon and we started drinking at eight. So only, I mean, the only good things would happen. So I knew, I remember my wife, Renee's who was after the whole parade, she said, she said, that's enough. It's enough. It's enough. kind of stuff.

And we get on stage, you know, all the wives are in the front. And we're walking up at the stage. She's like, you know, whatever you do on stage, no shirt. Do not take it off. I got to bed. We get out there and freaking Annabal Sanchez, he's in front of everybody. He's like, take it off now. I look at my wife.

And she's just like, she gives me the fare. And I got to give the boys what they want, babe. so I had to take it off. So it was good. That's awesome. Easier to ask for forgiveness to ask for permission. Is that the same? Yes.

That Nationals team, you guys had a lot of things. Like that was your thing. We had the hugs. Strauss were getting hugs. All the hugs. You have baby shark. Even Soto, the Soto Shuffle.

Like it felt like that whole squad was just one big inside party. Oh, yeah. The, car thing. Howie and Adam. Yeah, everyone kind of had their own thing, but it was everybody's thing. Even in the locker room, we would do some stuff with Strasbourg after he would pitch every time and get a win and stuff.

There's a lot of things that we like to have a lot of fun. I think it's a straight correlation to being the oldest team in baseball. There's something to be said about some veterans being in a clubhouse. Did Rendon have a thing, or was his thing that he has no thing? is he just not even a pulse. Yeah, this thing is that he doesn't have too much of nothing. He just breaks. He's a very, he does rake, Jesus.

But he's not like he's a shot guy either. Very outgoing, he just very mellow and stuff. But he wouldn't show too much outside, but in the clubhouse he would do some stuff. Yeah, and on the field he did some stuff too. It's like every bad after the seventh inning was a double or a home run. I was insane. thing.

No kidding. You ever thought about... I was... Have you ever thought about doing the little Soto shuffle yourself? Just as a little homage to the kid? I mean, you got to be 20 years old raking to be able to do that.

It's true. I don't have that in me. I liked it. I mean, I even told... He would ask me, you like it? And I was like, yeah, I love it. I love it. When you're old for 30,

keep doing it, though, because you're going to look really bad. And he's like, I got you old for 30? I said, I hope you never do, kid, but it might come. I just remember to go. That's what I wasn't. I wasn't asking about him because, I mean, you watched that guy play and he's, is he, he's 20 years old? Is that what he is?

He turned 21 in October, yeah. So to do what he's been able to do is incredible because when I was 20 years old, when you were 20 years old, we were in the minor leagues, like just scrubs trying to make it. This guy is on the biggest stage performing, you know, doing the shuffle that hit a bomb off Verlander. I mean, like, just really living it up. But is he that good? He is that good.

I don't think he knows how good he is being that young and stuff. He's like super humble, got a good head on his shoulders, plays the game hard. They always told him that during spring training that you've got to get better at your defense. You've got to get better at your defense. And this guy, like, every single day, him and Bob Henley were out working the walls and working on strength in his arm. because they were saying he had a bad arm and all this kind of stuff. So he's like, he knows what it takes.

He don't want to be like a first baseman, you know, at 22 and he can be a left field or just a DH somewhere or something. And he works his tail off. He's really good. That's good to hear. He's the most opo juice I've seen in my big league career. Wow. Damn.

I love opo juice. You know that. That's the real telosome has power. It's a lot shorter just to pull it, but yeah. If there's any story where Trevor can tell us about his apo juice, it comes out pretty easily. That's right. I think there's an easy segue to be had there because you go over the spring train into the Padres, and they've got a young dude who's pretty special himself and Tatee.

So you might be turning some stuff up the middle with. How, well, A, I guess we'll start there with him, but give us the whole Padres thing. You're at camp with them. How's it going? What's it? Who stands out? What's going on down there? It's been good.

kind of got to camp about a week late, but I guess that doesn't matter anymore. But it was good. It was there for a few weeks. Tatis and unbelievable talent, the guy, I mean, in all aspects. We'd be taking BP on the field, and, you know, you see all the old guys, me and Mani and the Hosmer and stuff, we're in one group with Tatis, and the first two rounds. We're just hitting ground balls, you know, the other way, just to get loose. get the whole bones loose and his first, like literally his first three swings are like

dead center 400 people. They're like, geez, how do it, man? He's just a little bit. And he's young. He's just like soda. He's got juice. He's got a cannon or an arm, one of the best, probably the best arm in the big leagues in the shortstop position.

He's an unbelievable talent. Runs the bases really well, fast. He's a pretty special kid. You go from the oldest to one of the youngest, right? What's that? Oldest average team to, I think Padres are one of the youngest teams in baseball. Yeah, pretty much. I know I'm the second oldest guy on the team.

This is kind of weird. Craig Stammon has me by a year or two. So that's, but yeah, I guess we are pretty well. Give us. I got to ask this because, you know, I get a lot of, like, My knowledge from Phil Hughes and whose cards he's trying to keep. So he loves Fernando Tatis. Yes.

He just bought a card the other day and he told me how much he paid for it. I won't air it because he doesn't want me to. It's a lot for a baseball card. You told me last night. Oh, I know. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Sorry, Phil.

Um, I'm a secret keeper. But, I mean, so you got Soto and Tatis. These are like the guys. Yeah. card collectors and also for baseball fans in general, the young guys who were like kind of the next wave or like the next faces of the games. So you've got to play with both of them. Who you got? I think overall, I think Tatis throughout his career, he's going to be more probably impactful.

And then that's kind of tough for me to say. I mean, it's got to be really good because I played the whole season with Soto and I haven't played yet. in side spring training with Tautis but he just from the shorts I really love short stops that can play every day and still drop

I mean he dropped like 23 homers last year and like 300 and something in bats unbelievable defense I think he'll be a 30 30 guy easy and doing that at the shortstop position is kind of it puts it above for me okay who who from the Padres

because I think you start looking at this Padres lineup and they were they're an up-and-coming team. You know, we've heard about the farm system for a few years, and now the dudes are there. I mean, Tatees, we mentioned him. They signed Machado. A guy like Tommy Fams come over.

That's someone who baseball players know. On the pitching staff, I feel that's where it's a lot of young dudes with crazy talent. I don't know if you took live BP against any of them or who's the guy that you walk past the clubhouse and you're like, that's a horse. Like who's, who from that young pitching staff are the dudes that people in baseball need to know? Well, I mean, you saw what Paddock can do last year. He's a front line guy. He's really good.

I face this guy, Lamette, twice in BP, live BP. I played behind him twice. And I'm telling you, this guy's, from the swings and misses, I know it's free. Hitters are a little bit behind and everything, but this guy's stuff is sick. I mean, he just sits 97, 98 with a sliders like 88 to 92, a great change up. I mean, it just, he's got really good stuff and he controls it.

It's not like hair just throw it across the middle of the plate and he controls it. I didn't really know much about him coming in and then throughout the spring people saying and doing my homework and all this stuff on the guy. I think he's the guy to watch. All right, job down. This was your first spring in Arizona. Is that correct? First one, yeah.

Did you enjoy it more? We always hear it's better because everything's closer and all that. I'm going to be honest with you. I've heard in my whole career how much Arizona is better. I'm not buying it. Wow. The twins have a pretty nice setup. We were there.

I felt the same way. Yeah. And I think it's just, in Fort Myers was great. Everyone doesn't like the traveling, but I feel like when you get a little older and stuff, You don't ever travel. I mean, might every now and then in Florida.

So when you stay back, you have pretty much an off day. You just take BP if you want some grounders or whatever and you get out. You're back by like 11, 12 of the latest. Here there's no, I mean, Arizona, there's no off days. Everyone always practice until right up to game time. And it's kind of, it gets kind of draining. And then, you know, there's nicer restaurants and stuff, probably, but it's, I think golf's better in Florida.

I don't know. I just, my wife and I feel the same. We think Florida's better. I think Trev was saying the same thing about off days. We did a whole episode on spring training that. And didn't you say the same thing, Trev, that Florida, you get those off days if you don't travel, so it's actually better?

Yeah, that's exactly what I said. It's, like, Joe's was talking about in Arizona. You're all together every day, so you're doing the PFP, so you're going through BEP, you're doing anything, all the extra work. every single day. And like he's saying, in Florida, when you have that off day, you know, you're going to have the off day.

So you can, you know, if you want to get a little salty the night before and have some drinks, you know, you're showing up, you're just going to get a little bit of work. And then you're back. You can go golfing, go fishing. Not a lot of fishing in Arizona, which, you know, that's a big plus for Florida as well because every single place has a pond. And you just got to throw the watermelon lizard right in there,

jerks some lips. But I was, I felt the same way, you know, like everyone always says Arizona. Arizona, Arizona, Arizona, Arizona, but we have a pretty good place in Florida, so I think that has something to do with it as well. Right. I love when Trevor gets his fishing content in, because he likes to remind us that he's not just a straight L.A. Cali Boy that he can cast him wine. And he did, he threw on his St. Patty's Camel for you because he said you're a hunter, right? I am a hunter, yes. Okay. What are we hunting?

We hunt a lot of ducks and deer. Okay. Pretty much anything, but ducks and deer's kind of... You can't go right now, right? Like, it's not hunting season. It's not hunting, it's not. Nothing. You're turkey hunting.

So once I can, my wife will let me get out of the house, at least just go in the woods. I'll do some, I'll do some turkey hunting. Is that all year long? Is there anything you can hunt all year? No, nothing. Everything has a season. they put those in just to kind of regulate everyone killing a bunch of animals. I feel like quarantine life is just no rules.

You can go hunt if you need to. Yeah, survive. It's to survive, yeah. That is true. Dragging a deer. Feed in the family. Feed the family. I go out and take care of some business, come back with a deer.

Stay away from the markets, baby. You have any hunting buddies in baseball? like any teammates that would go out with you? You know, Josh Willingham, we used to go a lot when we were in Minnesota together. We had this guy that would let us deer hunt his property and turkey hunt. That's where I killed a turkey actually with Josh. There's a lot of Gordon Beckham's another one, which he got released just right before we came back with the Padres. But we him and I have never been together, but we talk a lot of hunting.

together. We're going to try to do with that. Keep it on. Yeah, so it's always just a good thing, especially in the all season, just to kind of get away. I'm not even mad at them anymore as far as deer or dugs. I just go to kind of drink some bourbon around the campfire

and hang out and stuff. I've had your venison before. You cooked it for us in spring training. It's pretty good. Yeah, like the sloz. I grew up eating, but put some jalapenos and some cheese in there, and we were rocking in a while. We got a bunch of my crew.

I'll send some out. I'll send some out too. I got to ask about the 2017 wildcard game. I don't know if you know where you're a Hadesk's fan, but you let off that game with a home run. Is that one of the wildest first innings of baseball you've been part of?

And then also how'd that lead off home run and do or die game feel? It's unbelievable. You know, I actually had like, leading up to that, how cool it would be to, like, lead off the game with the home run. Sure enough, it happened. I've never seen a stadium become so loud, to become so quiet, and then back being the loudest I've ever heard in the span of 20 minutes.

I mean, because after we put up three in the first inning, you could hear a pin drop, and then D.D. comes back in the bottom of the first and hits the three-run homer, and that's the loudest stadium I've heard to the day and probably one of the best atmospheres too. Yeah, it was a true zoo back in that playoff run for the Yankees. That DD Home Run was insane. Yeah, oh, yeah. That whole first thing.

Irvin couldn't find the strike zone, and we played bad defense behind them. We couldn't hit it, and they ran off. Do you haven't been in the one-game playoff? I know there's been some talk about it trying to expand that, And it's, it's from a fan's perspective, it's incredible. If you're not rooting for one of the two teams in it. Yeah.

But it's also, I mean, it really doesn't make sense because we play 162 to bring it to one game, where if someone has a bad day, like you said, like, oh, Irvin couldn't find the zone. There goes our season. You know, are you a fan of going three-game wild card or something like that? Yeah, I think three-game sets are better. just the overall picture, because that's what we play the whole year and why just never play one game. Do a three set or a game set.

Whether it's the wild card, or whether you have to do even the, even like the division series or something, if you want to put more three games for the wild card or something, three game sets are great. Nothing should be decided, in my opinion, of one game because it's just not really baseball. I mean, bringing up the seven,

team wildcard game. I mean, you saw, I mean, they started, what's his face? What was the guy? Severino. Yeah, Sabarino. What's his face? He threw a third of an inning. Yeah.

He comes in at those two innings. The Tompitz comes in at those two winnings. Robertson throws two winning and then Chapman. So it's like, I get it's all hands on deck, but I think it's a better way of doing it to kind of actually have starters throw in. you know, doing my wall. Yeah, because it's a whole different brand of baseball from everything else. Right.

And you were part of another wild card, I mean, this past season, where you guys. Oh, my gosh. Now another crazy game with a wild ending and then you take that and go all the way on. I mean, was that game the similar vibe? Because Nationals fans, let me tell you this, I appreciate, I'm not trying to be mean, but they get down in the dumps quicker than any other fan base I've seen.

When you guys are down in that Nationals game, they were like crying. the stance. Yeah, it was bad. It was. You know, they were pumped at the beginning and then I think we got behind three to one. I think that's what it was. And then I don't know if they knew Hater was coming in and he was been lights out or

I don't know, but it was. And then obviously talking about Juan Soto battling Hater, which is pretty special. And then, you know, we got lucky with the Wrightfielder, making a mistake and being able to score a few runs. But Soto, man, lefty, righty, whatever it is. That was a crazy at bat that he put together right there. Well, that at bat is the age-old question. You got a high fastball hitter and a high fastball thrower,

and it's my pitch versus your swing and they match up. It's like should Hater have gotten something different? Or that's kind of like that steps in. And anyone who knows those behind the scenes facts are like, oh, shit, here we go. right yeah so do so does low ball hitter to me too

and I mean he can hit everything yeah when he comes up it's like you know certain guys are like okay like I like like I like him in this situation I think we got a chance and obviously he's like one of those guys 99% of the time but when he's walking up against a lefty like that

that strikes everybody out it's like are you that confident in Soto and then he puts that at bat together and it's like forever, you're just going to say, if so does up, we've got a chance. If so does up, you've got a chance. I mean, but I don't even, I think, from what I remember, the middle of the summer,

they were talking about how he hits lefties better than righties. I don't know any stats on that or anything, but it always seemed like he raked lefties. But one thing with me, man, you know, when you see a young guy getting on base at over a 40% clip throughout the whole year, I mean, the guy, I don't know, his eyes at several is pretty special. That's kind of what I think, when I think about him hitting.

It's like his ability to control the strike zone at a young age because that's like, that's the hardest thing to do when you're young is you get up there, guys want to want you to expand the zone. You do and you have to be able to like rein that in. But him, it's like he's got that already. And I don't know like what he did when he was younger to hone that skill. But like he should let that out of the bag and tell everybody because it's, It's incredible.

Pretty good. Yeah, he's a little, he's 97 OPS versus right. He's 849 versus lefties, but still, again, at where he's at in his career. I mean, that's silly. Both good. I want to clear the air for Doge because a lot of Yankees fans listen to this part. There we go. And so, when you not knowing who Severino is, they're probably going to be, like, mad.

It was his rookie season. It was a rookie season. Yeah, yeah. I'm just saying it's not far-fetched for Doze because I have a funny story about Doge's baseball knowledge. We were on the bus. Hey, hold on. Before he tells this,

I grew up only knowing the Atlanta Braves. Like, I couldn't tell you anything else. You will never get an argument of us because we grew up only knowing the Yankees. And now we're doing all these videos. We're watching the 1970s World Series. series and everyone in the comments is like how do you not know who random dodger from the 70s you don't know Steve Garvey and it's like sorry he played before I was alive so we're with

okay I'm glad I was preface too go ahead Treve and it was my rookie year and I didn't know much this is a major league baseball player right you know this is this profession and we're on the bus and somehow it kind of gets brought up that you know Brian's like knowledge of like teams and stuff isn't great. So I don't know who was on the mic, but we start, we bring, bring Doge up and start going over teams. We're like, Doge, right, let's name the divisions. Like, who's in, who's in this division? And so the Astros get brought up. And he's like, kind of sitting. And they like, come on, man. Like, they just recently moved into this division. They were in the NL before. Tric question. Yeah. He's like, I don't know. Yeah. Were they like in the AAL South or

something? And we're like, no, that's, that's, that's not a division. If it was a division, they would be in there. Yeah. Yeah. If that existed, they would be in there. So I'm with it. Oh, that's so fun.

I'm not about that. Thank you, Treff. Yeah, that's fun. Thank you for the, we're not going to hold it against. Yeah, we, we, I mean, we're deep into this internet world now. And it's, it's so brutal because I mean, coming up now, especially like with the AAU generation and all that, like, if you play baseball, you don't really have

time to watch baseball. So, I mean, there's a lot of dudes nowadays. Now, I'm actually glad guys are being more open about it. When we talked to Flaherty the other day, I was like, because I just know being in St. Louis and being a pitcher, like, they start asking him questions about Bob Gibson. And I was like, what's your answer? And he said, yeah, I tell him I see the highlights, but I don't know Bob Gibson, you know? I never watched a Bob Gibson game. So I think you're good there. And I think you, I was going to, God, I'm just so good at Segways now that I keep saying. saying segways. When you're in free agency this year,

and you and Bob Gibson get brought up a lot because were you telling teams that you could throw the pill a little bit? That I could what? That you could throw the pill a little bit because you got on the mound last year, right? Negatives. I did get on the mound, but I cannot throw the pill.

What was it like? Were you asking for that, or how'd that go down? I think it's a dream for any position player to be able to get on the room, right? And you just never know that it's ever going to happen. And so Davey, we're getting murdered by the Diamondbacks,

and Parra comes up and walks four straight guys. He's trying to throw a 90 and whatever, walks four straight guys. And Davey's in the dugout. We look at each other and he's like, hey, and I'm like, hell yeah, I'm good for sure. And so he can, comes to the mound. He's like, Paul, that's enough. And he's like, anybody want to pitch? And then

Rendon was like, yeah. And I was like, no, no, no, no. I'm the oldest guy here. You're not asking. I'm getting on the mound. He's like, all right, let's go. And I think the first guy I gave up an infield single pop up. And sure enough, one of my best friends in the game, Eduardo Escobar, comes up. He's laughing. And it's a lot of. He's laughing. such a cool photo. I got to get it framed and putting in my house of a shot of me. Actually, when I'm releasing the ball, I'm laughing.

He's got a smile face as the ball's coming. And Kurt Suzuki, who is also our teammate in Minnesota, he's laughing through his mask like this. It's an amazing picture all captioned in one frame and then he hits a freaking 400 foot

homer off of me. And the funny thing is you got to know at wardo he's very like appreciative and like he can get serious sometimes and even though he's kind of funny and really funny uh he was cooking for me a rapist that night so he go over to his house every five minutes he's like my brother seriously man thank you thank you for i needed home run like the whole time every five i thank you my brother thank you man and i'm like okay yes he did you mess around with uh a second pitch. Yeah, what's your pitch mix?

No, so the first pitch I grouped one is high for a ball. And I was like, I've got to, I want to throw my knuckle ball or a curveball or something. I was like, let me just get one strike on him because I did not want to walk him or get two o and then have to. So I was like, let me just,

so I tried to pump it up just a little bit, just hoping he would take his middle end, right in his wheelhouse. I didn't even look. I knew it was a homeowner. He's looking at me. You end up. getting outs eventually or did you yeah i got three outs there you got um yeah but he cleared the

basis i think it's a three-run pump so yeah on the on the whole run did you throw your hand up like who's got it fly ball fly ball yeah yeah no it is go get it's great that's crazy that's crazy yeah so good experience it's funny you got to get all the positions happen and be eskabar is is like the funniest thing. Like your guy's relationship and then for like Kurt to be back to everything to come full circle was hilarious. I mean, I remember watching it being like this is

you can't script something like this. I know. He went way back on you. He wasn't like that. Well, you know how he does? Before he touches home plate, you know, he does his little clap. Yeah.

And Suzuki is standing. I don't know if you saw it, but when he's coming home to home play, Suzuki's standing on home plate going, and so he was like he didn't want he said after he didn't want to show me up i'm like dude i was yelling at him around the basis and he's like i'm sorry i showed you up and i'm like what no i love it the fact the fact he cooked you dinner later that night is i mean that's as good as he gets that's baseball his wife did yeah counts yeah all in the family all in the family

A rape us, too, obviously. I don't know. You got anything for us, Doge? You got anything for Plouf? You want to throw him under the bus real quick? Like he did tell him that story about you, or what? I don't have much of Plu. Ploom is like a, just a Cali, good-looking guy.

Not many faults. He's very knowledgeable about the game of baseball. I'm like myself. That's the first compliment I've ever gotten from Doge. That's really nice. Definitely out-kicked his. covers with his wife. She's an angel. I tell everyone that.

No, I don't have too much on push. Thanks, man. Thanks for sitting down and joining us. We're good. Get bring baseball back. If you could do that. Oh, yeah, let's do that. What's your prediction? Give me your prediction at when we're going to be back. Is this for media purposes or do you be honest with you get? We'll do the honest.

Everyone's being honest. I'm always honest. I personally don't think. a part of me says we don't play baseball this year and the other part says there's going to be like just something at the very end with like a month of baseball, three doubleheaders a week, expanded rosters, try to get in as much as possible

and then have it like a shortened playoff or a longer playoff and more teams make something condensed within a month if it even happens. That's what I personally think. I keep training as if we're going to start, you know, month, but I don't know. I think it's two scenarios of a matter that we're going to, it's not looking good. Yeah, the reports that were coming out today from Jeff Passan are talking about, or is it

passing or Passing or something. He said they're still trying to get 162 games in. They want to play two doubleheaders a week. I'm like, players are not going to want to play two double headers a week unless you expand the rosters 27, 28 guys because you can't, I mean, you literally can't do that. Even then, the math doesn't add up what he said. Because they said they were going to start mid-June and do 162, and it just doesn't add up.

I'm going to stick by my guns. I'm going to say July, right around the All-Star break. That's what I think. They're going to try to get 100 games in, if they can. And the playoffs, we push back a little bit, and there'll be a neutral site for a lot of the games because it'll be freaking cold everywhere. So that's kind of where I'm at with it.

I mean, our union is so good and stuff, and I know they're trying to hammer out. stuff with service time and salaries and that's a whole different thing especially our CBA and then this year so that's another whole thing that it's not getting brought up that much so it's it's bad timing for all this but we'll see gas on the fire all right man thanks for thanks for awesome man thank you all right guys I appreciate it do you good all right you guys peace up thank you thank you