Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 127 | Catcher Drew Butera was Born to Pitch

Episode Date: April 6, 2020

Drew Butera talked with the guys about his time as a roommate with Plouffe, catching the last out of the World Series, and working through quarantine boredom. 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 For Us, By Us. Drew Bue, Drew Buterra. How you doing, Drew? I'm good. I'm doing well. I'm a little stir crazy from this quarantine stuff, but I'm doing all right. Yeah, you just heard that me and Jimmy are in New York, so that's pretty much a nightmare. Where are you at? I am in sunny Orlando, Florida, so I got the pool. At least I can go outside. You guys are stuck indoors, but I can go outside. I go for a walk or something like that. Yeah. Get some fresh. Yesterday I walked down to the lobby to get my package, and then I jogged up the foreflight of stairs, and I was like, okay, good.

I did something today. Good for you. And that was all of it. That's nice. I have a fun fact. Were you winded? No, it was good. I almost thought about like maybe I'll just jog all the way up to the 10th floor,

and that'll be like much better. And I was like, no fucking way. I'm not doing that. A little fun fact for everyone right away. we have two sets of New Britain, Connecticut roommates. Jake and I were roommates in New Britain, and you two were roommates in New Britain. So I think we only missed each other by a year or so.

But Treve was telling me about your guys' time there. And Treva Paluza? Plufa Pluza? Yeah, I don't wonder if it was Clufa Pluza or Trevapalooza. I think I still have one of our flyers. If you were around the Greater New Britain area in 2008, You probably got a Trevor Poulouse a flyer because we were handing them out. I tell you what, I guarantee you they didn't have the beach.

No, yeah. I was trying to tell Jim about that a little bit. So Drew and I, we roomed with two other guys. We had four people in like a four-bedroom house, I think it was. There was it five people. I think it was five because I think someone was like upstairs. Yeah, we went to the house, five of us in it. And we kind of like drew straws and there was two rooms in the basement.

and this was like a basement basement it wasn't like a finished nice basement so nobody wanted those rooms uh drew and i ended up like getting those rooms through this like random drawing whatever so we were kind of like pissed at first uh but in the end we we totally won the whole thing because our place didn't have air conditioning and i didn't know this because there's no basements in California but if you're in the basement you know underground it's much much cooler so the guys were dying with all like the nice rooms and drew and i had it like made in the shade down there. It was pretty good. Was it like open cement pillars?

And we went to the dollar store and got like these things you get like a mural you can hang from the wall and like blow up flamingos and like a little kitty pool and like a palm tree. We turned it into it called it the beach. It was so grimy. We needed to like lift it up like a facelift. So we went to the dollar show like you said and just bought some like inflatable alligators and stupid stuff. We had some good times. We did. Oh, we did.

How old were you guys? So you guys go way back then? Yeah, that was what? 2007? I was 22. Eight? Yeah, I was 22. Drew's a little older than me.

I'm old. I'm old as dirt. Got that nice hair, though. Still going. Yeah, I got good genes. I don't look like I'm 36, but unfortunately, I You don't look like you're 36. That's ridiculous.

If I shave all like the facial hair, I could still get carded at like 18-up movies. I'm afraid it are. Hey, join the club, bro. That's what I was going to say. I don't think you guys saw me around. I think when you guys were in New Britain, I was probably 18, 19, and I looked like I was 12 then. So you would not have gotten into our party. No, no, no, no.

I was out the door. I was wearing generic polo with like the plaid. shorts it was a bad time for me um but enough about me guys um drew what's uh what's good i mean the where we've kind of been starting with these things it like it half sucks we have to but how are you how are you doing with all this i mean are you are you are you still working out are you like what what are you you binge your netflix where do you up to uh yeah i'm i'm i'm slowly getting into more Netflix and Hulu shows. Tiger King right now has me hooked.

Oh, yeah. I've heard that's crazy, but yeah, I'm still able to work out. The gym and, like, the Hibb is connected in one, and they are closed officially, but they still kind of let me go in there and work out and do some stuff. And it makes it easier, too, like the weather here in Florida is pretty nice. So I can still go outside, go for a run, do some stuff in the backyard, a little home prison workout type thing.

so we're still getting it in but i'd say from like 12 o'clock on it's just kind of like when i'm like pulling my hair out trying to find something to do crazy yeah how if you followed drew on instagram you could see kind of what he's doing through his day i think uh right away you did some landscaping if i remember that yeah i you know what i i jumped the gun too quick i was you know we got home and i was like i hated the bushes out right beside my pool i was like let's do it instead of like slowly dragging out into like a three-day process i just went gung-ho from like the morning did all on one day i was like great that's done it took up a day what now yeah what now yeah you got go start doing everything very slow you know like just one task a day kind of just make it all last

what how long did you i got have a lot but i just can't like like i want to put like a little chipping and putting green in my backyard but then i'm like well yes if i do it myself i'm probably going to completely mess up my backyard. And then I was like, well, what if we do, like, I can build a cage? And then I was like, well, I'll probably won't build a net right and wind up, you know, line drive a ball into my neighbor's window. So, like, I have a lot of ideas. I just can't.

I never fall through with them. That's good content, man. Yeah, I mean, I should film it and see what goes from there, maybe makes some good TV. Yeah, you'd be like the next Tiger King. I don't know if I'd go that far. Is he not in Florida? Yeah. He's in jail, didn't he?

I don't know. No, he was in. He was in Oklahoma, right? Or no, Oklahoma. Oklahoma. Oh, man. One of them's in Florida. One of them has got to be in Farrell.

Carol. Carol. Yeah, Carol. I think that you would be a great Tiger King for Halloween. I know that's going to be a big costume, but I could see you pulling it off and, like, being able to kind of rock that. Worth, expense and the time and effort to go into it, though. I think that would be a big hit.

Yeah, what? That is going to be a huge costume. You're right, Treve. Yeah. It is. So how long did it? take you to leave spring training, Drew? Because you were down in Arizona, lighten it up.

Yeah. And then what was the whole process there with the team and how did guys leave right away? Did you hang around and then we're like, all right, shit, I got to go? Yeah, we hung around a bit. We found out, I think it was like a Thursday, like Wednesday or Thursday. Our game was canceled because of rain. We had like this little window to do some stuff on the field.

So we were taking BP. And it's actually in my group when we found out. that spring training was being banged and that we were going to, you know, postpone the season. And so we kind of all just, like, took it in from there. It was like, kind of, you know, we was like, okay, game's over. Let's, you know, grab our bat and go home. And then we had a few meetings over the next couple of days. So we hung out for probably, I don't want to say, like, four days.

And the general consensus was, like, the complex, but it'll be, like, super limited food. there'd be like no clubhouse or anything like that. It would just be like come in. You could do work at a limited time. Like pitchers would be at one time, position players would be at another. And so through talking with a bunch of guys, a lot of guys like, I'm going home.

You know, I can, you know, stay ready there. There's a lot more things that I could. Like we wouldn't be able to use the wait room. So, you know, instead of paying, you know, like $1,000 a week to rent a place, I was like, I can go home, you know, have everything at the comfort of like, you know, my own house,

gym, you know, hit at the facility that I'm going on. So I feel like I can get more done here than I would if I stayed in Arizona. Now, as much as I'd like to ask more questions about Trevor Paloosa in that basement in New Britain, we do keep at baseball here a little bit, like 20% of the time. And my favorite thing I've been asking dudes is that, like at Rocky's camp this year. And maybe it's a pitcher, because you're probably catching some of the newer guys or who stood out at camp? Dude, if you were coming on a baseball podcast at Rocky's camp this year, that you'd be like, man, I got to mention this dude

because he's special or he's different or he stood out for some reason. You know, we had a few guys kind of come into that position where it's like they don't, you know, not a lot of people know about them or they're coming up through the minor leagues. To me, one of like those guys would be Yonufant Daza. He's an outfielder. and the guy is a hit machine man like i think last year he hit like 380 and triple a and then uh kind of through some you know mental of bats kind of playing here and there he started to like get his feel

in september and up in the big leagues in colorado and um it over in the spring i think the guy was sitting you know well over 300 but everything he hits is hard you know even his outs he'll put together a good at bat he may not hit for a lot of power but you know he's going to get on base because he doesn't mind, you know, hitting 01 or O2, makes contact, runs well. And to me, he plays a really good center field. So he's a guy that I'd be like, you know, watch out for. He's giving me a stud. I love centerfielders. I love, I love middle of the diamond guys. I love catchers. I love short stops and I love center fielders. I think one of the things that I like about him the most is he like has a passion for the game.

like he's not a guy that comes in, you know, 10 minutes before stretch and then leaves right to the game over me. He's one of the first ones there. He loves hanging out. He loves asking questions. He loves just being around baseball. And, you know, I'll go through a whole day's workout. You know, I've always been one of those guys that, like, you know, comes early, stays late. And I'm showering and he's still in his uniform because he's, you know, dry swinging by his locker just because he loves it. So that's one of the, he's got a real passion for the game. And I like that. The dry swings by the locker. That will get me every time.

Oh, the Matt Tolver is special. No, it's good to hear. I love, when you hear young guys doing that, it automatically sets them apart in my mind because that is what it takes to stay at the level, to be able to make the adjustments. You have to put the work in, especially when you're young.

And a lot of guys will come up, go through their minor leagues, and not necessarily develop a routine like that. Then they get to the big leagues and have to try to find one. But if this guy's already doing that, you know, I think that's a great call. golf or a breakout kind of guy.

For sure. I got to ask this. You are making SportsCenter. There's no highlights, no nothing, but Drew Bitterra still finds a way to get on SportsCenter. Yeah, yeah. So you posted a video. You're doing your backyard workouts, like you said.

And I saw you doing this with your dad during the off season, I believe. You got a jugs machine and you're just shooting balls. and you're working on your receiving. And because of the quarantine, instead of having your dad do it, who's the next big. Sal do it, you got the wife out there. And you got her working. You put her to work.

Quarantine is not chill time for her. It's get to work. Let's get, let's get me back on this defensive prowess thing. Yeah, I said, let's go. She was laying by the pole. I said, babe, enough. Like, no more. Like, you got enough, son.

You got enough vitamin D. It's time to work, right? Let's go. Let's get to work. Yeah. You know what? I guess. I actually posted it a few times in the off season.

It was a funny story because, well, funny for me because I think if you know my dad, he's a type of guy that like lives, eat, sleeps, baseball. And you literally can be talking about, you know, popcorn and somehow he'll, like, find a way to, like, correlate it to baseball. But he called me up one day and he was like, hey, when's the machine coming? And I was like, oh, literally just, you know, just got here. I'm like, all right, cool. Yeah, come on over, I guess.

For sure. sell yeah and so we did it a few times and like I just had it on my nest camera from a some you know the people who knew my dad were like oh my god this is hilarious and then I had Hillary do it my wife and um the Rocky sent me up was like hey this is great content can we have the video I was like yeah sure it didn't even think of it they put it out there and then the ESPN got it and I didn't even see it all of her friends like that you know their husbands or that they were watching ESPN uh they I guess saw it on TV they rewind it, set her the video of it, and then I want to make, like, a little video where, like,

put it up somewhere, like, you're famous. You're on ESPN more times than me. So when, you know, there's that, there's that lyric, like, you, you wasn't with me shooting in the gym? She was. It's not true. She was with you shooting in the gym, bro. She should never say that to her. And she's, like, she's, she's had it, like, rough, too, because a few times last off season, and my parents would go visit my sister. And so I'd want somebody to feed the machine in the cage. So I had her feed the machine. And I've like, I've hit some balls off the net that, like,

I've come really close to hitting her. So she keeps coming back. I don't know. Is she offering any criticism or compliments? Is she critiquing it anyway? She, she's tough. She's tough. If I'm, like, if I'm frustrated with something, I'm swinging,

she'd be like, let's go. Get your head out of your ass. Come on. Like, what are you doing? She's tough. She knows it's a mental thing. Yeah, for sure. All right, they call me King of a Segway.

Can I segue right here? Yeah, go ahead. Always. I don't know if anybody calls me that, but I'm going to do a great segue. Sure. So you got this video, and what you're doing is you're working on your receiving. And we've talked about this a little bit on the pod. Guys are doing things a lot differently these days.

Whether it be they want to increase their defensive statistics, their frame rate, whatever it is. I think this is kind of like a trick the empire thing. But it's the get really low, start with the glove down and kind of work your way up, Jill. You see it all throughout baseball. Guys are getting on the one knee, putting the leg that you've been working on.

Can you kind of like talk to us why guys are doing that and can you kind of like say how it's going? Because I'm very curious about this. So the idea behind to kind of make the appearance of the ball being a strike when it's not. And I guess through trial and error, the process of doing that the most is working from the bottom up because, you know, the pitcher is thrown a ball downhill or a breaker ball is going down. And you want to work underneath the ball to make it go higher in the strike zone so that the borderline pitches make it look like it look like. they're in the middle of strike zone. I think the one knee thing came about

because guys might have a harder time getting a target lower or getting their mobility to get closer to the ground so that they can work up as opposed to starting up. If your gloves, like, say, in the middle of the strike zone, it gives the illusion that you're moving the ball. So you kind of want to trick the umpire to seeing it just one motion that you're going to catch the ball,

but in reality, you're moving it back to them in the middle of the plate. everybody has their own style everybody has their own like little tricks of the trade to to make it work some guys teach it with like your thumb always being down some guys teach it with your elbow being you know above the ball so you kind of want to make it like your thumb is the highway so like if you think like this is always the north-south of it like you're going to catch the ball so it's like going up and your thumb is always up and down so that gives the appearance of like your your glove is always always on the same plane and is always in the middle of the zone.

I don't mind the one knee. I know some people talk about one knee with men on base. I'm like, I'm old school. Like, I have way too much pride to let a ball get by me or let somebody steal because I'm on one knee. Like, I have way too much pride to let that happen. So, do battles with some people about it. And some guys, if they can do it, great, you know, good for them.

But somebody, you know, for me, the way I think of it is if, okay, we're, it's a seventh inning, we're down, you know, one or two runs, and there's a man on first base, and a ball gets by me, and the next guy gets the base hit, you know, that's a run. That's something that is going to, you know, put their team either ahead, tie, or even closer to beating us. And for me, I'd rather, you know, maybe take away a strike and throw a guy out or block a ball and not have that run scored on a base hit and let somebody, you know, have an easy, you know, easy run.

Yeah, I'm fascinated by all this stuff with the catching stuff. And we talked with Tanner Swanson a little bit. He was a twins catching coach. And he's a big advocate of the, you know, starting from the ground and going up. But when we talked with the Yankees catcher, backup catcher, Higashioka, and he was like, eh, I'm not into that. I'm like, I'm doing my own thing. So it's funny when these new philosophies come out.

Like, you've been in the league a while and you have your stance. Do you, do you search out new techniques or do you kind of like, oh shit what's this about is it is it something that you're eager to to learn about a new technique or or is it just kind of weird well i think like as my career has evolved like i was never taught you know to move the pitch i was taught to catch it with nice soft hands and and and if i moved the ball that was in the league my first came in the league if i moved the ball that was in the indication the ball was not in the strike zone so i was always taught to like have nice soft like quiet hands and that way an umpire would have more opportunities to see the pitch where it was and to call

strikes. And then as it's evolved to where, you know, now moving the ball is almost the norm. So at first I was kind of against it, but I was like if I want to, you know, stay in the big leagues and have a longer career I need to adjust and to learn this. So it is. It's definitely something that I reached out to watch a lot of video guys that have success with it. He was the one that advocated the thumb, like the highway type thing. And then for me, my numbers were always better with a man in scoring position. So I try to like tinkered my stance to where I felt like I was in a secondary stance with somebody on base, but felt comfortable enough to where I wouldn't like wear out my legs

by the second inning. When you say your numbers were better, what numbers are you looking at? Like, because defensive metrics are so all over. And I don't even know which ones I like or dislike. especially catching metrics catching metrics to me are out there's too many variables and you can talk about it true i'm sorry i feel very strongly about this no i'm i'm with you i think it's a flawed stat personally like the the whole pitch framing numbers because there's three variables in it that we can't control you have an umpire calling ball the strives throwing a ball and you have a hitter trying to hit it

so there's three things i'd get in your way of you know it'd be one thing if it was just like okay were firing a ball from a machine and, you know, it's going to be in the same exact spot almost every time. But if I'm catching a guy like, you know, Mark Burley or Granky or Kirchow who are throwing the ball exactly where they wanted just about, you know, all the time, my numbers are going to be through the roof where I might catch a young rookie who's throwing 98 miles an hour, but has no idea where it's going. And then if I catch an umpire on a bad day, I might do everything correctly. You know, I caught the pitch the perfect way and I framed it, you know, perfectly. But, you know, whatever, he had a long fight the night before, and he called it a ball.

Like, that's, for me, that's negative numbers. So, so I got off the topic a little bit, but my numbers, meaning, like, my pitch framing numbers were better for when somebody was on second base or, like, on first base or third base, than they were when nobody was on it. Because I have a different stance. emulate my secondary stance to my, like, primary one with, you know, just kind of like a primary one with, you know, just kind of like a number of. normal, comfortable, relaxed position. How are pitchers responding to that? Because I know guys like to throw it a certain, everybody knows, guys like to throw to certain catchers.

There's just a feel that you can have with a pitcher. And I know from playing with you and talking to guys about you that guys love to throw to you because you receive the ball so well. Maybe it's because you've always wanted to receive it soft like that. But, you know, you've always had a good rapport with pitchers. now with this starting to kind of be the norm, are pitchers kind of talking to you guys about it, or is it like, hey, like, just give me any strike that you can,

do whatever you got to do to get me those strikes. It seems to me like that's a little strange to be looking at guys to have their glove on the ground, but maybe pitchers don't care about that. Yeah, I think it's an individual basis. I think for me, I try to always have that conversation with them beforehand saying, hey, this is what I'm doing. don't try to help you if you don't like it I'm fine with going to like tell me what you want and I've had to guys say hey you know I don't want I don't want that glove movement I need a solid target like give me um you know a glove in this position or I need your body in this position and I'm okay with that I'd rather have them um tell me what they want and they can execute a pitch whereas they're like if they don't tell me and they don't like sorry if I'm doing something that they don't like you know that's just another thing that's in their mind to where

where they may be a rather the show. There's guys that don't mind if they say, yeah, I don't care if you set up late, if you set up early, if you do jumping jacks, well, I'm throwing a pitch. Some guys like a nice,

quiet still target. How's, uh, in this, go ahead, Jake. Well, we might,

we might be dancing around one of baseball's hot button issues, and I know clickbait plooke loves that shit. Do you, do you believe in Roe? Do you want to see? that or do you feel like it's it's part of change like is is salbuter going to come at my neck if i say we should have robo-a-omps or what's the deal yeah no he'll send somebody else to do it he won't come out you drag he'll get you in the barber shop oh um i'm i'm against robo-a-a-a-a-fus i am um

i think it takes away from the purity of the game i think that this has been going on for a long time. I think I even miss like I understand the instant replay gets to call right. I do. But what I miss the most is manager umpire arguments. Like I miss the ejection. I miss the hype. I miss, I love Lupinilla thrown hats and kicking dirt. That to me, that, that's good entertainment. And I feel like some fans like purists love that. They love coming to the game, hoping somebody might get thrown out. Like when, you know, Trevor and I play for twins, I love seeing Gardy get thrown out. And honestly, sometimes it's just to rally the squad. Sometimes it's like he'll hit his bench coach,

like watch this, I'm going to get thrown out, and he'll go out, it'll be nothing. It'll be like, you know, a guy was out by like 12 feet and he thought he was a close call. He went out and argued him and got thrown out just to rally us, and I miss that. Yeah, he was, I mean, Gardy's kind of like the guy for that. I think he led to league last year.

The latest guy. He's got a lot. We have a T-shirt. They put a T-shirt out one year. It was like a thousandth career win, I think, or something like that. And it said like a thousand, something wins, and then put the number of objections that he had. And it said, and counting.

I'm going to have to bring that shirt on. But Gardy was, he loved the thrill of it, too. Like, it wasn't just like the bench loved it. Like, he loved getting the crowd into it. He loves the pageantry of it. And I think you got to respect it. Yeah, he got tossed a lot. I respected it.

What's that? Does one stick out for you guys? Like, what's the guardy one if you guys are saying guardy at Jeffrey? There are so many. I was saying there are many. They kind of all do run into each other. I feel like I could do like an impression because I've seen it so many times. You know, he was a big, like, grab the hat guy.

You know, he would take his hat off, little small kicks of the dirt, kind of like head down. But then he wasn't afraid. And it's funny if you watch some of his objections, the umpires, like, they know what's coming. So, like, they're just like, all right, Gardy, like, I'll let you have your two or three minutes here. They're kind of just sit back. They don't say shit. And then Garty will kind of, I feel like will give them like a heads up, like, okay, like throw me out now.

And like whether that's like he finally says a curse word or like maybe gives me what it is, then you'd see him just toss him. He had a lot of them planned. It was, it was fun. There is one in particular They're playing And they were He had better days To put it that way

And he came out to the mound And he's like, I'm waiting until You know This guy comes out He's going to give him peace of his mind And I don't think Gardi was ready For what the Empire had to say

Because Gardi started getting into him Laying into him He was like, Gartie, I just suck today I got nothing. I'm sorry, I suck And Garthes, well, I came out here all this way to get thrown out, so you better throw my ass out. That's awesome.

Damn, that's awesome. Yeah, he's a good one, man. Yeah. Talking about, Sal, you're a second generation MLB player. Your dad was a catcher. Was that, like, did you ever fight that? Or you're like, I'm following dad's footsteps. I'm being an MLB catcher.

I mean, is that just from day one, the goal? So, no, I fought the good fight. I'm not becoming a catcher. Okay. I was a short stop. Like, like, you know, and I felt like I was really good. I good hands, good arm, but I lacked range. I could not, as the higher, you know, went on,

I could not get the many balls like T-Poof could. So I knew that after this time, was out. And then my dad never let me pitch, never won my arm to, for me to hurt my arm because that was my best tool. and then just kind of like putting two and two together like okay i have good feet good arm good hands um shortstop and catcher are very similar in that aspect that you need those tools to play and it was one of the fact that i could move just a foot instead of 15 feet to catch a ball so it was kind of an easy transition for me yeah you got a gun too 10 years in i think you made the right

choice i still think i could have been one hell of a pitcher well i mean you have a pretty good sample out there yeah here's a question segue king Hit the stat, Jim. Hit the stat. What do Marcel Ozuna, Martin Prado, Marwin Gonzalez, and Carlos Gonzalez all have in common? A strikeout. All have been struck and out by Drew Bue. Dude, one of your pitching appearances, you threw a 74-mile power pitch, an 84-mile power pitch, an 84-mile-power bridge, and a 94-mile bridge. And you got Vin Scully on the call.

You, like, you flabbergasted Scully. Yeah, I still have that video because. it was Vince Scully saying I got when I was walking off the mound I was like wow that was the brightest moment of today's game yeah yeah and so I still have that video I was like well that's something I have to say just for to say like here's this

legend Hall of Fame extraordinary like if you think of like broadcasting you think of Vince Scully and so for him to say that about me I was like you know I have to I have to get this on DVD I have to save it yeah you had like five appearances were you like a quick hand up

like, hey, if you're putting a position player and I want the mound? No, I think. So my very first one, I already said before, I was like, yeah, sure, I can pitch. You know, like, I'm not going to tell him no. So I actually warmed up in the tunnel. So it wasn't even in, I didn't get to throw in shoes with the tunnel that leads you out of the stadium because they don't have a batting cage for visiting team. So I warmed up in the tunnel in my socks, then put my shoes on, ran right out.

And after that, it was kind of like, if we ever got in that situation, they're like, hey, have you ever done it before? I was like, yeah, I was like, great. So you're in. I was like, oh, crap. And then I actually, my second appearance, or no, my third appearance was with the Dodgers. And I had a one, two, three inning. And that's when I struck out Marcelo Zuna. And they're like, damn, he threw so well.

I pitched two days later. I was like I told Donnie I said I don't think we need to make this a habit I guess that I had a one two three inning but that's your work man I always this is a topic that fascinates me because I'm I'm hoping Otani knocks down doors and that we have this future generation of kind of two-way guys and I think you're kind of speaking to it do you think if they let you kind of be a two-way player in the minor leagues? Do you think that could be, like that would have been part of the Drew Bue-Uterra story? No, I would have got rocked. The only, the only reason why I struck people out,

because no one knew I could throw hard. And then I'd be up there for two hitters, just laying it in at like 82, 83, maybe it makes it a change-up, and then I would just let one eat at 94. If I got the two strikes on somebody, I would let one eat. And so that's the only reason why. If I were a legitimate pitcher, I honestly feel like my numbers would not be very good because my ball is so straight, it would get hit a long, long way. I'm going to say this. I don't think that's right. I think that if you worked as a pitcher and you worked out as a pitcher, I think 94 is like you're sitting in like 97, 98, and if you learn some finger pressures, I mean, I think you could do it. You've got an absolute can it, dude.

And it's a clean throwing motion, so the ball's going to get on you. Have you done your spin rate? Do they do that for catchers? Yeah, so actually, no, they don't do it for catchers, but they were setting it up in Atlanta last year, and I was just messing around while they were getting it loose, and I was waiting for somebody, I think it was my sense to tell her, so I might throw a bullpen.

And so I had our bullpen catcher get down there, and I was like, I just want to see what my spin rate was. And I think with Schengarde's and Turf is like $2,300. That's like, it was like league average? Is that high? I think it's like maybe just a tick about, I think like 21 or 2200 is like league average, yeah.

Yeah, like 28's like an elite one. Yeah. I think you got, I think you totally got it. Yeah, man. Don't be humble on here, dude. Drew has one of those balls. Throw a ball like

a hour was the same way. Again, who have to get a stolen base attempt or a pick-off. The ball, looks like it's going to be down but stays up. So you really have to know these guys that have that have to prepare for that or else you're going to get hit right in the,

right in the palm instead of the glove or the netting. So I really, I believe in you. I believe in your arm, Drew. See, this is why if you were to ever ask me who my top five teammates were, deep blue is automatically a number. It was like my personal hype. No. Pumping that, baby.

Pumping that gas. There you go. No, to be like honestly, to be honest, like I'm not like when it comes like I'm modest but like I know I have like really good arm strength that's not like today like 97 is you know it's like you know dropping the bucket like everybody everybody's coming out of open everybody's throwing 97 so I'd have to come up with something really special so when when there's a speedster on and and you know he's trying to steal and you you know if fastball's coming is that like a big moment for you or you're like go motherfucker let's do it

Like, strong percent. 100 percent. I love that. I can't. If someone, if I know, you know what, it's like, I want,

I don't want, I don't want to throw out the guy that's like an average runner. I don't want to throw me out. I want to throw out, you know, the Dyson, the each row.

The guys are like, that steal tons of base, like Billy Hamilton. I want to throw them out because at the end of the day, it's like, yeah, that's right. You ain't got nothing.

What do you get? Like, who's your guys that you're like, at the end of the day, you'll be like, yep, got him, got him, Got him? I think, honestly, the only one I haven't gotten is Billy Hamilton. Okay.

I don't know. I don't know how many attempts he has with me or against me. But I know I don't think I've thrown him out. So I know I threw out, he threw out, throw out Dyson. Pretty sure I throw out of D. Gordon. Not bad list. Yeah. What about when a catcher steals on you?

Like I was going through it and you threw Russell Martin out at one point. Is that catcher on catcher crime? Are you like, what the fuck are you doing, man? Yeah. Honestly, especially if like they know that I can throw. Yeah. It's like, what are you thinking, man? And then honestly, if they get one on me, I mean, if I make a bad throw and get a really good jump, I'm like human.

Like I want to like, I want to go back in the nougat and do some shit up. Like do you want to. Do you want to grab a bag on him if you get the first thing? Because Pasada used to do that. where if a catcher stole on him, Pasada would then try to do like some weird delayed steel or steal. Is that part of you at all? Like, all right, I'm going to steal on you now.

So, okay, so even though I had two bags last year, I know my limitations. Two bags? Humble brags. It's not bad. Were they back-end bags or were like real bags? No, they were real bags, yeah. They were one was two count,

and then the only one was a one-o-count guy. I caught him sleeping. Wow. So you were the guy. You had him, yeah, exactly. But I know,

I know that I'm not a speed guy far from it. Yeah, we know that. Yeah, so if I, if I run and get thrown out, then it's like, dude,

what the hell are you doing? Like, well, okay, he stole it back on you, why are you trying to steal a bag on him? All right.

Have you ever, have you ever picked off anybody prominent that may be a friend of the pod? I'm not really sure. Well, I might say, way this into a video for you guys but I picked off a good friend Mike Muscox and I'm pretty sure up there

I'm pretty sure I had the best tag in the game at that time with T. Plouf right in the face we saw it we so we so we talked about that you know we brought it up and uh I got to be honest you I had forgotten about that it was 2011 so quite some time ago but Jim Jim sent me the video and and I'm sure we'll how the editor chop it up it up here all the time. It was basically like a pick your pants, you send me to signal back,

and then I would just vacate my position. Pray to God, he didn't hit me a ground ball there. And I'd run back to I'd run to the second bay and get your throw. We got Moose. I think it was the last game of the season. He was not like happy with it.

You know, he was. Well, you also smacked him right in the kisser. I did hit him in a face, but that's part of it, part of it. Part of the game. Sorry, Moose. Well, it was a tied, tied game, and he was the go-ahead run on second base. So how often do you call for that play, Drew? Like, the sleeper, make ploof run over.

Yeah, so when we were together, especially I think in 2009 in Rochester, I think we got like eight or nine guys. And I still call for, like, I still use, well, I'll give what I was here. I still use the pants. But then I'll have it's a shortstop. Honestly, like, I'm not just saying, like, Trev was always in the game. Like, he always wanted to pick. Like, I literally have to yell at somebody once a game, like, pay attention to me.

Like, you're giving away free outs. Like, you're giving away, you know, something that can help the team win. And, like, I never once had to, like, even tell Trev, you know, to pay attention. He'd always be giving it to me. I'd have to be the one like, oh shit, here we go. It's on. Yeah, it goes the other way, too. You have to have a catcher that's willing to do it.

The guys that want to throw. Like, you'll see, like, you'll know the guys who want to throw. Like, right now it's Mal Donato. The guy wants to throw every time. Sal Perez wants to throw every time. Drew B. Terry wants to throw every time. You got to get the guys that are confident. And when you do that, man, it's fun.

It's just another part of the game that you can catch guys sleeping all the time, especially if a guy, you know, hits a double. he's feeling himself he's given the freaking dapps back to the dugout you know whatever what pitch you just bang him and you can get him off his pedestal real quick you know sending him back to the dugout he can go high-five his boys in the dugout then i was going through your caught stealing list seeing if you ever threw out the same guy twice in one game as far as my research you did it once is that a memory is that something that would stand out do you remember that at all it's a It's a pretty fast player.

I don't remember that, no. It was us. Fold. The raise. Oh, Sam. Oh, Sam Fold, yeah. Tried to take second on you. You nabbed him.

Then later in the game, he tried to take third on you. You gunned him down a third. I was in, I was doing it was Tampa, right? Yeah. Yeah. I do remember that.

Yeah. All right. There you go. I'm doing some research right now. Let's switch it over to the bat. I was going through, going through some big plays in your, in your history.

when you're in the box. I think your biggest is, well, I'll get to that. Your first home run is a pinch hit job in extra innings to give your team the lead. And I think you were early on in your career there. Do you remember that at all? Got to remember your first home run. Yeah, we were in Philly. Yeah, it was, we were in Philly.

It was the day before Father's Day. And it was actually, so it was a day game. I wasn't playing. I was in the bullpen, warming up pitchers and trying to stay ready or whatever. Actually, I have a more memorable moment than my home run, I think. This is back when Jim was, Jim told me he was collecting his home run balls. You know, it was post-500, so he was collecting every single one that he hit. And I was sitting next to the bullpen catcher, Nate Domman.

I tapped them on the shoulder. I put my glove on. If you know the bullpins in Philly, they're in the center field, and they're like stacked up atop of each other. And the visitor one is on the second. and four of it. And I tapped on my shoulder. I was like, hey, I'm going to catch Tom's home run right here. And we were down at the time, I think, a couple of runs. And I think that home run, either Titus or Barr. And he's like, yeah, right. You know, if he'd have to hit it out here, it's a big-time

bond. And pitches later, he hit it. And I caught it. And they radioed into, they radioed into the security guy at the dugout and was like, hey, we need that ball. And I was like, no chance. Like, I'm giving it to Jim like you know if if if yeah strav like Jim's like the the best guy in the world like greatest teammates so I wanted to be able to give it to him and shake his hand and give him a hug and say congratulations and um they called down like an inning later it's like hey you're going to pinch hit so I had the ball and I gave it to him I was like hey man congrats dude this is freaking awesome I'm like I'm so pumped and then I um pinched hit hit a home run and the first guy to meet me on that step was Jim told me to give me a huge hug and say congrats I was like damn that's pretty badass yeah

that's awesome that's awesome now when When you caught his home run, he's awesome. When you caught his home run, was it right to you? Or were you, like, darting across the bullpen to make sure you caught it because you told the guy? No, I took, like, I don't know, probably like 10 steps to cross the bullpen to catch it. But still, like, for me to, like, sit there. And, I mean, I don't know how serious I was, but I was just like, hey, I'm going to catch Tom's home run right here. You knew it was coming.

Literally, like three pitches later catcher, yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. And my first home run, actually, was the very first step bat. My dad saw me playing the big leagues. Wow. And the day before Father's Day? And the day before Father's Day?

Yeah. So he had flew in. He was scouted at the time. He flew in. He had Philly as one of his teams. And so when I made the team open at a spring training, my mom and dad flew out to Anaheim where we opened the season. And we had a four game set.

So I was like, okay, at least I'll play one of the games thinking. And Maurer played all four. So I was like, damn, they don't get to see me play. And then it was like, I don't know, a couple months later, David 4thage Day, 4th, Day, he flew out to watch Philly, and that's when I hit the home run. And if you know my dad, like, he loves to, he loves to be a part of everything. He loves to be in every, like, conversation. He loves to be a part of, like, what's, he has huge, like, FOMO.

And somehow he talked his way into our clubhouse after the game. And so I'm doing interviews and in walks my dad, and right in the middle of the interview, you come and gives me a big hug. I'm like, how did you get in here? Like, what, like, who let you let you win? Sal is so show. He can just walk in. Like, it's like, he just puts up the deuce.

It's like, I'm going through. And I don't know. That's exactly what he does. Like, he walks by somebody like, excuse me, sir, I need to see your idea. He's like, no, it's okay. I'm not supposed to be here. And just like, keeps walking. That's so, Sal, that's great, man.

The next, the next, confident. Yeah, the next biggest at bat I wanted to ask you about is also, it's not a pinch hit appearance, but it's your first. at bat late in the game in the ALDS, game four, the big comeback, you draw a 10 pitch walk. I just watched it again back today, but that was, I mean, it's a walk, but that is, you, you pass the baton to, I think Gordon behind you. Is that a, is that a fond memory in your brain as well? Because I think even in the post game, everyone was saying that, that, that at bat by Drew

set up the whole thing. Can you hear me? Yeah, I got you. Okay, sorry, I thought my headphones was it. Yeah. Yeah, so that to me was probably my most memorable bat of my career so far, just because the magnitude of the game. We were down, I think, three or four runs going into the eighth inning,

and we just had, I think we put like five or six hits in a row, and then Curia had to air off Morales. And so I came in as a substitution for Sal, and I did not want to be the guy to take us out of that kind of rally. And I think I went down one, two, right away. And I was like, you know, I'm just going to do whatever I can do either. We had a guy on third base. I knew I could drive it.

And we were down one run. I knew I could put the ball in the play or, you know, get the ball in the air to get him in. And he kept throwing me slider after slider. And I fouled a bunch of them off, finally worked back to three, two. And I knew with Gordon behind me, he wasn't going to, you know, throw me anything close to me. So I was like, just sit away. I think I felt another, like, slider, fastball off. And then he threw me one way outside.

and Gordo wound up, you know, rolling one over to second base for to get the winning or the tying run and score. Yeah, go ahead, run. There was a, I just watched it, the two-two pitch was real close. I was like, oh, damn. It backed up, right? Yeah. Yeah. But it was cool.

My heart stop a little bit. I'm not going to lie. And then later on that postseason, you get to catch the final out of the World Series. series, which was, I mean, that's a memory that I think not a lot of people ever get to have. No, on a strikeout like that? That's incredible. Yeah, that to me was one of the coolest. I wish that I would have planned out Wade and I's celebration a little better.

You guys both went for the jump. Yeah, like, and so that was used forever, like for our World Series. It's like on the cover of like, you know, every magazine and every like Kansas City, New York. newspaper was like Wade and I's awkward jump and like if you look at both of our faces we're like oh god what's supposed to do and so um his wife actually calls it his o face oh no so that's yeah so that's that's even more awkward for me oh i'm not at the google search that just so i know what way davis's oath is looks like yeah uh so got to know but yeah i mean that that was like you know the pinnacle for me like you as a kid who you know dreamed of playing the big ways and dreamed to

winning a world series that every kid's like oh bottom of the ninth three two count basically load i'm going to walk off from run and um to be able to be a part of that celebration was really cool do you keep that ball and then that i didn't know well originally i did like we ran on the dog pile and uh two guys grabbed me um and they're like hey we need that ball i'm like no chance in hell you're getting this ball i'm giving it for myself and like no we just need to authenticate it i was like and i gave him a look like no way are you lying to me they're full shit get out of here and like no here's the authentication like we need authenticated i was like all right okay cool so we authenticated gave me back i went right back to the celebration and through

the off season i was like man it's cool everybody come over like here's the last out you know i'd show them you know it's cool story cool like uh display piece or whatever and then i got the thing i was like man it wasn't just me who like it'd be different if i was like i won the masters in golf or i won wimbledon like it wasn't just me it was like it was a team it was an organization it was a city that like collectively went through like 162 games plus the postseason ups and downs. I was like this doesn't belong strictly to me. So that offseason during the our fan fest, I kind of planned it out. Like had our GM come on like stage it a little bit and come on stage and had the guy

asked me a question about the World Series ball when I did with it and I pulled it out. I was like basically the same story I just gave you as like it doesn't belong to me. It belongs to the city. So they put it in their like Royals Hall of Fame. nice it's awesome i would have kept it yeah i should kept it i would have kept it are you kidding me i'm gonna go steal that thing i'll give it back to you thank you and did uh that that that next year drew 2016 because yeah world series is nice but 2016 you low-key rate dude what were you were you just having the world series glow on you the world series shine or what what was going on

then no um so i hit with Victor Martinez in the offseason. And actually, right before the final game of our regular season, Pedro Garfoll, who, like, I credit a lot of, like, a lot of my offensive success from that point on to him, because he kind of gave me a wake-up call. Like, for me, I knew hitting is tough, and I knew hitting once a week was even harder. So, like, I was always not, like, content with hitting 200, but, like, I knew that it was hard. I wasn't getting to week,

but I was always defensive-minded. Is I playing the big leagues for a long time, or do you want to come into spring training every year and compete for a job? And I was like, what do you mean? What the hell? I'm like, I'm a freaking stud. Like, you kidding me?

And he's like, and he kind of gave me away because he probably. Like, this is what you need to do. This is the approach you need to have. And we kind of worked on some things leading up to the postseason. And then the off season. I hit with Victor Martinez, and he, like, just reiterated what Pedro told me and, like, things that, like, you know, I had been working on the past, like, that didn't work consistently. I needed to make a change.

So I just kind of changed my approach. Like, my swing was always good. Whenever I played for a consistent basis, I'd always hit. So it wasn't my swing as more of my mental approach and, like, how I went against, you know, my scouting reports for the pitcher. So, and kind of also, too, not to, like, you know, get too high or too low. Like, there would be times where I'd get into a slum and that would lead into, like, a four or five or six game slum. And suddenly, like, hey, you know what?

Oh, well, I went over. No big deal. You know, come back tomorrow and get a couple knocks. So there was a lot more of, like, a mental process for me to kind of have success that way as opposed to just going out there and just trying to bang a ball off the wall. Great. I think it's nice for all of our listeners to hear this. I feel like every single guy that we talk to.

the guys that have played a long time, they all say the same thing. Like I had to make adjustments. I'm willing to make adjustments. It wasn't always easy. I had to learn how to, you know, manage my failures. Like, that's just kind of like good life advice, too. You know, I think baseball kind of does that with people. Like, you fail so much in baseball, especially as a hit.

It really teaches you. It instills that, like, that necessity to figure it out and to change when needed. And like I said, it's just kind of been like a common theme from what, from everyone that we've interviewed, you know, Kipa, Stoja, everyone's had to make adjustments, and it's no different with my boy Drew Bue. And now, like I said, I think you got eight, full, 10 seasons, like, turned into a hell of a career, man.

Yeah, still going, too. I'm not doing, yes, too. You're, I know the, I know spring training is just spring training, and it's small sample size, but, I mean, you were swinging well this spring training. I think it was like two homers and 10 at bats or something like that. Did you, did you, is there changes being made? or was it just kind of a hot start

or were you amped up about the results you were getting thus far this season? Yeah, no, it was definitely some changes, man. I made him towards the end of last year, you know, just a small little mechanical things from watching guys and from just trying, you know, trial and error, picking some things up that might, you know, have worked.

And I kind of refined them during the off season. And I was pumped about the success. I was pumped that, you know, all my bats except for maybe one were quality. So I think I had maybe like 15 or 16 net bats, you know, mixed them with a few walks. But, you know, I was pumped about, you know, each of a bat was quality. And, you know, I was starting to drive the ball. Even some of the outs that I made, you know, I squared up.

And, you know, I was pumped to continue that. Unfortunately, this whole virus thing happened, but hopefully we'll continue that into when spring training starts back up again and then into the season. Yeah. I wanted to ask you a couple quick hitters. catching wise. Who's your favorite fastball you've caught? Favorite fastball I caught? Wow.

I think, well, it's not really a fastball because it's more like a cutter, but Kenley Jensen. Okay. It's number one in his arsenal, so it's his fastball, but that thing is on, when he was in his prime,

when I was with him in L.A., that thing was, you know, that was tough. It was, it was a lecture that jumped out of his hand, and I felt like it almost like, like rose a little bit it just kind of took off and it never made you one more yeah he's a former catcher so yeah it's gonna say yeah you didn't start thinking like oh shit maybe i can i can do this too no he had the body for pitching he's what like 6 5 like 250 he had

he had the body yeah who the fuck put him behind the dish seems like i don't know what about what about a breaking ball yeah like one that jumps out just a break you okay i got two kershaw's curb ball, obviously. That's, I think everybody knows that. It's pretty good pitch. Yeah, and I think a lot of people know how good it is, but I don't think people understand how, like, quality of a pitch, like, he can execute it as.

So he could, like, Grinky's slider. So he, like, he, like, makes it into so many different shapes. Like, he can make, like, he'll dissect you as a hitter. I'm like, okay, I'm going to throw you this type of slider. And then, you know, like, if I come up, he's like, and I kid you not, this is exactly what he told me. we were hitting in the cage and he's from Orlando so I caught him into the bullpen and he was watching me

hitting the cage and my dad goes hey Zach how would you get Drew? How would you get him out? And he goes, I'd probably throw him a slider right down the middle. I'm like, what? I'm not that bad of a hitter. My God. What's the hell? But that's how he dissects people in so many different ways.

Like he would throw Trev one slider. He'd throw me a different slider. He'd throw a left hand or a backup slider because he knew that like he'd roll it over. like that to me like how how he executed that pitch made a delete so is there any communication about like do you just call slider and then you you catch whatever version of his slider he throws or is there any communication further about like a slower slider or back door or or what kind's coming um no there's a bit of communication like in our scoundering board he'll talk about how he wants to make one a little bit harder a little bit tighter um but i think he does

just knows himself, you know, how to make it work and shape as the game goes on. He might see an adjustment that the hitter makes during the bat, and he'll shape it a little differently to get you out. You know, he, a difference to where that it would throw me off, but it's a huge difference to a hitter where it would mess up their timing. That's cool. That's awesome. I love it, man.

It's really cool. We love having you on, Drew. What, uh, yeah, man. Anything, uh, God, I mean, do you have, I don't know if we're supposed to talk. I was going to call it a lockout. We're not in a lockout. But, I mean, any thoughts on baseball coming back or anything?

I know we don't want it to be like the focus of the episode, but it's also on every guy's mind. So I don't know. Like Kipness, we talked to him a couple weeks ago. He was still kind of bullish, but things have changed a little bit since then. I mean, are you hearing anything or where's your head at? I probably haven't heard anything more up to date than what you guys already know. think honestly it really depends on this is my opinion i think it really depends on you know what the government does i think that if they continue to yeah have society in this kind of quarantine zones

or like you know state lockdowns i don't think that we'll be able to start back up i think once they kind of allow businesses to reopen and people to get back to their normal lives is when we'll um really get things going i don't think this is anything to mess around with it sucks big time and I know just, you know, speaking in general, like baseball, yeah, baseball players are going insane now. But, like, people, like, in everyday life, are going insane. Like, you know, teachers are out of work. Restaurants are out of work. Like, there's so many people that are being affected by this virus that it's kind of selfish to say, like, oh, well, we're missing our baseball season when, like, real life things are happening that are much greater than baseball.

So I hope that we, and I say we, like, I have a part to do with it. but I hope somebody comes up with some type of vaccine or cure or something to get this thing going because I know not only will be good for morale for players, but I think also for the country, too, to get sports back up. I think, you know, sports teams in general give a lot of people, you know, stuff to think about and, you know, things to do and get their mind away from life. What's your viewing sport pleasure, basketball guy, football, NASCAR? I like going.

I like watching people turn left. Uh-oh. You probably, NASCAR Twitter is going to be all that. That's all right. That's all right. I'm more of a Formula One when it comes to racing. That's okay. Although I do have a really good story about, and we could say this for another time or later,

but I have a really good story. I got to drive a pace car for the Kansas City Speedway during a NASCAR event, and that scared the living shit out of me. so I have the utmost respect for for NASCAR drivers but I got to throw it back because you just reminded me so we talked about how Drew and I live together and we rented the PT Cruiser the PT Cruiser so we were renting it and there was like four of us we don't get home until 11 o'clock usually so we're all we jamming the PT cruiser. We go back and we had like a quiet little street and we had kind of like a bigger driveway and Drew was our driver like Drew's, Drew loves cars. So he decided one night, I don't even know how it got started, but we started just cruising down this road. I said it was late night so nobody was there. But he jam it and then boom, he hit the e-break and he just like drift us like Tokyo drift

us and we did it every single night. And like that's so obnoxious. It's so fucking obnoxious. finally the neighbors came out and told us like hey like we got like we got like kids here they're trying to sleep like we can't have this fucking fast and furious moment every night and so we stopped we became really good friends with our neighbors but the PT cruiser man good time it handled it handled it hugged the corners tight oh one more one more thing I wanted to ask before we we go you guys got me I got you All right. I got you.

You got the nice flow, you know, one of the better hair in baseball, and then you dyed it pink for a really good reason. Oh, yeah. How'd you enjoy having the pink hair? Or can you tell us the reason if someone doesn't know the story? Yeah, so in the 2016 season, the lady actually cut my hair. Her good friend's son was in the hospital, just got diagnosed with cancer. and she asked me to go visit him

and I was like yeah sure so I brought some royal stuff I was with the world at the time I brought some real stuff and I was literally just going to go in there and say hi to him you know checking on him and give him some stuff and then leave and he's dude this this guy was like he was seven I think at the time or eight it's amazing

like dude you'll ever meet he had and he was like oh finally, you know, I had this positive attitude. So we hung out for like an hour and a half. And he had, his hair dyed a few different colors and I was talking about it. And at the time, like, my like kind of like thing when I got a base hit is like, was a hair flip.

And he's like, hey, can I dye your hair so that when you do a hair flip, it'll be, you know, cool. If you beat cancer, you could die my hair, whatever you want. And so fast forward to two years, it was like middle of the season. He comes running down the bullpen. like, Dagan, what's up, dude, how's it going? And he's like, guess what? I'm like, tell me what you got. He's like, I beat cancer.

I'm cancer free. I'm like, one hand, I'm like overjoyed. And I was like, so happy for him. And the second hand, I'm like, crap. Now I'm going to have pink or blue or purple hair. I was like, I don't know. But it was, dude, honestly, it was a great like moment for both of us. Like, one, he beat cancer too.

It was like, we got to do something a lot of fun in a salon. We both died of hair pink. And it got some pretty good, I guess, publicity for him. So he was pumped about that. Yeah, I remember it was like, you debuted it against the Yankees. So I remember it because the Yes Network did a whole feature on it as well. So it was all over. Yeah.

How long did you let it ride? So just that series, I told him I was just going to die it for one series. So I let it ride for that series. And then I think we went to Texas right after that and I died it back. But I remember taking BP and it was after the first day, you know, a home team hits first. And so I was in the last group. And I remember out of at least 15 guys going, hey, dude, what the hell are you doing with your hair?

What's going on? Why is it pink? I'd have to retell that story every single time. That's awesome. Yeah. I've got one final last question, maybe, unless we just keep rolling, because I think everyone likes doing this more than quarantine. But can you hype up the rocks a little bit?

Because we, I've lived in Denver the past three years. I, A, that right field bar, every fan player needs to get up there at some point, because you're overlooking the mountains, you overlook the field. it's it's baseball heaven but those rockies have a lot of talent man and i i was chirping in jim's ears a lot and he had to like level me out because i might have been coming in too hot but i mean that that team last year midway through the season was was in the wild card position the wheels kind fell off a little bit but there's still a young core that it's really good so get give me like the rockies hype train right now yeah you're not coming in hot at all i think you're coming right on

are you know yeah we have our lineup is a joke i mean i will put it up against any other lineup honestly like you think about you got to go through charlie story um nolan you know desmond um murphy you know we got a sleeper mcm yeah doll mcman you guys you guys go deep yeah mcman's got the most juice i've seen you know in a long day just naturally easy juice and like we put together they're good at bats we bat's we bat we bat battle. You know, our arms are no joke. I think, you know, last year some guys just kind of got a bad rap because they were,

they were battling through injuries. You know, a lot of sometimes things don't come out in the media, what, you know, it's truly going on. And guys were pitching through some stuff. And, you know, they want to be out on the mound because they know that, you know, how good they are. So I think, you know, you're going to see a lot of bounce back years for a lot of our pitchers because of they're healthy.

They had, you know, good offseason, you know, they came back in strong. I think we as a team, we have a core kind of belief in, you know, what we want to do and what we had accomplished. So I think you're going to look at a really, really good team this year and watch for a lot of bounce back arms. I love it. And I think Marquez is one of the pitchers that more people need to know about in baseball. Freeland just had a tough break baseball year last year. And there's a lot of other guys that, I mean, and it's the story of the Rockies. I mean, if those pitchers get some outs.

Yeah, and they will. I know, like, I thought about the time last year. It was just one of those things where, you know, whether there was bad luck or, and I know a lot of people say, oh, it's bad luck, but bad luck does happen. Sometimes you just have years where it's like you can't get people out or you don't get hits or you don't hit homers. Like, those things happen. And it's no fault of your own. Like you're working your ass off.

It's just these things happen. So Friedland looks amazing, man. like his mechanics are so smooth and he cleaned up a lot of things that he's repeating a lot of things really well um you know scintatello is coming back throwing hard like his ball is really really heavy um you know marquez is marquette he's going to punch out 200 guys a year he's got stupid good stuff john gray is and he might be one of the strongest guys he doesn't he might not look at he might be one of the strongest guys in all baseball that guy's a horse and then we have we have have a lot of guys fighting for that fist spot good stuff my rocks baby you got your rocks

And then, my goodness. I knew you got a good. Wow. Good, Treb, you know that. I'm all about it. I'm a big fan of the Rockies. I think someone needs to step up and challenge the Dodgers in the West.

And really, if you're going through their pitching staff right there, that's pretty damn good. Yeah. And you got the bangers. You got the bangers in that park, and you got defense. I mean, you got Drew Bue. Let's go.

I think I might do a little sprinkle on the rocks this year for the end. now west short in season rocks come out hot i just go like this just a little sprinkle on the rocks and maybe i make a little cash you know yeah i'm out of the game now i got i got i got i got to i got i got to do something it's a smart play i love it let's go i like it all right man hey we appreciate you sitting down with us i don't know if trev's got anything at the end but that was awesome yeah man thanks for thanks for having me i want to plug one thing and follow jure on i G, it's Drew B.

Terra, right? Yeah, and Sundays. Oh, let's go. We got to plug that because it's a big thing. I think Drew's going to turn it into a brand one day,

but what do you got on Sundays, Drew? We got cinnamon roll Sundays. Cine roll Sundays, baby. Yes. I think Jimmy really would like that. Maybe this Sunday, Jim, you take it with Drew

and you do a cinnamon roll Sunday video, you making some cinnamon rolls. Boom. I don't eat. stuff like that because I'm a machine, but you guys... Your body gets emble. Oh, it's so Trev can drink beer. That's the only reason.

That's true. Play them for the tie. Awesome. Thank you, man. We appreciate it. No problem. Thanks for having you, guys.