Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 161 | Neil Walker is For the Boys

Episode Date: June 22, 2020

"Disco" Neil Walker hopped on to discuss his long-standing relationship with Trevor Plouffe, turning himself into a super utility player, playing for his hometown Pirates, his season with the Yankees in 2018, playing in five Wild Card Games in the last eight years, and so 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.

Welcome back to another episode of Talking Baseball. We've got Disco Neil Walker on the show today. Let's do it. What's up, everybody? Welcome back to Talking Baseball. I hope you had a fantastic weekend. My name is Jimmy. I got Jake with me.

I got Trev with me. We just wrapped up a late night conversation with Neil Walker of your Philadelphia, Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, Mets, half a season with the Brewers and the Yankees and the Mets. Marlins. It's been around, huh? Trev, you guys go way back. There's some good stories, a really one particularly funny story that I don't want to spoil for the people that are about to hear it. But you guys go back to you like 17 years old. It's crazy. Yeah, you know, Neil and I, same draft class. So when you're kind of in that, I don't know, upper echelon, I guess that's the right word of guys in that draft.

You kind of start to see each other a bit. And yeah, we had a run in early on. but Neil's always been one of my favorite guys to watch. I think Jake, you know, hit it perfectly describing him. Professional at bats. I'm going to give you a professional defensive display. But he does have a little bit of swag with him, man. Like he's got that confidence that you need. And that's why he's been able to stick around.

He mentioned he's six days away from 10 years. And that's like the gold mark, man. If you get a 10 years, that is something. Just sitting on that? Yeah, that's pretty cool. I like that players really, like, have those milestones in their head. And you hear him say, like, like, you know, he's going to celebrate that. And that's pretty cool.

Jake, let me start that over because I was going to spoil something. Jake, what you got? You know, Neil is endeared to me. He's endeared to a little bit of whatever this career of mine has now turned into. And maybe some talking baseball fans will be welcome to that in the end. But he was great, man. I mean, just like, you know, pros, pro, all that stuff. But, like, I'm picturing if I was a GM and, like, you're looking for dudes to put on your team.

Like, I'm trying to find an argument against that guy. Like, anything you'd want from a veteran presence, he was. And he's, like, a good time. It's a little fur to boys at the end. For the boys. Got a little Nick Swisher, like, laugh to him. He was, like, very happy guy. I could see that.

Good energy. Yeah. All right. Let's throw it right to that. Here you go. Neil Walker. We are joined by during a special late-night edition of talking baseball. We are joined by Neil Walker.

Neil, how you doing, man? I'm doing great, man. Thank you guys for having me on. This is fun. Where are you coming to us from? Yeah, I'm coming here from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Still partially quarantined up here. enjoying as much family time as you can.

I got a four-year-old and a seven-month-old up in the house. I've done more changing of diapers and breakfast-making for little kids and taking more tongue lashings from little kids than I would have liked to. But, you know, the four-year-old age is when they start to reason and they can start to tell you things. You're like, wow, you're actually kind of making sense, but shut your mouth because I'm your dad. I lose every battle in my house.

I love it, man. We've been talking to a lot of players throughout quarantine and for a lot, like I just love asking the question, like what's it like to have a free summer? Because like, you know, your whole life, your summers have been baseball. Are you finding yourself like, wow, it's nice out at night? Yeah, you know when it hit me?

It was like, what was that? Was it Memorial Day that was a couple weeks ago? And people were like, oh, what are you doing for Memorial Day? And, like, I was like Memorial Day. Like, I haven't had a Memorial Day in 20 years. What are you talking about? But on the same token, I was very fortunate because I at least, when I was playing for the pirates, we still live in somewhat the same area that I played in.

So, like, that was, you know, every once in a while on a Sunday, you'd get to go have a family get together or something like that. So, like, the summers weren't completely. like you're stuck in a Manhattan apartment or, you know, that was after I left Pittsburgh. But you, I mean, to, I was driving downtown in downtown Pittsburgh the other day. And I remember I was driving home and I was like, wait a second, this is not. It's five o'clock on a Wednesday afternoon and I'm, and I'm driving down the highway. This is not normal.

But, you know, fingers crossed that this thing will kick off anytime in the near future. Yeah, well, don't hold your breath because it seems like every time we get our hopes up, man. something else goes on. But we're definitely excited to watch you play some baseball this year. We saw you in spring training. Yep. We didn't get a chance to catch up, but that was fun to see you guys. Yeah, you had a big meeting that day.

We were waiting to talk to everyone. You guys had a big long meeting. How did that go? How was Philly? How were the guys? I know a lot of them, so I'm pretty familiar. But how was that adjustment like for you? Yeah, it was good.

You know, it was the last couple of years, you know, And you felt it too as veteran guys that aren't necessarily considered elite in their 30s. Like, you just grind, man. You just, you try to do what you can do to, you know, to help the team. You try what you can do to be an asset for the team. But, like, you know how it is. It's, you know, it's about the young guys now. It's about, you know, if you're making it a little bit more than the league minimum,

you better be outplaying your contract exorbitantly. And, you know, so at this point in my career, I got six days to get the 10 years of service time. So, so more than anybody, I'm hoping this thing gets kicked back off because you never know. You like to say, like, you know, like, you know, you never know what next year holds or what the following year holds. But, you know, I've been super fortunate to this to this point in my career. So, but spring training was great in Philadelphia. Joe Girardi coming in. Some of the guys who were already there

bringing in Zach Wheeler, D.D. DeGiorgius. Some of these guys, I played with some pirate guys, McCutcheon and Josh Harrison and Francisco Laryano. So there was a lot of familiar area. Like we were talking about before we got on,

baseball is a fraternity. So it's like, you know usually half the guys. If you're 30 plus, you know half the guys in the clubhouse anyway. I forgot that Harrison was over there. Yep. That's pretty cool. I had another question.

I wanted to ask you now. I just totally forgot. That's great. What a great podcast show I am. Good job, Treve. We're like five minutes in. Say hi. Tip of the iceberg on this one, Treve. That's tough, man. Someone else go. I'm an idiot.

I'll go. Let's get into you, Neil. Sorry about my friend Trevor there. I want to jump back and we'll save some of the Yankee stuff for later because, you know, me and John Boy, we fell deep into that world. and we, you know, it wasn't lying at the start of this, that we became endeared to you on the Yankees. So we'll maybe save that segment for the end. But something that did kind of show on the Yankees, or at least to us, because, I mean,

we kind of know Neil Walker as the, you know, kind of slugging second baseman. You got a silver slugger. You were raking for years in Pittsburgh. But, man, you, and we talked about this with kind of Trevor, you know, he had added some versatility to him. I want to talk about you because, I mean, I go back and I see, you know, you played a little third at the start, but with the Yankees,

they started throwing you everywhere. And now, I mean, is that something you took pride in? Or is that something like, yeah, coach, I'll go play right field? Or did you let them know when you came in, you're willing to do whatever? How does that play out for you? Well, you know, like, you know, Trevor and I kind of had somewhat similar career trajectories, per se, outside of me kind of starting as a catcher and coming up. but it didn't really get to me until my second year with the Mets when I was one year away from free agency or a half season, I should say, and I got traded.

I was, we had a, we struggled with the Mets in 2017 and I got the midseason and we had a bunch of guys on expiring contracts, me, Jay Bruce, Lucas Duda. We all kind of played similar positions too. And I was strictly playing second base my entire career up into that point. and all of a sudden they were like, they basically were like, hey, you know, we're probably going to, we're probably going to try to move some of you guys at about the All-Star break because DeGrom got banged up a little bit, Cinderguard got hurt a little bit, Matt's got hurt, there were a bunch of guys hurt, and we started falling behind the Nationals and I think the Braves were surging ahead that year too. And in my brain, I was like, you know, this could be the new norm for me. I don't know

if that's the case or not, but it might be. And so they started throwing me at first, and third and just kind of showcasing me for some of the scouts that were in the stands right before the trade deadline. And obviously I ended up getting traded to the brewers. And I went over there and they were in a playoff hunt and we just missed the playoffs by one game. But I pretty much played first base and a little bit of second and a little bit of third. So mostly first base. So going into that following year before I got picked up by the Yankees, I was like, you know what? Maybe my days as strictly a second basement are gone, but I think that I can still be an asset defensively.

If I can play second outside of really playing shortstop, I can play anywhere else in the infield. I need to make sure I maximize what I'm trying to accomplish here. So when I went into the offseason, I made sure that I got a lot of work at third, a lot of work at first, and still some work in second, and even went and bounced in the outfield a little bit

just to kind of see some angles and do some stuff like that. And then I didn't get picked up until late with the Yankees. I got picked up the second week of March, went into spring training and they were like, hey, look, I don't know you only got a couple weeks to get ready for the season.

We're going to be able to between second, short, or second, third, and first. But if you're not ready for when the season starts, essentially, you know, you can probably stay down here and get some of bats and basically go on the Phantom D.L. And all of a sudden, Greg Berg gets banged up at the end of spring training. And they're like, oh, by the way,

you're going to have to take your 15 to 20 at bats in spring training. and be our opening day first base. And I was like, okay, well, I'll go grind. And no joke, literally, it was the worst, the worst month and a half of baseball I've ever played. And they were, every time I walk into the plate come late April in New York, it was like, who the heck is this guy?

Get them the heck out of here? I mean, it was bad. And, but you know what, to answer your question, like, I did accept it. I was like, you know what, this is kind of the trajectory this game is going. If I'm going to, you know, my goal at that point was to get to 10 years and to see if my body held up and so on and so forth. But I was open to it. And then that same year, Aaron Judge got hurt, Hicks got heard.

Garney was banged up a little bit. They were like, hey, bro, can you go play right field at Yankees? Oh, my goodness. I was like, hold on. I was like, all right, I haven't played outfield. I played like 10 innings of Alfield and AAA before I got called in the big leagues in 2000. 10. And literally the first inning, I went out to right field. They said, hey, don't worry about it. Put your heels on the warning track at Yankee Stadium in Redfield because it falls of your head,

it's a homer. And I go out there. And it didn't take three pitches into the inning. And I got Joe Schmoe in the right field bleachers going, hey, what the hell are you doing out here? Get in the infield. And so I stood out there absolutely fearing for my life for about three weeks until somebody came back and saved me. But, you know, that was, that was a silver lining because that was my, that was my ticket to get on the field. That was a rough year for me. But it finished well.

And I knew from that point on, and I was going to have to bounce around. And that was kind of going to be what the rest of my career looked like. And that, that's pretty much what it looked like to this point. I mean, you robbed a home run. You only played like 18 games in right field. Wow. And you robbed a home run in like your first, I wasn't, it was like the first three. That's true.

That's true. It wasn't graceful. but I did rob it, yeah. I was going to say, what did they look like? Was it like, did you pimp it or? No, no. It was one of those where you kind of like partially stick your hand out and you're like, oh, I'm about to crush myself on the wall.

Let me just stick my hand up and hope I catch this thing. And it happened to go in the gloves. I love that. I'm not to check that highlight out. I'm sure I saw it, but I got to go back. I love that you say, you said how the Mets told you, we're probably going to trade you and they showcase you a little bit. I'm looking at your defensive game log.

And it's hilarious knowing that because the last five games you played with the Mets, second base, first base, first base, second base, then two games in a row at third base, and then second base first base. And then you get traded and the Brewers put you at third base right away. So I guess you did pretty good in your showcase. You just crushed new positions. Well, what's funny is when I, the day that I got traded to the Brewers, we were in Philadelphia and Milwaukee was playing at home.

but obviously, like I said, they were in a playoff hunt. So they had, Travis Shaw was banged up. And I had to go back to Manhattan, my apartment, and get some of my stuff because we were on the road. And Craig Counsel called me at like 11 o'clock at night after their game. And he's like, hey, man, you think you can get here tomorrow? We got a day game because there was a Saturday going into Sunday. And I was like, yeah, it looks like my flights at, you know, 9 o'clock,

and I'll probably be there at 1130, noon. I should be ready by about the eighth inning. And he's like, oh, by the way, Travis Shaw's banged up. We need you to start at third. That was like, oh, man, this is not going to be good. And I was just literally coming off a hamstring injury. And I was probably playing about 75% at that point. And I remember getting back to my apartment at about 11 o'clock at night,

packing my entire Manhattan apartment up, and grabbing like two bags and getting on a plane early the next morning, landing, going straight to the ballpark. are getting there at 1130, seeing a couple doctors and being like, okay, you're good, you're good, sign this, sign that. Here's your uniform. And no joke. By the time I buttoned up my shirt, it was like 1245 for a 105 game.

And I'm like running out of the people. In the middle of the playoff race, too. In the middle of August. And I'm like, okay, I guess this is what we're going to do. Yeah, and it's very difficult to start to switch positions like that. even at first base, which is stereotypically like, you know, put the big fat guy at first base and let him, you know, play over there. But when you get into a big league game at first base, there's so much going on.

Like you have to pay attention all the damn time. I remember when I first started going over there, it's like, I had to remember to go cover the base. Yeah. The ground ball at second base, third base or short stuff, if it's hit to somebody else, you're like, all right, cool. Right. First base, you're like, and the way they position you now as a first baseman, they want you off the line as far as you can get. Right.

So you can still get, but you still have to get to the back. So it's like, first base is not like the lug of a position that it used to be. Because the way they're positioning guys now, you have to be able to cover some ground and get back there, man. Right. And between that and like knowing how far you can go with your second baseman,

but then, you know, you're covering first base and you got like Freddie Freeman up with a man on first and you know he's trying to just bash a ball through the hole. And you're like, oh, no. What am I? Bunt plays. Everything comes into play when you're at first base, man.

You know, you got to be the cut off to home now. So there's so many little details at first base that I don't think a lot of people realize. And so it's, when you guys first go over there, are like runners trying to talk to you? You're like,

yo, I'm new here. Like, please shut up. Yeah, please stop. I'm really trying to concentrate. Oh,

man. Yeah. You do have to concentrate. You do. Yeah. But, you know, you know,

you know the guys that are going to come over there and be the chatty Kathy's, you know, the guys that are going to be smugged. So, you know, you like, you like to give it to him a little bit when you see the guy get, have the O for three with, with two strikeouts, and then he gets a walk in his last bat and he's smug walking down to first base. And you're like, hey, man, your slim looks great. Stay right, stay right there. Stay right there, baby. Well, I kind of want to go back to what we were talking about before we started taping. You and I go way, way, way back. Yep. And we'll go back to this. beautiful summer of 2004.

We are both high school seniors. We're both getting looked at for the draft, blah, blah, blah. I get a phone call from an area scout and says, hey, the Pittsburgh Pirates want to see you. I'm like, okay. They're like in Pittsburgh. So I'm like, I'm 17. My dad's like, I guess we got to fly to Pittsburgh, right?

This is like the day of my high school graduation. I end up missing that, whatever. but we go and we show up to PNC Park and I didn't know this ahead of time I don't know what they told you and I'll let you talk about it but I show up to the park and it's just me and you

and essentially it was like a battle to the death who's going to be the 11th pick of the 2004 draft local boy Neil Walker or West Coaster T. Plouf and we had this awesome day I'll never forget it. You and I were like buddies we're just chumming it up like isn't this cool like we're on this big league field

and it's such a funny thing to look back now because obviously they end up picking you. They made the right decision. You've had an unbelievable career, especially in Pittsburgh. But there's one detail that I love sharing with people about the story. And it is, I see you come up to hit batting practice. You walk out. And this, you know, you don't use woodbats a lot. At least I didn't up until then.

But you have to wear batting those. the woodbats. At least I had to. You walk up and I see something on your hand. I'm like, what are you wearing? It's a leather gardening glove and you only have one on. And that was your batting gloves. Can you tell like what was that about? Was that like did you always do that or that was intimidation trap? Yeah, yeah. That was that was me saying, that was me saying a West Coast homeboy you're on my turf now. I just need everyone to pick. picture of this dude like you came out of the dugout with one gardening glove on to hit batting practice. You know what the truth was? I blew out I blew out a pair of a couple pairs of batting

gloves you know how it was in high school you had a couple pairs of batting gloves and I remember being like oh no what am I going to do I got gigantic holes in these batting gloves and I'm looking around and I'm like these might these might suffice I can I can wrap these around my wrist Oh, my gosh. That's really funny, man. Like we were talking about, though, no joke. If somebody could be a fly on the wall during that day, it was unbelievable. So you were based, you in the West Coast Scouts were essentially patrolling the first base, like, corridor.

And me and the East Coast Scouts were like patrolling the third base corridor. and then like the GM and the assistant GM and the cross checkers were like right behind the batting cage and they bring in a guy to pitch to us. We take BP, we take ground balls, I throw to you at second from the catcher's position and then we take some live BP and every time somebody would leave the cage,

you go back and it would be like a, you know, like you went after a boxing match. Somebody was like rubbing our shoulders like, hey man, nice job. Hey, hey, keep going to go. You know what are you going to do? 17 years old, 18 years old at that time, and we're out there just like, what is going on here? These grown men are telling us, you know, making all the, sitting there just judging us to the endth degree and we're just out there trying to have fun. Fortunately, between you and I,

we've always had a great relationship, but that was when it kind of blossomed because it was, if we didn't like each other, that would have been a miserable day. We had a lot of fun. Now that I think back on it, like, I'm nervous for myself thinking back on it. But at the time, I wasn't nervous at all. We were just kind of having a good time playing baseball. Right. And these guys, like you said, were like checking us out, grading us, doing whatever they do. Right.

And it's just you and I, two little idiots on the field, just like, this is awesome. We're playing on a big league park. Like, who cares where we get drafted? Right, right. Do you think you were lighter, Neil, or more tense because it was your hometown team? Like, were you more like, I want these guys to draft me? Oh, man. Or was it, hey, this is my neighborhood on my ease?

You know what? That's a good question. I've never really thought about that. I never really felt like super added pressure before I got drafted or when I got drafted or even being with the organization. I always just wanted to play. Like I always just wanted to play in the big leagues. I wanted to play pro ball. It was just kind of a Cinderella story where I ended up getting drafted and obviously by the Pirates in the hometown team. But, you know, when we started to really get good in 2012, 13, 14, 15, you know, I would feel some of that, like, I was just more in tune with what the community, because Pittsburgh is obviously a much smaller demographic than, you know, where Trev's from in California and you guys are in New York or in California, wherever you guys are at. But, like, you hear everything in a community like Pittsburgh. So when we were horrible, people would be like, yeah, you guys are in. You guys are horrible, and I'd be like, oh, you're probably right. And when we were good, people were backing us, and it was amazing.

But I think I felt it more on both ends of the spectrum throughout my career as a Pittsburgh pirate. And even when I went to New York, when I first went to the Mets, it was a way bigger demographic, obviously, but I almost felt like I could almost felt like I could hide there because I no longer, nobody knew who the heck I was in New York. So I got traded and it was like, oh, go play second. and play well and hopefully you guys will make the playoffs and so on and so forth. But in Pittsburgh, I was very, you know, people, the professional athletes in Pittsburgh are much more kind of noticed, you know, the Sydney Crosby, the Ben Rothensburg,

or Andrew McCutche and all those guys. You kind of get noticed a little bit more than you would so in New York or L.A. or, you know, Miami in some of these places. I got to go back to the draft story a little bit because Trevor told us that at spring training and like half believed it half didn't so i'm glad you confirmed it a um b and this is the weird question that jumped to my head when was the next time you guys saw each other because yeah there's something fun about a draft preview and two guys showing out but i mean i know Trevor's got a little angst in there like do you guys see each other at like high a ball and Trevor's like

damn that's the dude that they took him and not me like do you guys know when the next time you linked up was well that year was like i didn't even like pitch I didn't want to be drafted nine spots higher. Well, I can't, I know for a fact that when I got drafted, I went to the Gulf Coast League. And I know, didn't you go to a rookie, a different rookie level league? Yeah, I skipped, I skipped that one. Okay. You know, I'm looking now.

I said, my bad. I went to the appellation league. I'm looking now, it was, um, 2007, it was double a, yeah. Yep, yep, yeah. You were in, you were in. You were in. You were in. New Britain Rock Cats, that's right.

Yeah. Yeah, because that year, you were drafted that year by Minnesota, and I think Swarzak was also drafted that same year, and he's a teammate of mine now. And I believe there was somebody else either in the second round or right around that time that played for a while, too. Am I right? Well, Perkins.

Perkins, that's who it was. Yeah. Right? But he was a college draft guy, I think. Yeah, he was in the big leagues pretty quickly. Yeah. I love Swarzek, man. I was talking to him the other day.

This is probably not a good, like, story for the podcast, but I don't care. If you, anybody, go check out Anthony Swarzak's Instagram. He's throwing these bullpens in this, like, this cage that it's like got graffiti everywhere. And I told him, it looks like he's in, like, the hangout of the Foot Clan and Ninja Turtles. He's in Windwood. He's in Windwood in Miami. Yeah, dude. It's crazy, man.

But yeah, I love sports. But yeah, we hung out again in 2007. So three years goes by. Then we linked up again. And then obviously throughout the big leagues, we played against each other a couple times. Yeah, I mean, I always followed Neil. Yeah, between, between AA and AAA and obviously we didn't, we didn't play a ton of each other in the big leagues just because of being in separate leagues. But, you know, there were a lot of guys.

There were a lot of, you know, that year they were, we were, we were, we were, there were a lot of guys that you and I played with, you know, and the showcases and whatnot, the Matt Bushes of the world and Homer Bailey's and a lot of these guys that are, you know, some of these guys that are still around. So we had a pretty, we had a pretty decent draft class that guys that had really good careers. Absolutely. Yeah, Verlander in that draft class too. That's right. Yep. Verlander, Weaver was there. Billy Butler, St. And Drew. Yep. Yep. That's crazy.

imagine taking me in front of Dustin Pejorie. Way to go, Red So, or wins. I always think about stuff I'd have the same thing, bro. I would have to do the same thing. Hey, I got a question. I got the draft thing. It says Neil Walker,

solid frame, strong as a bull. Excellent physical makeup. Trevor Plouffe. Trevor Plouffe, it says, lean, lean, wiery, well, proportioned body square shoulders did it say anything about it why did they need this shit what does he say anything about his flow his hair his hair his lettuce uh that's helped me a lot

through my career no doubt one of my biggest assets yeah i want to ask you about uh the universal d h because we just kind of finding out that that's probably going to be part of this uh proposal is that something that you think helps you i mean i think i know the answer but as far as like Philly's roster, how it's going to be constructed, do you think it helps that there is going to be a DH or because of your defensive, I don't even know what the word I'm looking for is. Pralice. Diversity. Sure. Do you think you'd be better off without the DH?

Well, you know, coming up as a guy that's played 10 years, 10 seasons in the NL and one season, the AL, the only thing that I found that was difficult was, well, number one, when I went to the Yankees and I wasn't an everyday player, I found that there were times that especially, you know, I faced more righty pitchers in my career than lefties. There were times with the DH, with the Yankees, obviously, that if a right hander started and I didn't start, the chance of me getting in the game was like 0.5%. You know what I mean? Yeah. Whereas, okay, so, you know, these last couple years, or, really this last year with Miami, if a lefty was starting and I lefty pitcher was starting and I wasn't starting the game, the chance of me getting in the game as soon as that guy came

out were like 90%. You know what I mean? So there were times, there's times as a non-everyday player, or I should say most of the time as a non-everyday player in the NL, there's a good chance. You're going to find a way in that game, whether it's defensive replacement in the eighth inning or won at bat for the pitcher in the sixth, seventh, eighth, whatever the case may be, that volume of being involved, I found was very helpful as a, as an extra, as a quote-unquote extra guy. Whereas in the American League, there were days that I would go,

or there were weeks that I would go three, four, five days without even stepping in the batters box. And when you come back, it's tough. As you know, like it'll take three, four, five at bats just to get your feet back underneath you. I think that for our roster, I think it helps because I think that there's guys like McCutcheon that are going to have, that are coming off an ACL injury. There's going to be guys like Bryce that need a blow and you know, you don't necessarily want to give him the whole day off so you can let him VH. Reese Hoskins, he ran out of gas a little bit at the end of last year. He's going to be able to do that.

So between guys like I think myself and Logan Forsyth and Josh Harrison, these guys that can kind of play multiple positions, I think that does help us. But on the opposite end, like I said, there's going to be times where, you know, guys like myself and guys like Josh and guys like Logan, we may not get a bat's for three, four, five days. And that's just the nature of the beast. So I'm kind of for it and I'm kind of not for it. But fortunately, at this point in my career, I've I've dabbled in both. So I kind of know what I need to do to stay somewhat prepared. But it'll be interesting. I think it's going to inject a lot more offense into it. into the league. And this sprint, if this thing goes the way we think it's going to go, this sprint to the finish line is going to be pretty fun. I was completely the opposite of your career. I mean, I spent most of my time in the AL, and then towards the end of my career, I spent some time with the Phillies in the NL. And the anxiety I felt as a bench player, I never felt that before, man.

The AL, if you're not playing, you're not playing. You sit there, you try to pick a pitcher apart, you try to do something, but you know you're spitting seeds most of the game. the NL, it's like, bro, you got three innings to chill out. Right. And then after that, it's like go time. And it's like you kind of have an idea where you might come in, but it could happen at any point.

Right. You could double switch the pitcher out, whatever. And I did not do well with that, man. I wasn't used to it. So I love that you've, you have that experience. And I think now with the DH, I think you're going to just benefit so much from it. Yeah, I think so. I'm excited to see.

Yeah. That's a, that's a crazy thing about baseball. It's just like, you know, there's, there's, you've got two leagues with two separate rules. And like you and I are talking about, it's, that's the exact way I felt in the AL was like, okay,

I didn't start today. Let me, I'll make a sandwich, bro. Yeah, let me take care of my body and just relax and watch this game. Where in the NL, it's like,

oh, crap, our pitcher's in the fourth inning, and he's got 75 pitches. Like, and next inning, it's 7, 8, 9 coming up. There's a,

there's a good chance that I'm going to be up. and like oh i haven't gone and taken any swings yet today that that anxiety i totally 100% get it but when you're when you've been kind of trained along those paths you don't really consider when you when you have a day off in the nl you don't really have a day off unless you're the backup catcher like that that's it that's that's just the way it is speaking of that are you are you like a third catcher like at all times have you always been that like on the team yeah yeah Do you have gear every year? Yeah.

Yeah, I do. That's awesome. And never in the big leagues, right? No, no, yeah. I never caught. So 2010, I didn't make the team at a spring training. And I was playing mostly third. In that year, they were like, hey, if you're going to make this team, you've got to be bouncing around.

So I literally was in AAA, Indianapolis, in April, playing left field in first place. And I'll never forget this. the first series of the year, we were in Columbus, Ohio, and the very first game, one of our catchers, we had two catchers. One was Eric Kratz, who's obviously still around. And the other guy, I can't remember his name, but the other guy started,

took a ball off his toe and thought he broke his toe at the very first game. The second game, they said, hey, walk, you're not allowed to play today because we don't have an extra catcher. And if something happens to Kratz, you're going to have to go in the game. So you're going to sit today, and you're going to go catch every relief. that's coming into this game.

And it was, it was 40 degrees outside in Columbus, Ohio, the second day of the season. And I literally was like, I think that I should probably quit because this is, this is the, this is literally the worst thing I can, could ever imagine. And fortunately, that fizzled out. And I ended up having a really good April and May of that year. And that shot me up into the big leagues. But man, oh, man, that was, I've never been so happy to not put the catchers gear on. But I have been the third catcher.

pretty much every single year. But luckily, it's value, man. It does, it does, but I don't want any part of it. Yeah,

I was going to say, do you want to, like, take that off your resume? Yeah. Yeah. Please stop. Someone else sign up.

Like, that should be a young guy's position. Yeah, right. And for the most part, they take inventory and spring training, and they're like, well,

what can you do? And I'll be like, ah, I can play first, second, third, right, left. And then I'll be like, Kachcher,

you know, and they'll be like, what is that? Oh, you can catch, oh, okay, well, you know, we'll get you some gear. Don't worry. You know, every couple weeks, make sure you catch a bullpen, and I'm like, oh, get the hell out of here. I don't want anything to do with this.

So funny, man. Oh, I want to go back to some of those Pittsburgh teams because those were really good teams. I mean, I think people overlooked those a little bit. I mean, McCutcheon got, what, one MVP, so I, and, you know, he kind of became a star of the league. But, I mean, that's a dude who, you know, you mentioned some of the different markets. I think if McCutcheon was a Dodger or Yankee or some of those other teams, I mean, he would be household household.

And luckily, social media, he is becoming household household. But I want to hear a little bit about, you know, a couple of those teams, maybe 2013 or what don't people know? Because, I mean, McCutcheon, yeah, he was a stud. But, like, I'm looking at some of those pitching staffs. And those are silly. It's Burnett, Leriano, Cole, Morton. Like, those teams were awesome, man.

Yeah, yeah, it was, you know, that, so I got the big leagues in 2010 and kind of got established later on in the 2011 season. I felt like I finally was like, okay, I'm here. Andrew was up there half a season before me in 2009. And then fast forward a little further. Charlie Morton was up there, but he was still kind of struggling to get his footing and consistency as a big league starter. you know, we had guys like Starling Marte that came along, I think, later in the 2012 season. We got, we had a really good first half in the 2012 season and fizzled out in April, in August and September. And we knew going into that offseason, we were like, hey, we got a pretty good squad here.

Like, we got, we got some good players. And they did a really good job that year of bringing in Russell Martin and Liriano and A.J. Burnett. and these guys that were veteran guys, and they had kind of meddled a little bit the last couple years, but, you know, it was a perfect market for those guys to come in. I think AJ was coming from New York or Philadelphia or somewhere like that. Frankie struggled a little bit. I think he was with the White Sox maybe and just kind of struggled in the AL.

Came over, and these guys just were really good. Everybody was healthy. It was like the perfect storm. And we got to about late May in 2000. And we kind of looked around and we were like, hey, we're legit. Like we're we got a chance at this. And we were staring down the barrel of the Cardinals. And Cincinnati was still really competitive.

Chicago was kind of up and coming at that time. Milwaukee was was on the down swing for, for that year. And we, we were just good. And we didn't have, like you said, we didn't have big name guys. Andrew was clearly our best player. Everything was built around him. Our pitching staff was steady. Garrett got up there mid-season,

Garrett Cole got up there mid-season, and he just jumped right in the rotation, basically, as our number two guy. And we were one game, you know, we lost the game, we lost the fifth game of the division series against the Cardinals in St. Louis. Carlos Belchon had a huge three-run homer

and like the sixth inning to completely separate the game. But we were, there was not many guys in our team that had a lot of post-season experience. and that kind of catapulted us through the next couple years. And people that know that 14 and 15 year, we ran into a complete buzzsaw after that with Jake Arieta and Madison Bumgard in the wildcard games. But we were just as good in 14 and 15 as we were in 13.

We just kind of fell victim to the wild card game. And in 13, we were beneficiaries of the wildcard game. So that's kind of baseball. I mean, think about this last year, the Milwaukee Brewers had had the wild card game won. It had a won. And the Washington National has had to win in the World Series. So it's crazy.

Yeah, I mean, that 15 season, you guys won 98 games. Yeah. And we still had to play, we almost had to play on the road for a wild car game. That's insane. Absolutely insane. Fans love it. Fans, like as a fan, I love watching a one game thing. But as a player, and I never had, I never got to experience that, but to play 162 games,

when 98 of them. Yeah. And then have your entire postseason balance on one. And you know baseball. A pitcher can dominate for one game and you have no chance. And that's kind of what happened two years in a row. Now that I'm talking it out loud, I don't like the wild card game. I'm going to have to call Rob.

We might need to look this up, but I believe I'm the leader in the clubhouse for most wildcard games played. I think I have. Really? So I have, I've been a part of five. The first year with the Mets, I got hurt at the end of the year. So three with three with the pirates, one with the Mets and then one with the Yankees. And I have a three and two, or a two and three record. And but like it's only been around for eight years.

Yeah. So if you want me to be a part of a wild game, wild card game, just bring me on your squad, I guess. Was that was that? So what's that? the furthest you went in a postseason? So we got 2013 very first year, well, I mean, 2013 and then 2018 with the Yankees. We got the game five of the Vision Series against the Cardinals in 13. And then we got to game four against the Red Sox in 18. So, you know, both was more nerve-wracking. Like was the buzz, the excitement, the nervous energy more in the

like the NLDS than it was in the wildcard? game or was that why or like how like just tell us how the wildcard game is as a player like it's like it's it's it's it's it's i mean the so the very first wildcard game uh johnny quato we face johnny quato and the in the reds and we got up early and liriana just shoved right the next year we had um we had madison bumgarner he came into pittsburgh uh and um branda crawfer hit a grand slam and like the sixth inning and Bumgarder threw basically a shutout. We were toast. No shot. The next year, Arieta was unhittable the entire year.

It was NL. Sy Young, came into Pittsburgh and shoved it. The following year, I was with the Mets and didn't play, but Madison Baumgart pitch did the same thing. Same guy. And it was still tied. We went to an extra inning and somebody hit a, I think somebody for them hit a Conrad Gillette. That was the Cinderguard game, right?

We just rewatched that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he shoved it and Bumbunner shoved it and somebody hit a three-run homer in like the top of the 10th inning, something like that, and we lost. And then two years later with the Yankees, we played the Oakland Athletics and Severino pitched an absolute gem. Judge hit a big homer early in the game to give us a cushion.

And I think we ended up winning like six to two or six to three or something like that. But there's like it's out the window. the script is completely out the window. It's not like, okay, well, we got Severina throwing game one and Tanaka throwing two. And, you know, we got it set up to go on the road. It's like, all right, all hands on deck, like all of our starters in the bullpen, something happens in the first two innings.

We're going to go to the number two starter and hope that he can get through two innings. And that's really the way it's been. Most every single game, it's either been somebody got a huge hit or a huge homer to kind extend the game and give a cushion or a pitcher is shoved it. So that's that's the name of the wildfire. I can't even imagine, bro. Trev, in a kind of serious no, and the first half of this question you think I'm debagging you, but you've mentioned a few times that your twins teams weren't always the most successful. When you do hear that like a 98 win Pittsburgh team goes in and is in that one game wildcar buzzsaw. Do you do you honestly

take a step back and like, hey, maybe we need to rethink this because that's kind of fucked. Yeah, I mean, absolutely. But I get it because fans love it. Yeah. Now, now we're going to expand. It is like you open up the playoffs with a bang. Like if you,

when you open up game one of a five game set or, you know, not everyone's like calling their relatives, you got to watch this. Like I remember in 16 when it was Cubs or I forget who it was, but it was like like my sister. I was like watch this. Like this is intense. So it is like

everyone crowds around, casual fans. So from a fan perspective, it's great, but I don't think you want to be a fan of a team in it. I hated watching the Yankees. You wake up sick. Like, holy shit. I love seeing all the pitchers, the starting pitchers march their way down to the bullpen. They don't have no idea what to do in the

bullpen. They're just sitting there like, what do I do? How do I get warm? How do I get warmed up again? Everything is completely different in those games. And like I said, yeah, I mean, thinking about playing 162 games and winning 98 of them and then having your entire season hanging on one game sounds so stupid. Yeah.

But here I am. Jones in for a one game playoff. I can't wait to see that this year. Because I don't have, I don't care anymore. I'm a fan and I get to just watch you guys sweat it out. When, when the first batter of the game walks

and then Judge takes the opener deep, it's a nice, nice feeling. Yeah, you want to be on that side, no doubt about that. Yeah. Yeah. That was like, there's a video of me watching that, and I'm just like such a little kid, like relief. Like I'm not even excited.

I'm just relieved because I've been a ball of stress all day. I need a team to root for. I need a team to root for. I need to feel that. You're a Dodgers fan. I don't want to be a Dodgers fan. Twins seem like a layup. Yeah.

I root for that. I do. How about this? And I was going to spin this before we do land in Yankee World because it was a good segue, but I didn't want it. Give us a little more on what you. you saw on the Phillies because we actually talked to Hoskins right at the beginning of all this Corona stuff and and I know you know you're you got what a month of spring training four weeks of spring training but what what should we be looking for on this

Phillies team because I mean you know Harper Hoskins McCutcheon like those guys obviously pop out what should we be looking for and maybe sell Trevor Plouf on rooting for your Phillies this year okay it's I mean it's When you look on paper at what, especially the offensive side of it, it's deep. Like, it's deep. You got, you got, like, you don't know where Dedy Gregorius is going to hit. Well, I didn't tell you, but D.D. Rigorius hit in the middle of the Yankees lineup successfully for about six years, five, six years.

And you're looking at the line of here and going, well, you put them in front of, you double up lefties with him and Bryce. Do you sandwich Rio Muto between him and hit D.D. 5th or six? Do you put McCutche in one or two, or do you put him at six or seven? Do you put Hoskins in the middle of the order? Do you move him down? When I was looking at that in spring training, I was like, wow, this is a really good team. And I played in the NEO East with the Marlins last year, obviously, with the Mets, tears for that.

So I've seen kind of how the trajectory, this offense especially has going. and has come from. And it's not an easy, you know, you'll peg some lineups and be like, wow, this is going to be a tough lineup to get through four times in a night. And then multiply that by a three or four game series. Like if we could sneak one out of here, we can see, we're feeling pretty happy. But, you know, I think at the end of the day, it becomes, you know, how does the pitching staff hold up?

How do the relievers hold up? And I have all the faith in the world and guys. And, you know, you hate to see the Sir Anthony Dominguez, you know, have to go under the knife because they had such high expectations for him. You know, Zach Wheeler is a sneaky, you know, ace that I think that is going to have a monster year that nobody really kind of, you know, talks a whole lot about. And I think Jake is healthy this season. So there's a lot of really solid pieces on this team that I think if we stay healthy and

guys play just to their norm, that there's absolutely no reason that we shouldn't we shouldn't win this division. So, you know, and you look at the N.O. East, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, you know what I mean? And you can say arguably that some teams took a step back and, uh, you know, the Marlins of the Marlins and, and, and, and maybe nationals aren't going to be the nationals, but at the same time, you look at these pitching, all these pitching staffs, you look at, uh, it's unbelievable. You know, you go into new, when, when you go into New York to face the Mets, you're like, oh, great. Okay. I got, you know, the last couple years, you got, you got Wheeler, Sindergarden to ground.

And you're literally thinking yourself, how am I going to get a hit the next three days? Can I please go one for three with a walk somehow, one of these next three nights? And, you know, obviously we still, we still wheeler from those guys. But, you know, it's a tough division. So you're going to be at whether it's a, whether we, if we're lucky enough to start if a 60 game, 70 game, whatever the season may be, like, you're going to have to be good. you're going to make really good for 70 games. And, you know, if it bumps up the 16, 14, 16 teams, whatever it's going to be in the

playoffs, that's going to help. But, you know, pitching is going to be the name of the game, in my opinion. Are you a fan of the 16 teams getting in? You know, I think there is, like you were saying, I think there's something to be said for playing so well over the course of 162 games and being rewarded. And if you're, you know, the top three teams, if you win your division, you basically, you basically, to get a buy basically into the division series. I can't say that I love the 16 team playoff scenario.

I think that it gives, clearly it gives more teams an opportunity. But at the same time, there was 16 teams packing it in before the season even started. Let's be off. 16 teams a ton. It's obviously over 50% of the league is going to be in the playoffs. I don't love it. if when I was playing, I would have loved it because I would have had a chance to play in the postseason. So like guys, I think around the league are probably like, all right, like, everybody wants to go into postseason.

So it's not such a bad thing. But then when you kind of take a step back, you're like, man, like over half the league's going to be in. And really, the baseball playoffs, you know, if more than any other sport, it's all about timing and getting hot at the end of the season. And so if you're if you're that 15, 16th team in, but you get hot, like, who knows what's going to happen, man. Yeah. That's why I don't like it because baseball is a sport where anything can happen. I think some people like, you know, if a wildcard team who had like just over 500 season and somehow sneaks in does get hot and does damage, people are going to use that as like, yeah, see, you know, we let them in. But it's like, but that's not the point that the point is we don't.

want that because baseball so easily has parody already. Right. That let like let the good teams sorted out. And think about teams have earned it a little bit. Think about think about the NHL and the NBA every year. I mean, the one versus 16 or the one versus eight seeds. I mean, how often do you see that those those teams get clipped? I mean, it never happens. And to your point, like, it's much more likely to happen in baseball, especially if it's a three game series than it is in any other sport. And then all of a sudden, you're the number one scene. You win 106 games like the Red Sox did a couple years ago. And you got to go play the, you know, the under 500 Baltimore Orioles and they go have two of the best games that they've had all year. And they clip the best game in the

league. I mean, obviously that's, you know. Well, let's leave the Baltimore Orioles out of this. Okay, Neil. The under 500 Orioles was the nicest thing the Orioles have had. said about them in a long time. That was so well-phrased. Maybe not the Orioles. Just for any baseball fans that are feeling kind of disconnected, like they're lawyers right now, go look at the Phillies roster. You guys have 10 major league hitters ready to go. Like, there's guys you didn't mention. I mean, Jay Bruce, Josh Harrison, like, King. It's silly, man. That's silly. Yeah, it is. It's good team. You guys got to stay healthy for sure. Yep.

Even like David Robertson coming back. Tommy Hunter, David Robertson, I mean, there's guys that are coming off of injuries, yeah. And that's going to be a gigantic piece. And we are, I would say, on the kind of the older side. And so that's, I mean, as you know, that's more important than anything else is going to be the depth, which I think they did a good job. I think the Phillies did a really good job of really big cognizant of bringing in deaf pieces. both on the pitching side and the position player side. And now that these rosters are most likely going to be expanded to whatever, 29, 30, 31,

I think that's going to, that type of foresight in their mind is really going to help. Do you and touch look at each other and say, like, are we just following each other around the week right now? Well, he lives in Pittsburgh. We're hitting together now here. So we get to, we get to reminisce on our day. It's your third team together, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, 13. Yeah, it's pretty awesome. It's funny.

That's great. The way that the Phillies brought in veterans this year, I think, is really going to help them with these expanded rosters. And I don't want to, like, talk crap about anybody, but they're really, and I played in the minor leagues with them in 2018. So I kind of saw what they had at the upper level minor leagues. There's really not a lot of kind of, like, impact guys, at least when I was there, that are ready to go. so to bring in, you know, a bunch of kind of veteran guys that have been around the league for a long time, I think is really going to help out, especially, like I said, if you've got 28, 29, 30 guys on this roster, you guys are going to be able to, and with the DH, like, just interchange guys, keep everyone healthy.

I mean, you guys are really set up nice to do some damage in this kind of strange type of season that we're probably going to end up having. Well, when you think about, you think about, like, what the schedule could potentially look like. And there's probably going to be scenarios where you get rained out a couple times a week. And all of a sudden, you're playing 20 games in a row. Well, you're going to be able to kind of trudge through those days with a 30-man roster. But at the same time, like you're saying, you're not having to throw the, you know, three guys that are AAA guys out there on the back end of a double header or four games in three days to kind of just fill in and hope that they go out there and play, well, you're going to have bona fide big leaguers that are able to.

to step in and help. So I think I think that's going to be a strong point for us if this thing kicks off. Yeah, 100%. All right. So we told Jake and I are Yankees fans. This whole company started as, uh, as, talking Yanke's. So we got to do a little Yankees talk.

I want to start off. All right. See you guys later. See you, I got to start off with your first Yankees Red Sox series was a pretty wild one. Oh yeah. With the brawl in Fenway. Yeah.

And all those big body. he's throwing each other around Cici, Judge, Giancarlo, Tyler Austin. I mean, it was huge. Do you have any fun memories that maybe like happened, you know, post-brawl in the clubhouse or pre or Doring or anything? You know what? So it's funny. The very first series that we played against the Red Sox was the very first time that I played,

that was my last stadium that I needed to hit. Was it, was it, was it Fenway Park? So the 30th ballpark I needed to hit. So I'm going up there and I'm like I just I just crossed off my baseball bucket list You know I just I just hit my last place what better place than Fenway Park I get up for my first bat and I'm standing on deck and I'm not kidding you like a 75 year old lady is just telling me how how how How horse shit I am and how and then I need to go back to the NL and I got no business being in the Red Sox Yankees rivalry And I'm like okay cool this is this is how it's gonna be

There we are That sounds like Fenway. Fast forward to, I think it might have been the second game of the first series at Fenway Park. And Tyler Austin just gets absolutely drilled and he goes out there. And Joe Kelly drills him with 98 in the back. And he runs out there. And I'm like, oh, here we go. Right.

And I'm running out there. And the first thing I thought I was like, I need to grab the smallest guy that I can find. Where's the smallest guy? Jackie Bradley. There he is. Let me grab Jackie. I grabbed Jackie. And I'm like, don't move.

All of a sudden, I see Joe Kelly's glasses on the ground. And I said, I'm going to take these glasses. I pick up these glasses. And they're busted. They're broken in half. He's got one lens completely popped out. I fire him back into the back of the crowd. So I need nothing to do.

I got pearly whites here. You know, I got decent bone structure. I didn't want anything to do with catching the left hook from, you know, from anybody in that bullpen. I'll let Judge and Errolous Chabdin, you know, and Patances and these six-foot-eight gargantuanes come out of the bullpen and just kind of strut their way over there. I want nothing to do with that. But, you know, needless to say, whether you're on the front line or the backline of a soft

brawl or a big brawl in major league baseball, there's nothing more exciting than being in that scrum. And it's just a matter of this is sticking out. And they have Red Sox Yankees, too. Like, that's awesome. At Fenway, you're brawling against the rival. Like, there's nothing better than that. That's awesome.

April, like early. Yeah. It's at the tone. Yeah, it's at the tone for sure. It was brewing. What, um, I mean, how, when you look back at New York, because you mentioned it was kind of your first time not playing full time and that, that was a big adjustment. And, uh, like you said, you got off to the slow start and we kind of talked about

that a little bit. You come late to spring training and there you are at first base. Um, and, uh, you know, I, I went back into the numbers a little bit and you, you, tough tough year from the right side that's all i'll say um and and did that just add to it i mean are you getting frustrated are you saying are you trying to be like hey run me out there for a couple weeks because that's what i do like what was that like for you so it was funny because you know that i i knew that i wasn't prepared for the season and it had nothing to do with like what i was doing before i got uh you know got picked up

by the Yankees, I think, second, third week of March and had, you know, a few weeks to get ready for the season. I was doing everything I could. I went to that camp at IMG Academy and Bradenton, so I was getting some live at bats and things like that, but it just wasn't the quality of work, wasn't prepared. Playing that April and part of May, and I kept asking, of course, the media is going to ask you, you come over and you're a partial everyday player and you're not playing well and you play well in your career. And they're going, what's wrong with you? What's going on? And I'm going, listen, I just don't, I basically was like, I just don't feel like myself.

Like I just, I haven't got my timing down. I don't feel comfortable with the plate. I just haven't settled in yet. And literally I got to like the second week of May and we were in Texas and I got a couple big hits and hit a homer and just flush the ball. And sometimes that's all it takes to get you kind of locked back in. And hit a couple of balls hard there. And it was just kind of like the weight kind of just lifted off my shoulders.

And I was like, you know what? I can't play stressed out. I can't play like searching. I need to just be me. And if you basically take the first month and a half away from my statistics with the Yankees, I played almost pretty much the exact same I have in my career. But, you know, when you're in a place like New York, you understand that the, you know, when you're not playing up to par, you're going to be asked questions.

You're going to be prodded and told that you stink. And you know that as a player. Like you know that, you know, it wasn't one of these things where I was like, oh, man, I've lost the step. I'm 32 years old or whatever the case they'd be. I was just like, dude, I just don't feel right. I just, my time is not right. And like you said, I was playing three, four days a week. I was playing most of the time when righties would pitch, wouldn't play when lefties would pitch.

And I just didn't feel great. And all of a sudden, mid-May comes around. I start to get it back. And I had a good rest of the year. So it was a good learning curve for me because going from pretty much playing every day, to not playing every day and then learning the routine of how to prepare as a bench guy and as a non-everyday guy it took a while to kind of get to that point and by the end of the season, I honestly felt even though my, if you looked at like my numbers for that year, they weren't good,

but I honestly felt like I learned more that year about myself and about, you know, what I needed to do to be the best version of myself than I had in any other year because I never thought of it before. I knew that I was in line up every day every other year before that year and that year I needed to be like okay I need to take more early work I need to take more early ground balls to stay prepared I need to hit off the in the batting cage in the sixth inning off a velocity machine to make sure I'm prepared if I get that one at bat that night so you know it was it was a hard it was a hard reality to kind of because that's kind of where I am now is maybe not an everyday player but a partial everyday player and but I wouldn't be I having gone

through that. I was going to have to go through that mud at some point. And unfortunately, I ended up doing it at literally the biggest stage in the world as a New York Yankees. But at the end of the day, you know, I don't regret anything in my time with the Yankees. I loved it. Those guys were great. And, you know, outside of the buzz saw that was the Red Sox that year, we could have had a good chance of making a deep run. I mean, they asked you to do a lot of things that were new. Like by the end of the season or in the playoffs you were defensive replacement at first base and you were basically a designated third baseman when cc pitched and you know two positions that didn't play for a long time and now you're the

defensive replacement those positions you also had like three big ass home runs at the end of the series like pinch pinch hit walkoffs three run bomb to turn it i mean it was like it felt like you were given you were you were you were given us like a presence or was like neal's got it that's how it felt at the end of the season really did because i really did it did because you had command of the zone no no no he knows it at the end of the season i mean i think your pinch hit numbers that season are amazing i think you had like a one op one ops and ton of home runs and shit but i remember the home runs in texas off bart that got you started off bartolo cologne i have an odd question for you here we go when you hear the term disco neal does that mean anything i still don't know what

disco new is like you know i i i wish somebody would explain to me exactly with disco neal you know i'm all for it i whatever name nickname you want to give me that that's great but i never got the premise of disco neal so now's a lot of people didn't it's just jake does um nobody does and it's It's kind of everything you just said, and I'll try to define it, but we can't. Man, tell Treb. I have no idea what you're talking about. Yeah, so Trev, a big thing in 2018 season was at some point, Jake does these burns. Some point, the nickname Disco Neil just stuck.

And it was like on our podcast. It was just funny to us. Like it kind of didn't make any sense. It was out of left field. I mean, I'd make these videos every home run. I'd make a video of a song. D-I-S-C-O with a disco ball. And it'd be, it'd be Neil running around the bases just with disco balls.

We sold disco. Neal, there's your face on a disco ball. Sorry, a royalty. Sold a ton of those. It was just your energy, which we're all seeing now, like you're a positive dude. You can see that on the field. And, you know, it's kind of funny, like, tying in the numbers in your season.

Like, dude, there was a couple months you raked. Like, you're saying. you know, in New York, yeah, it wasn't my best season. Like, the month of May you had an 890 OPS. In July you had an 894 OPS. Like, after that start, you got going. And it's what Jimmy was saying before. And it should almost mean nothing coming from us.

But you were such a professional. Like, you're at, bats were professional. If you went to third base, you played like a professional. You went to right field like you were just saying. And everything you did was a ball player. And there was just this little bit of swag to it, that it wasn't over the top. But I think that was the disco twist that it was like, if you guys want to get funky, I'll get funky.

That's kind of what it was. I get it now. That's a perfect explanation of Neil Walker, professional with a little sweat. I'm for the voice. You know that. Yeah. And that's amazing, dude. That's a great nickname.

Now that you've explained it, because Disco, Neil, if you don't explain, it doesn't make any sense. We got calls and tweets, not why do you guys call on that? And we're like, if we can't. That's why we just, you like it or you like it. It was great because the people that like got me and Jimmy and kind of our weirdness, like they were like, yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But the people that kind of didn't, they were like, you're never going to make sense of this. Well, just so you know, that's stuck in the clubhouse.

So that started to infiltrate the clubhouse. So they were wanting me to bust the disco ball out or whatever I get a big get or something. That's awesome. I got a Yankee centric question for you. I'll play ball. Yes. I'll go Yankees right here. Looking at your stats.

And do you want to know the statistic that you're four times better than Derek Jeter? Oh, boy. Here we go. Oh, no. Grand slams. Old Neal's got four grand slams. Poor Derek Jeter only could muster up one in his entire career. Is that true?

Wow. Yeah. Yeah. So you're four times better than Derek Jeter. You hear it here first. Whatever. I'm twice as good as Derek Jeter. Look at this.

So. 3. four batting average 1.0.081 OPS as a pinching. I had it right. You crushed. I need to try to improve on that next year to keep my career going. Dude, one of us in this chat right now is taking Max Scherzer up top three times. It's not Jake.

It's not BVD. Guarantee you it's not me. What are you doing against Scherzer that you take them up top three times? What are you looking for off that guy? Because nobody else can do that. just praying that he leaves one belt high. And typically, typically if he does, it's got, it's got this ball flight on it that's like moving, you know, to the north and you just foul it off. So it's just like, okay, well, you know he's going to get dirty on me, especially if he gets

two strikes. Maybe he'll make a mistake sometime before I get the two strikes. And I think the times that I've got him were like two one middle of eight heaters and a miss slider cutter in 01 that he left over the plate. But more than anything, it was just, it was just swing and prey and I've connected with three. You got some good, you got some good ones here. I'm looking, Zach Greenkey, you got them four times. Whoa.

I think two of the pictures here. I'm going over all your shots. I love that. I did a couple of short porch in Milwaukee, too. So I don't know if that, I don't know if that exactly count. Okay. All right. They count.

In the book. It all count. We're talking to, you're talking to Yankees fans here. They all count. There's one other, one other stat here I saw is that after leaving Pittsburgh, whenever you go back and play the pirates, you just crush it.

Is that just a comfort thing? What's the stat? There's like a revenge of the ex-player that, that totally exist in baseball. And you know what, like I didn't have it in my mind, like especially the first couple years after I went back, with the Mets back to Pittsburgh, like, oh, I'm going to bury these guys.

Like, I wasn't thinking that, but like, you go to the ballpark and you're like, wow, this is super familiar. Like, taking BP, taking ground balls, stepping in the box, your first and back. Because there's times you go play places and you're not familiar with the backdrop or the box. And you're like, oh, this is good. You know, it takes two games to feel comfortable. Well, you know, when I was in Pittsburgh, I was super comfortable. And I knew exactly how I needed to hit the ball to right field to get it over the wall.

I knew exactly how to hit the ball to right center, the trajectory you needed to get that ball over the wall and right center. So that's kind of where I made my living. But I think it was just kind of one of those things where you play for a team for so long and so many guys do it too. They come back and they kind of just somewhat torture their old team. But it's nonetheless, it's nonetheless enjoyable. You got to, uh, it's a 438 on base percentage trav 1.049 OPS. Against the pirates. They love you and they hate you.

I know how they pitch there. I know, I know their philosophy. So, man. Yeah. Yeah. Man, you've been, you've kept you for a while. So, I mean, you can dip if you want. The only other thing I wanted to ask about was the famous viral video with the umpire and

Terry Collins and Noah Sindigard. And you make an appearance in that. and for a while that wasn't available to the public. Did you guys in the clubhouse ever like laugh about that? Like the ass in the jackpot line? Or were you too much heat of the moment to really soak it in? What was it like when you watched that back? I don't remember.

I don't remember. I can't remember the umpire's name. But Tom Hally and I think is who it was. I don't remember him ever saying that out there. I remember it was like late May or something and we were playing the Dodgers in a four game series and it was a Thursday. through Sunday series. And on Thursday, we ran through like our entire bullpen. And so we needed Noah to go like at least six innings that night. And the whole talk was like, Chase Sutley,

you know, he took out Ruben Tejada the year before, you know, what's he going to do? And I remember I remember David Wright having a conversation with him like, hey, listen, like, now it's not the time for this. We're scuffling. We're trying to get back into, into, into, in the, in the, in the, the wind, like the wind column, we were struggling for some of May. And Noah was basically like, all right, I got this. Like, don't worry about it. And literally, I think it was a second, it might have been the first bat of the game. I think it was a second battle of the game.

He rears back and I'm standing behind him and I'm like, oh, no, here we go. And I just see 99 go behind his back. And I'm like, oh, no, he's about to get tossed. We're about to completely blow out our bullpen again. He gets run. and we run to the diamond, and I'm like, there's nothing I can say right now that's going to get him back in this game,

but I got to stand up for him somehow. And I'm like, Tom, why didn't you tell us that this is, if something happened, you've got to give us a warning, you know? And the lawyer of me is coming out, and I'm like, I'm not going to win this one, but I got to at least give him my two cents. And he's like, what are you talking about? He almost just drilled him with a hundred in the head.

Like, even though he's, didn't hit him. The intent was there. And I'm like, yeah, I know. But I can't, I can't. Yeah, you're right. And then he busts off the ass and the jackpot. And when I saw that for the first time, I literally couldn't stop laughing for like an hour. And then when you see Terry Collins dropping all sorts of cuss words at the home played on, the only reason he was mad is because he knew he was about to blow, we were about to blow our bullpen out again for the second straight day with two more games to go against the Dodgers. So it was that that was, I've gotten more comments about that than like anything else over

the course of the last four years of my career, which is awesome. But at the same time, when we were going through it, we were like, oh, no, this is, this is the worst thing ever. Is that a saying? It's an amazing clip. Is that like a real saying? Or do he just like make that up? Like ass and the jackpot?

No one heard it. No one's heard it, but until it was it. What does it mean? What does it mean? I don't even know. No idea. I like it. I'm going to start using it.

Yeah. I think it means like, you know, we're on the spot here. Like, you know, we're on the edge. We can't mess up or we're. Jackpot. Yeah, yeah. You got no other choice. I don't know.

It doesn't matter what it means. It's awesome. Off. That was awesome. Yeah. Oh. I'm great. I mean, we've kept you for a while. Anything you need to plug?

Anything we need to check out? No, I don't think so. We think. No more run-ins with Trev. We played some good amateur ball together. What's your number in Philly? 12. I've always been...

Can't wait to see number 12 out there. 18, 18 and 20. I've tried to stay in the 10 to 20 range if I can. But if I have to pay for a number, you know, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not buying somebody a Rolex for their number. I got diapers to buy and all sorts of stuff now. You know what I mean? Yeah.

Real stuff. We appreciate you coming on. This is fun, guys. I appreciate it. You guys are killing it. I'm so happy for you guys. So appreciate that. Appreciate that.

Need to see you back on the field, dude. Yeah, man. Soon. And there you have it. And Jake, what I was going to say at the top of the show that I didn't want to say is it's very cool that the nickname you made up for a player that has no basis was just used in the clubhouse by his teammates. That's pretty cool to hear. It was proven that there was perfect basis for it by that bullshit response I stumbled into. But yeah, man, and you and I, you know, we peel back the curtains a little bit.

We, you know, we try almost not to do that because it sounds really. douchey if we run into Yankees players and it's like, hey, did you see this? So we try not. Do you know what we call you? Yeah. So it's do you not to do that. But yeah, I mean, to hear that was obviously really cool and awesome. Like I asked him if he wanted to plug anything. And he's like, yeah, let me see if I've got old Trevor stories. It's like, oh, man. Like you're good, dude. You're good. And hey, let's be honest. Well, I can speak for me and Jimmy here. We had a longer day today. you know, we're recording late night.

And I'm full with Spunk right now. That was great. Yeah, it's a good one. I knew coming in that he was going to be a good interview or just kind of a good discussion partner. I'll give him that. But like you said, he kind of brings that energy in that role that he's in now, you know, where he's probably not going to be an everyday player,

at least to start, maybe something happens, whatever. but that's that's the energy you're looking for if you're putting together a roster a guy that can keep you loose but be professional about it's Neil Walker to a T I think a Philly did a good job going out and getting him and he's going to be a big part of the team this year and like he said in the interview they have a long lineup and they are really well positioned to do well this year particularly. Yeah, I mean... Yeah.

They're stacked. I don't buy the pitching as much as, you know, we're supposed to, especially in like an arms race. You could say that about any team. That's what I think. Everyone's... It's all about the pitching. You go as far as your pitchers, and they're no different.

In a shortened season, I mean, I really do think they, A, get a DH and seriously, look at their bats. It's silly. DH helps them alone. And, like, hey, you know, I think when we talked about the fifth Philly's preseason, it was kind of like, you know, hey, you need Wheeler to put it together, you need Nola to put it together. And now in a shortened season, I mean, there's no reason to like bet against those guys.

And then, hey, if Arietta figures it out, you know, you're, you got a playoff rotation there. So, uh, go Phil's, babe. Go Phil's. All right. Thank you guys very much. I just texted you a link, Trev, to the disco Neil. I'm watching it right now. It's hilarious.

You got to listen to it, too. It's fucking, as soon as the ball hits the bat, it just goes, D-I-S-C-D-D-P-O-N-O. All right, thank you guys very much for tuning in. Hope you have a great day, and we will see you later.