Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 75 | What is Spring Training Really Like?

Episode Date: January 30, 2020

We peppered Plouffe with questions about Spring Training? Is it fun? Is it awful? How long is it fun until its awful? Are position battles real and was he ever part of one? Which stadium has the worst facilities? 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.

What's going on? It is Talking Baseball. We have another episode here with Trevor Plouf, Jake, and myself. And we're going to be talking about spring training. Let's do it. What's going on, everybody? Welcome to Talking Baseball. My name's John Boy.

I'm coming to you from the Bronx, New York. I've got a co-host and best friend Jake Story Alley. His ancestors used to tell stories in alleys. He's in Denver, Calo Rado. And also with us is Trevor Plouf. If you're watching the YouTube video or the live stream, appreciate you patrons who are watching the live stream. You'll notice that Trevor Plouf isn't currently on screen.

He finally got his camera, his mic, and his video to work perfectly. But he had the roofers banging on his roof. Now he's back. Hello. He's ready. So, dude. This is, this is podcasting 101, the perils of podcasting.

Jim, I just, I just had flashbacks. Remember my window cleaner times? I mean, those were, those were insane. Yeah,

we're, Trevor, Trevor has joined us. We're just talking about how you were, you're going through the, I said perils of podcasting. That was pretty cool. But how you do it is not.

It's not what I'm going through. I'm doing great. I just had to, you know, lay the law down a little bit outside, and here we go. You know, I'm ready to go. Would you rather deal with that or an 80-degree sauna of a room? This was pretty easy for me, so I'll choose that. Yeah, I just had to tell some people some stuff, you know. Hey, don't bang.

We're trying to talk about Springtrain. I just did a beautiful intro. People are raving about it saying one of the best intros I've done. And that's all. Did we do the music already? We did the music. Fuck. Yeah.

You missed the music. Maybe on the outro, I'll get my dancing in, I guess. It's a good idea. How's everyone doing today? Treve, how are you? I'm excellent. It's been a good day for me so far. As you can see, I look a little bit more professional.

On our last video, there's some people who chirped me about my mic. So I got a big boy mic, big boy headphones, and it's going to be a good podcast. Jake, Jake's wearing a nice hat. I have a denim hat on. Plufe has, it looks like a denim hat, but I don't know if it's denim. but that's the hat scene and all that. Jake's rocking Vandy. I have to take my sweatshirt off.

So, Jake, you have to talk for a second because I got to take my sweatshirt off without knocking my AirPods out of my ear. It's like a real skilled thing you got to do. Let me check it out. See if we get some nudity on the show today. That is some good live content. Trev, I will kick one thing to you early

because we're going to have a fun episode. We're going to talk some spring training. We'll get some of the player stuff, some of the stuff you love, a lot of the stuff you hate it. And I think that's awesome. And I do, well, you know me. Well, A, you came in hot and you wanted to go with another real serious topic,

which I think we're going to push to next week. I did. But yeah, we're going to have some fun spring training talk. And before we get there, and I don't want to, I don't know, I don't want to bring us down too hard. But I think one of the biggest things me and Jim found out about you last trip when we really hung out with you. We went to like a family event with you,

which we totally shouldn't have been at, but thank you for the invite again on that. But you are a proud Valley guy. You're a proud L.A., dude. And we haven't had you on the mic since the Kobe stuff. So I know it's a couple days away, and I don't know if you want to get anything out there quick because I, dude, like you're a passionate L.A. guy, man.

Yeah, I mean, I think most people around L.A., I mean, we've had two days of basically kind of a little grief, a little morning period here. I think on Sunday, everyone was just in shock. Yeah. And, you know, didn't really know how to feel. It was crazy news. I got, I was on an airplane.

I got a text for my wife, a couple text for my buddies on some group chats. That's a place I would not want to hear about a helicopter crash. I honestly, I didn't even think about that. I was just trying to figure out what happened. And I had, you know, all I had was just like messaging. So I was like asking everyone like what happened, what happened? And like initial reports were him and all of his daughters were there. And I heard that and I would just like start crying on the airplane.

Yeah. And then we found out, you know, what actually happened. And it's just definitely just a sad thing. I mean, you could see obviously his impact like all over sports with everyone who's posting on social media about it. And he's really just affected people worldwide. And I mean, Kobe got so much. so much shit from everyone, you know, like while he was playing, because he, that he just played that, like, villain kind of card.

But in L.A., man, he was, my buddy put it really well. He said in a town full of stars, Kobe transcended him all. Like, he was bigger than anyone here. Like, I don't even care of Utah. Brad Pitt, any of the actors, like, it's Kobe. In L.A., it's Kobe. He walks in someplace and it's just, I mean, it's easy. He was a legend, a living legend.

So it's tough, but, you know, I think a lot of good has come out of it. I think people are really being thankful for the time they have and the people around them. I think that's always kind of something that – a good thing that comes out of tragedy like this. People start to, you know, be grateful for what they have. Yeah. So a way to turn it into a somber podcast. It's supposed to be fun, and now you just made me go on. I know, man.

And we're going to get to some fun. But you're in LA dude and you got the mic. And that's part of it. I appreciate that. I wanted to give you a little that. And you are, it is like the girl dad thing is pretty awesome. And I know you are one.

So yeah. I mean, I mean, it sucks at something like that has to happen to get to some of those places and like shack and all that stuff. But yeah, let's get it out there. If you want to talk to Trevor Plumf about that,

tweet at him. I want to. Yeah. I have a question for you guys. the news about Chris Bryant's getting his whatever, I don't know the term claim or grievance got denied. Is that a conversation that we're saved for next week's episode when we talk about the upcoming strike and the players union and stuff like that?

Because that's another sad, not sad. Yeah. My thoughts. I mean, you knew he was going to lose because it's within the rules. You knew he was going to lose. It's within the rules, what they do. So, you know, what they're going to do. It's stupid.

If anyone doesn't know. Yeah. But anyone's not aware. I think we talked about this when it initially happened because I said, hey, it's something to watch for because if Chris Bryant wins this, and by win, I mean,

they filed a grievance that the Cubs intentionally held him back to manipulate his service time. They did. That a lot of players, Glaber, there's a bunch of others, like, can also file a claim. And it's within the rules.

It's just the agreement is kind of stupid. So they'll fix that. And we'll save that for the strike talk. And now we can move on to spring training, which as Trev will let you know, is the most fun, joyous time that he's ever had playing baseball. I got to be honest with you. I mean, spring training is an awesome time.

Baseball-wise, it's stupid. And guys, I mean, it's probably two weeks too long. And it's not real baseball. But as a for a fan, I don't think there's a better. time to go experience baseball than spring training. And especially in Arizona, if you make it out to Arizona, you can catch, you know, 15 teams out there essentially. I don't know it's 15, but something like that. And they're all very close. And you can just go like to all these games, see prospects. You see starters somewhat. And then you go out and you can see guys from all different teams

walking around, you know, the Phoenix area. It's a, it's a trip, man. Like I would recommend, I know, you guys are going to spring training. It's not 100% sure if I'm going or not. I'll probably crash the party. But like I said, as a fan, man, I don't think there's a better time to watch baseball. It's just a different. It's a party atmosphere mixed with baseball.

It's totally different from a fan's perspective. So Jake and I can do a whole episode on that. But we'll let you talk about from the players perspective. Getting to spring training, is it first day of high school? Is it like all your old friends? You dress as best you can on the first day. You get a nice haircut, take a picture on the front step, and you're off to, like, first day of school.

Is that the vibe? Yeah, that's a good analogy. You know, everyone's got their fresh gear. I think the first thing everyone does, they come in in shape. Obviously, you've had the entire winter to, like, do your thing. And everybody, and I mean, everybody is like, I'm in the best shape of my life. And it's like, really? How are you?

Because, you know. But everyone feels, you know, super saucy. about themselves. They show up. A big thing for guys need to know right away is, is my equipment there? Because you have whatever your sponsor is for your batting gloves, your cleats and all that. They should have like a spring training shipment for you.

But a lot of times for whatever reason, logistically, it gets messed up and you show up and there be guys who have a ton of stuff and then some guys who have to wait on it. So that's always a thing. Damn. Well, when you had a ton of stuff and your teammate had zero. stuff, would you share? See, I peg you as a guy that was nice, a sharing guy. That's kind of another question in general about baseball.

Like, do guys share their bats? Or they're like, no, dude, I have 10. Don't mean my damn bat. Yeah, you share. If you guy wants your bats, it's not a big deal. I mean, the team's now, if you're in the big leagues, the teams pay for your bats. So you can just essentially order a zillion bats. Nice.

But yeah, as far as the gear, yeah, like, you'd help a guy out. But a lot of times, you borrow, guy borrows your bat. Guy bars your bat hits a home run with it. Are you pissed at him or happy? I'm happy for him. Okay. Yeah, for sure. Even if he breaks that, I don't care.

What does it matter of me? I'm trying to get you in a dark place. I know. You guys are trying to bring me down. I'm in set of good mood. It's not going to work today, guys. I'm just rocking. I thought it was funny with the first day of high school comparison.

And what you said about spring training, the different mindsets, you know, some people are going into their first day of high school and there's like a fear factor. They're like, yeah. Are people going to like me? I think the baseball side of that is funny because everyone rolls into spring train is like, I'm about to have the best damn year in my life. It is the most optimistic point of the season for every single franchise. Even for the shitty teams.

I mean, we know that the pirates are going to lose 100 games this year. But they're still going to go into spring training and be like, you know, why not us? You know, like we could do it? Why not? We can surprise the world. really think so do you really think so because i mean the pirates do i think they're no win no well no but i mean if you're if you're a player on that team i mean it's got to be in the back of your head like you're looking around like even if these dudes put together their best season i mean where are we

going to land i i feel like the optimism is still there but it's it's a more personal optimism does that make sense like hey i'm going to have a big year but this team ain't going anywhere Yeah, but I agree with that. Like every, on a personal level, you're like, look, I'm, I'm in great shape. I got my new cleats on. You know, I had the, the tailor get my pants just right. I'm swagged out with my, like, all my Evo shield. You know, like, you feel good about yourself.

But you're also going to have, you know, the coach come in and give us talk. And that's hilarious, especially if you're, like, you know, I don't, I guess I was on a few teams we knew we weren't going to be that good. but I mean, you go in there and it's just like, they have to say it. They have to be optimistic, you know? And they kind of know it is bullshit, but it's just a fun time for baseball. It really is. You show up the high school analogy is great because it is very similar. It's very relatable to that.

Yeah, well, I always kind of think of like professional baseball players never, and I don't mean this as an insult, like in some aspects never leave high school. Like I'd die I'd kill to go on bus rides With my buddies still Like people that People that don't play high school sports I think look back at that

As like the fond memories of youth sports And pro players still Or plane rides Just like traveling as like a team Is cool Jake used to wear a du rag on the bus You would do naked stuff sometimes It's a good time

A lot of naked stuff A lot of naked stuff And Jake's past I like that I mean baseball's full of nudity I think we've covered a little bit of that already How many spring trainings have you gone to Where like you're completely the new guy

Um Two Is it like is that Do they make an effort to welcome you Or is it you're on your own Like if you're a shy player Can you just get lost in the mix for a while there? Yeah absolutely

I mean there's so many guys I think you know Most teams bring like 50 guys, maybe 40 to 50 guys. So my first time I was new was when I got signed as a free agent to Oakland. But I knew guys. You know, I knew, you know, vote and somebody else. A couple of other guys.

So I went in there, you know, not totally blind. But you definitely have to, like, go in. And I don't know if anybody's ever gone to a new school for the first time, it's very similar to that. It's like people see you. They don't really know you. So you have to like, I like went out of my way and just like went to talk to talk to every single person because that's kind of what I do that's how I am yeah so it's easy

for me but I can see how a lot of people will be like terrified Jake we so for the listeners we don't have a structure here Jake and I just rapid fire wrote down a ton of questions so I have one Jake unless you want to go no you could go let's uh let's rip them because yeah I mean the only other like broad stroke thing I had was just the difference between being the young guy and being the old guy because I think you you hinted we talked about a little bit that you know when when you were on the twins and you were raking a little bit that spring training was a joke like I think you knew you you had third base like you were chiller and that was it when you were a young guy was it were you in like hardo mode or was it you know you kind of had your path laid out like yeah you're

going to put in your time at the miners and when it's time it's check in or I mean what was the different mindset and then at the back end of that when you're at the latter part of your career and is i don't know does that hardo mode kick in again or what i'm just trying to get into your mental headspace a little bit well always always baby uh you're just so different there's definitely different experiences in spring training when you're young i mean you try to get there first you try to get there super early you try to get your work in so everyone can see it that's like a big thing. If you're young and you're trying to make an impression, like, it ain't about working behind closed doors. It's like, let me put my workout on blast here. I got to make sure

everybody's watching me. But, I mean, there's a, it's not all fake. You know, you're going in there trying to make an impression. So you have to show that you work hard because if guys, if you don't have that reputation or nobody knows your reputation, you have to like make one for yourself. You know, you have to make your own reputation. And then, yeah, as you get a little older, a little bit more secure, that's when spring training becomes a lot of fun. Because a essentially the first two weeks of spring training, you know, even when the game start, it's like a vacation. I mean, you go there, you get a workout in. You get some ground balls. You run through some PFPs, and then you're done. And it's 12 o'clock. And you can go fishing and you can go like,

do whatever you want to do. And it's, it's really nice those first couple weeks. You mentioned get like how players get there in shape? do you ever have you ever seen like old footage of like 1950 spring training they wouldn't get there in shape they would get there as out of shape as however they were and then they'd use spring training to get in shape so like they're like you know they really used it how some guys still do that yeah absolutely yeah i was gonna say i mean that's i feel like i feel there's got to be a lot of dudes that leave a little bit little round mound of rebound going on and they're like yeah I mean, the first couple weeks we're just going to be running and shit, right?

Yeah, usually it's pitchers that come in like that. Yeah. Because I guess they can. I don't know. Because it's funny, like, you know, a pitcher, he can only throw the ball so many damn times, you know? Yeah. So their day, their days there are so ridiculous. Like a pitcher in spring training has the best life, dude.

I mean, if you pitch one day, like, you're going to get two days off probably. So like the only thing you really have to do in those two days, like show up, like do some arm care maintenance, maybe get a workout in. And then that's it, dude. Like if you have the game. Yeah, you get a massage. Yeah, you get a massage. You hit the sauna up, you know, whatever. I'm jealous of all the massages.

Pitchers are ridiculous. You're like, imagine Phil Hughes in spring training. Like, you can just imagine what you'd be doing. You know what I mean? Sorry, Phil. Going, going through cards. No, he wasn't, he wasn't at that level. He might have been playing like Pokemon Go or.

or something like that. Phil's cleaning up with his cards, man. Taking off. He's doing it. Do you see his recent idea? He doesn't do like nonstop breaks that he hosts? I don't know. Yeah.

You got a baby, don't you? Good for him. Keep telling him. I got to start pulling on myself. Trev, the one other thing before we get into some of the quick fire, silly stuff, were you ever in like a straight up position battle? Dude, I'm so happy you brought that up, okay? This is the formatting that we needed because I wanted to talk about spring training position battles.

They are almost completely made up. Really? Like the media makes spring training battles. When you go into spring training, that roster is pretty much set. I mean, somebody, maybe like a back in the bullpen thing if a guy just, you know, has a whole. horrible spring training it looks really bad like maybe they can flip-flop on someone like that but essentially you go in the spring training and your job is you know it's it's either have it or you don't already. Especially nowadays like they don't they already have their projections for you so they

mean they don't even they don't even care about spring training games it doesn't mean anything they already have your you know whatever it's called your steamer projections and uh you go in there and they know exactly who they want on that damn team. I mean I've been told I don't know three or four times in my how many spring training? I guess I'd be like 15. Three or four times I was actually in a battle and there was no battle whatsoever. I mean, they didn't matter. You just one, just all you?

No, sometimes I would lose and have no shot. Like my last couple of spring trains, I went with Texas. I was supposed to like battle for like utility role, play second base, do all this shit. I didn't do any of that. I had no chance. And it was like, yeah, you know, your insurance in case somebody gets hurt. So that's a big overblown thing. Like I don't know what the Yanks.

I'm sure you guys are very tuned into like the Yankee spring training position player battles, but they're already over. We've kind of developed our own battle that we say is happening, but the rest of the media hasn't talked about it yet. Okay. What's the battle? How do you know? Talkman versus Anduhar as if Anduhar will be the DH, then he will be the starting DH and Stanton will be in left field. or Talkman has the better bat Put Stanton as D.H and Talkman in left field

Okay Two in the weeds you're like Well I mean is that like they're all going to be on the roster right So they don't really have to make a decision right Yeah yeah just about where they're going to be I guess I could see that having some kind of merit But like they always say like spring training numbers I mean how can you make them mean anything

So have you ever seen one good spring training battle Like it was straight, left field, one of you is going to get it or no. Or because you're right. I mean, spring training doesn't matter. Me and Jimmy find ourselves in this speech. I'd say coming up, we're going to have to tell ourselves this about twice a week. Because you're like, wow. And we'll fall in love with guys.

I know, it doesn't matter. Yeah. Last year the Yankees had a good one with Voight and Bird. And they both hit like seven homers each or 10 homers each in spring. They're going like tit for tat. They both made the roster and then Bird got hurt. But like, that was a good one. Yeah.

I can see for playing time initially maybe there'll be a separator, but still, like, I mean, I've seen guys have unbelievable spring trainings and just like, it doesn't mean anything. Like you're going to get sent down to AAA. Yeah. You know, you just mopped up and, you know, you feel pretty good about yourself when you're raking in spring training. But then you quickly realize it just doesn't mean anything. How many spring training home runs do you think you have to your name? Oh.

I don't know. I don't think I have that many. I don't know. Maybe like 10. maybe more. Oh, 10 on the nose. Oh, you looked at that, really? Oh, I got it.

Yeah, what do you think your best spring training year was? Probably one of the ones I was paid. That didn't care. 2016. Yeah, there it was. 1.094 OPS. Good job, man. That's what, I mean, that was a spring training where I played, you know,

I got two of bats and I was done and I didn't have to go on road games. and that was when I was getting treated like a king. No wonder I played well. Good job. Yeah, also 2013, pretty good too. 2009, tough times. That might have been my first spring training, so. Looks like you got two at-bats in 06 and two-out bats in 2008.

So that leads us, those two-at-bats in 06 and 08, a position probably came from a position that we were talking about in Texas. The Yankees have these guys for the last like three seasons, the seventh, eighth, ninth inning of spring training games, Trey Ambergi comes in. At Lipka. And like, you know, and Glaber Torres or Tyro Estrada

have already been sent down to AAA camp or minor league camp because they want them to get a lot of at-bats. So it seems to me, like being clean-up duty in the seventh, eighth, eighth inning of spring training for the big league club, kind of means they're not invested

you at all and kind of shitty. But if you're that player, are you happy or are you like this sucks? It depends. I mean, if you're like actually in big league camp and you're like sticking around. So what happens is the guys that are on the 40 man roster, there's a cutoff date. And if they get hurt past that cutoff date, then they are, they'll get big league service time and you get big league pay and all that stuff. So before that date comes, all the guys that they know aren't. making the team, they get sent down.

And they'll keep the non-roster invites longer. So if you're like one of those guys and you're, and you're sticking around because you're on the, you're not on the roster, it's great for you because you're still making your per diem and whatever your spring training money. But if you're one of the guys that's like on minor league camp and they come over and they bring you over for the day,

it's horrible. It's cool because you're getting a shot to like play in the big leagues, but you're wearing number 98. You probably have a double ear flap helmet when everybody else has a single ear flap helmet. Loser alert. Oh, it's the worst. To be wearing like a straw hat

when everyone else has got denim hats on. Yeah, like looking like an idiot. Yeah. So. I love, I'm going to start insulting so many people by calling them a double ear flap. It's the worst. Yeah, we already did that on.

It's tough, yeah. Yeah. That means you're just, you're not show. You're like a scrub. So Jake, what did we say? We said double ear flap guys were also blank. And we were definitely using it as an insult.

Yeah. Oh, we said shower with their boxers on. Those are the double ear flap guys. Kind of. I could see that. I get that. I like it. It's double your flap's worse.

I'd rather shower with my boxers on and wear a single ear flap helmet for sure. Wow. But so, I mean, you know, we talk about how guys feel in spring training. There you go. So how guys feel like in spring training. And if you're a guy, you show up, you do your thing, you play the first four endings, and you piece out. If you're not a guy, you're sitting on the bench the first five or six innings.

You go into the game. The fields are in horrible condition. You might as well be fielding a ground ball on asphalt. So you have to like watch out for that. Then you're also facing really young guys at the end of the game. Most young guys who are in Bigley Camp, they throw the ball really hard and they have no idea where it's going. So it's essentially you're just kind of like battling,

like battling your way to the end of the game. And when the end of the game comes, you're so happy. So, so, so happy. So it's just, there's definitely different scenarios for guys. And that's another reason why they don't care about that much. about spring training numbers is because who are you doing it against? Like are you doing it against like after the sixth inning you're doing against an A ball guy. So who cares?

Well, and we we always laugh because there will be days like early on in spring training. The pitcher will only throw a fastball and we'll see people be like, oh man, Sevi got knocked around today. And it's like, yeah, because he threw 22 pitches and 21 of them were fastball. And it's just ridiculous when you actually, you know, and we'll be saying this so many times. I'm going to keep reminding you guys that, like, because I know you start to lead up to spring training, get the storylines in the head. And you're like, oh, this is a big deal. Like, look what he just did in this game.

And I'm going to just be like chirping. Remember what we talked about January 29th. Stan's first spring training with the Yankees, I mean, he has an inverted batting stance, but it was the most inverted batting stance I've ever seen in my life at spring. training. He basically, like, he was lining up in the box as if the right field foul pole was the pitcher. Yeah. And he was letting balls travel as deep as they can and just fouling them off. And Vado said that that's what he tries to do, his first couple games in spring training. Just let the ball get as deep as possible and foul it off. And that's literally the only goal. Yes. And people,

like, people start screaming about, you know, how bad he looks and all this. He looks. And Jake and I are also like, he does look bad. It doesn't matter, but it looks bad. And we're like having our internal struggle with that. Did you ever go into spring and just try something completely new? Last year, Aaron Judge, all spring, didn't have his leg kick. He kept both feet planted on the ground, just shifted his weight, didn't pick his front leg up at all. And he was hitting great, tons of doubles, not as many home runs. Season starts, instantly back to leg kick. So do guys like, is that just fucking around or why not?

Or are they really like, because do you guys make adjustments? Is that boredom or is that really trying something new? It's just trying to get like a feeling. So he's probably like, I want to let the ball, I want to see the ball as long as I can. And you'll see that all the time. I remember one day, Yadi was, he was like hurt. Like something with his legs or something. So he like couldn't run, but he wanted to track pitches.

So he was, he de-aged. and he took every single pitch. Like it didn't matter. Like he was going to take every single pitch. But he just wanted to get like game speed. So he'd go up there and like we knew that. Like they told us like hey, like he's not running. Like whatever, whatever.

And these pitchers, man. These fucking pitchers still. Like couldn't throw strikes. I'm like, dude, this guy is fucking taking right now, guys. It's like lay one in there. Let's go. But it's funny. Yeah, you'll see guys do that stuff like that all the time where it's like.

Like they're either working on something in the cage and you can only do so much in the cage so they want to take it out in the game and see how it feels. And that's the perfect time. That's why spring training numbers are so stupid. They're so stupid. There's one of our one of our favorite beat writers for the Yankees, Brian Hoke. Sometimes he posts his emails from readers and they're like looking at the Yankees win and loss record. In spring training. In spring training and saying like what the fuck's Boone doing?

They're losing. One time I met Cashman at a spring training game against Boston. I just said hi to him like, hey, Cash, what's going on? And he said to me, hopefully we can make a comeback and win this game. And I was too shy then. I think I have a tad much more rapport. But I want to be like, Cash, you nor I fucking care about that. That's incredible.

Who cares who wins this game? Don't treat me like I'm a dummy. Oh, man. Yeah, it's such a. That's why I think as I was saying that before I guess as a fan It's such a cool time to go To the games like you get to see so many different players And like

It's like bright and sunny yeah you can drink beer like I guess you can do that at any other Baseball game too It's a small it's a minor league field small it's intimate What I do The game really doesn't matter It doesn't matter it's exhibition What I do want to talk about a little bit I'm just thought about this

Okay. Can we give, am I, I, I can give betting advice, right? Is that weird? Yeah. Batting advice? Yeah. Yeah. We're in that age now, right?

Yeah. So my theory that I've thought, because we started talking about like doing a spring training episode a few days ago, and my theory is, and we'd have to go maybe check this. Like someone fact check this, whoever, if you guys want to do that. But if I was betting spring training games, which you can. I would bet home teams every single time. Because home games, you're actually having your good players play. And then on the road trips, you just kind of have a couple good players and then a couple

scrubs going. So you're definitely going to get your more complete team at home. Is one of them going to be? taking pitches and not even swinging the fucking bat, maybe. But just going by roster construction and if you want to try to like get an edge, I would just bet home teams, especially on like long road trips. So like if a team say, okay, in Florida, Yankees, Yankees are at home and they're playing against the Cardinals.

The Cardinals had to take a three hour trip over. They're not sending anybody. They're sending in a bunch of scrubs. and I would take the Yankees. So, tip. A little tip right there. Free money.

Free money from Trevor Ploof today. Only gamble what you can lose and be responsible. Have fun. Good. It's safe. Speaking. What you got, Jim? Of road games.

When you were at your heyday in spring training, like you're guaranteed money, you got the starting job. You say, you mentioned like you didn't go to road games. Can you just be like, not going because mariana Rivera for the Yankees he didn't even they didn't even give him in a way uniform that's that's like that's like a joke like that everyone all the big dogs will say like gray pants i don't got no fucking gray pants in my locker at spring training you know they don't

i don't think joe mauer ever went on that's a flex it's a flex yeah i don't think joe mower went on a road trip you know for like five or six years that i saw and right and rightfully so you earn that yeah so you can we call the road trip He's like gray pants squad, like gray pants, gray pants. Road warrior, gray pants squad, double ear flap scrubs, yeah. Gray, gray-haired losers. What, um, what, what are, what are some of the fun checkpoints? Because again, like this is, this is what, our third spring training gym.

Um, so we're, we're getting up there. Um, but it's funny some of the stuff that's linked, but it's not linked at all. Like St. Patrick's Day. Yeah. March madness. Um, I remember, I think it might have been last. year where me and Jimmy we had that hunger in our belly and we're like we got to corner a couple of the players accidentally like if we see the guys are watching March Madness games at a bar in

Tampa we might have to also be at that bar in Tampa what um I guess along those lines like were were there some I don't want to say dope parties or something like that but were you always were you always looking forward to St. Patrick's Day or like one of that first weekends of March madness and someone was going to have the nice house that you were going to roll through? Or what were those kind of check marks like? Where are all the dope, nasty, ill parties? Oh, my goodness. The dope ill parties.

You know, St. Patty's Day is obviously smack dab in the middle of the spring training, so it's always a good time. If you're in Arizona, you're going to see guys, you know, wherever the big event is, there's going to be a ton of baseball players there. So that's another little tip for you. I think March Madness is probably the funnest thing because you'll, you know, you're going to have your team, you know, draw out of a hat,

you'll do your brackets. And it's funny because it'll come read like Rule 21, I think it is. And that's like the rule like don't bet on baseball. Or like don't, you know, don't bet it or anything. And then like obviously there's like a huge like bracket, printed out that's like five foot long in every single clubhouse so they're just like blatantly showing this uh or tell or speaking this rule while you're illegally gambling in the clubhouse Jake lost us he left uh he gone ditched oh this is finally it's a better podcast now

yeah finally us why is uh Arizona so much better than why is the what's it called out there it's not the great fruit leagues in Florida thing. Why is the Cactus League so much better? Is it just proximity? Like you were saying the Cactus League, all the teams hang out together. Like if you and Braun are both over there, you can be like, oh, let's hang out. A grapefruit league.

It's kind of in bunches. Like we're learning that because we're doing this road trip coming up. It's kind of like there's two teams, two teams, two teams, two teams. So when you finally got to the Cactus League, where you're like, oh, or where do the Twins go? They're in Four Myers. Yes. There's pros and cons. So like everyone would always tell me, you can't just wait so you get to the Cactus.

Actus League is so much better. And the good part about it is that everyone's kind of there. You're in Phoenix. You're in Scottsdale. So if you want to hang out with your boys, like there's, you know, you just kind of meet up at a central location and it's all good. But one thing that I loved about the Grapefruit League is if you were not traveling on a day, like a road game, you would be out of the field by like 10 o'clock.

because in the great this is going to be kind of confusing for people I'm trying to okay okay let's try to follow up here so in Arizona no matter if you're at home or away you're taking batting practice and you're doing all your shit at your field so every day you're going through all that in Florida if your team is on the road they bus early in the morning and go do all that stuff at the visiting park So if you're staying home and you don't have to travel, there's, especially towards the end of spring train, there's probably only like five or six guys that stay back, you know,

besides pitchers. And your day is just like, take some ground balls, hit in the cage, get out of here. So you end up leaving like at 10 o'clock. And it's a nice little, it's a nice little caveat of spring training that I think people kind of figured about, especially players when they're like, you know, they think that Arizona has all the advantages. I think that's an advantage for the Great Fruit League.

All right. That makes any sense. Because the teams have to travel so far, if you don't have to travel, you have the whole day to yourself. Whole damn day, yeah. In Florida, man, it's like you just go fishing at the, you know, the place you live. There's all with ponds and shit.

It's great. A lot of people, we've talked about how much spring training stats don't matter at all, right? Yes. And, like, people are trying different things, and there's all these reasons why they don't matter. Is there anything? To this point, because I know that you agree, and you think mental headspace and confidence plays a huge role.

So that last week of spring training, can that play in effect into rolling into, like, the first week of the season? Like, is that something fans can watch for and be like, notice how their last five games look? Because that may actually play into the first week. Not for like making or getting cut or making the team, but if you like you know if I know a guy's on the team like oh he's been hot that can carry over right i think so i think you know that feeling in the box when you feel you know locked in like you want

to try to hold on to that if you do that the end of spring training the only thing is it's just so different man i mean spring training you're so relaxed you know the numbers don't matter so you can be feeling good in spring training and all of a sudden those bright lights turn on as the season starts and that shit starts to count. It's kind of like a whole different mentality. But I mean, obviously, if you have to choose, I mean, I don't know. I've heard a lot of guys say they never want to get hits in spring trainings. They don't want to waste them. I think that's stupid. Like, I want to get hits all the time. I'm so firmly on that page. I want to get hits all the time no matter what. I would so mental midget that. Like if I had a terrible spring training, I'd be like,

well, thank God that's out of the way. Time to rake in the season. If I had a great spring training, I mean, I'd be telling myself, like, let's go. But if I had an offer that first day, I would be gone. I'd be like, I wasted it against nobody. Luckily, not a huge issue for me. I did that in 2017 with the A's. I just like, I hit everything, man. I hit everything.

I was raking. And then I was so shitty with the A's. I'm so sorry, A's fans. I was such a bad player. Yeah, but check out these spring training numbers. The whole reason we've done this is to get an apology from you to the A's fans. They had high hopes. That spring, though, 370 average, 420 on base percentage.

Damn, 652 slugging, two homers, two triples, ploof. Who the hell knows, man? I think I even hit a homer against Andrew Miller. Ooh. And just like, I don't even, I remember going back in the dugout and Bob Melvin was like, how the hell do you just do that? And I say, I don't know. No clue, Bob.

Don't count on it this season, Bob. So when you're when you're through that spring training kind of the very opposite of what I just asked about the last week mattering, when do you get to the point we're like, fuck this. Let's just get to the season. Oh my gosh. Like two weeks in, one week in. Yeah, like as soon as you go through a few games and you're and you kind of like feel like you're baseball already, you're just done. Like spring training sucks after that. You're ready to start the season.

You know, I don't know a lot of guys who a lot of guys like have a set number of a bat so they want. want to get. But once you get to that point, is that just an arbitrary number? I think as as you get older, you kind of know what your number is. And you'll, you know, all the, your manager will come and like kind of ask you like, oh, what do you need? Like some guys want as many of bats as possible. So they'll, what they'll do, I think this is kind of cool.

This is very show right here. I love talking about show stuff. You know. Same. So, like some flexy stuff. So guys. who want more at bats they'll go they won't travel still but they'll go to like the backfield games like the minor league games and you'll just hit like third every ending so so you go back there

is that a big dick move or does that stuff for everyone it's a big dick move and it's awesome like yeah and uh yeah like i mean i think everyone's probably seen the video like donaldson like playing a backfield game and hits a home run and then like didn't even run walks back to the dugout that's exactly what you can do yeah I have a funny story actually this is me flexion right now big big time spring training player right here oh hell yeah I was coming off a hammy injury and this is in spring training I was playing on the back field

like just getting my bats in and stuff and all the guys are there like garden hires there all the front office they're like up in the tower watching the game because it's like early in the day so they don't really have anything to do but watch these games so he wanted he's like you know make sure you're aggressive on the base pass today like I want to see you run I want to make sure you're right I went and I hit three home runs at three bats I hit three home runs I just jog the entire time so I had to fucking after that had to like go in the outfield and run sprints in the out of you

because I just jogged the entire time but it was definitely like a flex day for me I felt like I ruined some dreams like go down there as a big leaguer and you just like you crush some homers that's like a really that's a really fun time march first ploof goes deep in spring training you got it you what are you talking about right now you taking miller deep oh yeah you got it bomb the left field yeah my bad yeah it's a oh dude you hit a camera guy in the nuts yeah i remember that he was like laying down yeah he's laying guys guys laying down like paint me like one of your french girls taking photos Plus ball comes and just bounces right into his legs.

And then there's a mad dash of four adult men that will probably sell it for profit. Yeah, I don't know. What was your living plan? And I think that probably changes young guy and old guy. And maybe like once you get married and stuff, I have no idea. What does that mean? What do you mean? Like once.

You get an apartment, Airbnb. Oh, roommates. Yeah. Like once you got. that bag you just rented a house and gave everyone the bird or were you still trying to have roommates when did the roommate stop well when i was young i had uh delman young and i would share a place and he was you know big baller so i would just live with him and him and i would have a place together was really nice a lot of guys don't have someone like that he took care of me for sure but yeah i mean

prospect three years in a row yeah he's a stud man he's still doing it he still hits homers right now like probably hitting one right now in australia he's playing in that league He'll send me his videos of his homers with a purple egg plant emoji. Pretty good. So, yeah, but I mean, you just kind of, honestly, it's a really, it's really tough to find living in spring training. I mean, as you guys are probably, you guys are doing the RV, so you haven't really found like hotels and stuff. But it's a pain in the ass, dude. Like everyone kind of knows that's the time they could hike up their rent.

So, like, you end up paying, like, a ridiculous amount for, like, kind of a crappy property. But, um, I mean, I always wanted the place at a barbecue, like spring train to me, like, I equate those two things together, like spring train barbecues. That's just like what you do. So, um, I don't really have anything. It's a really good time, man. And then you get sick of it because it's like early mornings. You know, like you're there.

You're there. I mean, it's changing now a little bit as they figure out like that sleep is actually important. And it used to be like, um, You better be working every, you know, second of every day or else you're a slouch. Now they're like, here, here, guys, there's a nap room for you. Go in your nap room. It's like, I've played in the game a little too early, man. I'd be good with a nap room right now.

Sleep is for cowards. That's what they would say. Stupid stuff like that. Water is for cowards. Remember the Titans. Everyone just, you know. Oh, man. Yeah, I mean, that's the living thing.

I don't really have any cool things to tell you. I mean, you just kind of find your place and go. Young guys obviously shack up together, but then, you know, as you get older, you try to have your own place. The Yankees always bring in, like, you know, some sort of a magician or guest speaker or something like that to do a team morale thing.

This kind of is a bigger question. Maybe we've asked you, maybe we haven't. Joe Madden is famous for bringing penguins and magicians into the clubhouse. I, as a player, would absolutely hate it. I don't like magicians. I don't like penguins. I don't like that stupid circus stuff.

Jake kind of thinks some of it's cool. I think the dress-up days are cool. What's your what you're doing that? Like if you have a manager like that, it was like, hey, we've got to loosen up the clubhouse. Here's a penguin. They're just trying to like, they have to schedule all this shit in spring training.

So they're just like wasting time, essentially. You know, every once in a while, like, the motivational speakers. And like, some of them are cool. Like I met Brian Dawkins. Like, he, that was cool to see, you know, with the Phillies. You know, he was just like motivated. us and I like that.

What year did that happen? Did it work? No, I'm out of baseball now. It was this year, this last year. Jim, come on, bro. So he didn't hype me up enough. But, yeah, all that stuff is just to waste time, man. I'm telling you, it's such a relaxed time spring is.

So I have some fun, you know, as we're talking about a lot now, I have some fond memories in spring, but then also, like, a lot of the time you're just like get this shit over with. Like that's get to the season. It's suck for you. Go to Minnesota. Like that temperature change? That's another good point to talk about.

Why did we practice in the warmth for so long? And then we come in 30 degrees in snowing in Minnesota. It's so stupid. And they can, I feel like they could figure it out where you would just kind of play the first month, like in the south or like on the west coast. There's enough. People have done the dad on it.

There's enough warm weather places that you can take the first week, like at least get halfway through. March or halfway through April. Take the first two weeks and you could do it. It would just suck because, like, you don't get a home game if you're a Twins fan for a long time. I think people are okay with it, dude. Like, as a fan, are you, like, New York's freezing, too.

Like, are you, like, stoked to, like, be sitting out there? I get, like, you're getting baseball again, so that's fun, but. I don't know for, like, last year's Red Sox, they started out with a West Coast trip. That's awesome. which, I mean, they were in good weather, but also you're starting, like, their first 11 games on the road, and I think they got beat up pretty good. Like, I think the Mariners knocked them around a little bit.

Mariners were hot for two months. Mariners were hot. They were hot. But I'm just picturing myself on the fan. If my team had to start with a 12-game road trip every year, like I would find a way to complain about that. You seem like you'd complain about a lot of things. Oh, all right.

you on day i do i do get that you know speaking on like on that like if you do start off with you know uh say you start off with two series back to back on the road you're going to end up doing three opening day ceremonies which is that's that's the worst part you got to be out it's freezing you got to be out like on the on the foul line you know the first baseline third baseline and just like stand there while like people throw there first pitch and they introduce everybody and it's like man all that stuff is cool for the first time you do it then after that it's like this is ridiculous like can we please play you said like yankees fans like yankees open up on the road this year and i'm kind of bullshit about it like fuck that

we got to play somewhere else before we play at yanky stadium give me is it where where are they opening up at Baltimore yeah that's actually a fun one i like yeah like that's my favorite ballpark but yeah is there do like a lot of pyro techniques there that's pretty cool fact check Jake Red Sox went three and eight

in their first 11 games and they lost every series to Seattle, Oakland, and Arizona so Jake, correct. Good job.

Defending champs, man, they were pissed and like I kind of got it. I wonder if they saw that road ship and like, cool, you know,

like we'll avoid some bad weather and then they just got their ass kicked. You know, the people that do the ticket, tickets and like stadium shit at Fenway are the same people that do it at Fenway Spring training and like they go through a spring training they do a lot of that they do a lot of that where they'll work both it's pretty cool pretty funny they like send these ticket that's a great part dude I don't know if you guys have been there or not the Fenway of

yeah we went there we went there last year and we actually kind of like liked it because they do like a little festival of tents and food trucks and stuff yeah that was awesome Fort Myers is kind of a cool. If someone's looking to go to spring training for the first time in Florida, I would say Fort Myers is a really good jump off point because you're only an hour from Tampa. You have Port Charlotte that's like 35 minutes away. And then in Fort Myers itself, you have two teams. You have the twins and the Red Sox.

Both facilities are great. And the infrastructure is pretty good there. Like there's restaurants and stuff like that. What would you rather have? Would you rather have good fishing, good restaurants? like what's what's the what's the what's the what's the what's the what's the preuf dream spring training checklist gosh man two weeks long yeah the the the Florida has that as well like you know because most places you're staying like it's like

it's like a golf neighborhood you know right so there's like ponds everywhere and there's vast and you just like literally walk outside your door and go fishing for bass and it's like I love that I grew up fishing and so that was I mean most most baseball players in Florida that's what they're doing on their off time they're just like getting a pole they go out and fishing whatever um but i think now old old head trev here enjoys like a nice culinary scene more than anything okay so i don't know what that means town jump out uh tampa's pretty good i mean because that's like a real city which place had the worst facilities You cannot answer if you don't want to.

No, I don't care. Oh my gosh. Duned. The Blue Jays is horrible. I think they're redoing some of it now. Donodden. Donodden. It's horrible.

That's bad. I mean, most places are pretty bad. Like the pirate spring training, like the field is, it looks like it's okay. But like the clubhouse is basically like in a shed. It's like. Were you pretty picky about the grounds crew where you're like, you guys did a shitty job today? I'm getting tons of bad hops. You just, you just cost me an error.

you go into the ground screw room and just kind of tear the guy apart. Luckily, the majority of the time, the fields that I played on were good. Like Fort Myers, the Twinsfield is like notoriously known for being one of the best. And the surface in Minnesota is also really good. But yeah, I mean, there's some shitty surfaces out there still. Like, Wrigley and, or not Wrigley, excuse me. What's the other one? Kamiski.

What do they call it? Kamiski. Kamiski. It's got a new name now, but guaranteed raid or something like that. Guarantee rate. It used to be U.S. It's a cellular or whatever, yeah. Oh, US cellular.

That's what it's called, yeah. What a horrible, horrible infield. And I don't mind saying it. And the saying, or like the story there is that the ground screw, head ground screw guy owns Turfus or like a company like that. You guys know what Turfis is? It's like the top layer, but it's like the top layer that they'll throw like on the top. So like it's easier to slide.

It kind of like dries. things up. It's like these little pebbles. It's called Turfus. And he was like like the high school field type shit. I don't know. But he owned that, um, he owned that company and he would just pour obnoxious amounts of Turfis onto the infield. And I could only, I swear I was like, you got to just be like doing it. So your company is like doing better. I don't know. Like it's like outrageous to me. And it's just a horrible infield, like horrible infield. Damn. Have you missed it up on White Sox Twitter yet?

They get pretty gnarly on there. Be careful. They might come at you first. Yeah, two Twitter fan bases that you wouldn't expect it, but Padres, and I think Phil just ran into that a little bit, and he was complimenting them. He was complimenting them. He still ran into it.

The Padres and, no, the White Sox are good, Jake, but they're active if they want to be mad at you. They'll turn on you. South Siders, baby, right? Yeah. Padres fans are the weirdest. I've heard that. Phil has mentioned that to me too. Padre's Twitter

is a thing and he's like, it's good. He's like, why are you guys so angry all the time? I don't get it. There's a lot of nice people from Padres that, but yeah, I think like Reddit talked about him to her like they're like, yeah, it's pretty weird. We don't get it. That's really funny.

Tingler will straighten him out. Oh, Jace. I know Jace. Yeah. He'd be the good manager? I don't know. He was like a, A guy in Texas when I was there in spring training. Nice guy. I like them. Quality control coach.

It's the new position they're just making up and giving to people. I know. I need to get me a quality control gig. I think that's perfect. I could just like complain about things that aren't right. If you want that title, you got it, dude. Yeah, it's up for grabs for you. That's yours.

Can I do quality control talking baseball? Like that should be my title. There you go. Congratulations. That's huge. We're off the rails now. Yeah. Yeah, one more.

This is not spring training, but the guy on Twitter, Astros fan, did a huge amount of research about when they used the banging and when they didn't. And, oh,

you were on the A's in 2017. So it changes a little bit. Because Phil Hughes, quote tweeted it, talking about Phil a ton today and said, like, oh, guess who pitched in this game? It was a Twins game

that Barrio started. Yep, I saw that game. Does that, like, infuriate you even more to actually like now that we can pinpoint and like I retweeted it because there's one guy this is you know on August 4th the game with the most trash can bangs

the Astro scored 16 earned runs Mike Bolsinger a Blue Jays reliever allowed four earned runs in point in one innings pitched and he never pitched in a big leagues again and that's the type of shit that Freddie Freeman was getting emotional about and players are trying to say there's consequences to this besides winning and losing games

I mean, it's like, you know, it infuriates me to, like, actually have those examples. So as a player, I know you've been upset about this. Did this add anything or refuel it? Because, like, Hughes being like, that sucks. I think, I mean, it did and it didn't. I mean, I already was mad about the whole situation. So this kind of, this kind of, like, pinpointing it like that. Yeah, I mean, you could really see, like, what guys were really affected by it.

I think we talked about it before the show how the info is great, and whoever did it spent a lot of time doing it, but it's still skewed because he's like, this is the trash can bangs. Well, a no bang was also a sign. So, like, you could take those numbers and they say, oh, he knew what pitcher's coming, 40% of the time.

Double it. Double it. Yeah. You know, and I think what it did for me was, I think Altuvae and Bregman had been getting the, brunt of everyone's like anger and I don't really know why I didn't know why now like you're seeing all these guys who are like obviously on the list so it's kind of like opens your eyes like dude it's not just those two guys I mean they were like everyone damn everyone was doing on that team I get pregnant Brick pisses me off man his his only good hitting stats of his

career are at home in 2017. Otherwise, the dude is a center, he's a great defensive player, but he's a, he'd have like a 600 flat OPS if you take out that segment. And guess what? You can find dudes in the minor league that can catch balls in center field that can hit at a 600 OPS clip. The Mets just traded for him. I'm sure he'll be great this year. That's, it's, that's what talking about, man. I mean, any form of cheating, it's like you're, you're taking, jobs away from guys that are playing it straight and that's that's upsetting um but yeah it's it's a couple guys got paid after that year man like going to spring marwin did i know he would he had the most according to that that one's that one's the tough one i mean i'm going to be working a little bit with

them so it's going to be interesting to see you know he's going to get questioned a lot this year by the media yeah and rightfully so and you know it's going to be interesting to see how he handles it. Minnesota's not exactly like a cutthroat media market, but... You might be that guy. Should I be the guy? You might be a cutthroat, dude, yeah. You know, I'm not like that.

I just want everyone to be happy. Jake, we got anything else? I think the last question was, and this is kind of the end anyways, like, are cut days brutal in spring training? Or by the time they come, like you said, everything's, you can kind of read the tea leaves and everything's been decided. What's the most brutal cut day you've seen? A guy that just cried like a baby.

Name him. Name him. Name him. Be cool about it. I will give you, I don't want to give a bad one. I want to give you cool, happy. Okay. You like that.

So when you go into spring training, there are times, hold on one second. I have an intruder in here. I don't know if you guys can hear this. He's a little ratlin. Can you go close that door from you, buddy, and stop rifling through my stuff? Jeff. He's the best. So good story.

These are fun stories. That's what we want, right? Yep. You go into spring training. You know you're going to get cut eventually. You're like my first couple of years. You're just there. It's a token invite.

It's great. In Fort Myers, you know, around the cut time, it was always spring break. So you get these spring breakers down on Fort Myers beach. And we knew. we all would just hope that we get cut on the same day. And usually you would, you know, like your boys. And you knew, like, they would tell you, they'd call you in the office at 8.30 in the morning.

And they'd be like, hey, like, we're sending you down. Like, great job. You really showed us a lot. We're looking forward to you, you know, being on the team this year at some point. And you're saying, okay, sweet. Dada-da. And as soon as you got out that door,

you knew you didn't have to, like, do anything that day. It was like, boom. Straight to the Lonnie Kai, which is a bar. Fort Myers Beach shout out. And it was just like you went and got to be a college spring breaker for a day. And it was that was probably like three years. I think that happened for me. And it was like each time it's like we just knew.

We already knew that it was coming. So it's a great day. It's like you're hoping that they cut me today. Cut me today. I'm trying to get down to Lonnie Kai. There's a booty shaking contest at four. You know, I got to check it out. That's the real stories.

That is a good spin. All right, Jake, you got anything else? I'm good. I'm good. This turned into us interrogating Trev a little bit. But again, I mean, that's a, I think this was a little bit of baseball porn. Spring training has this. Yes, it's coming.

Yeah, like it's coming. And where we started at, if you're a baseball fan, spring training is everything. It's that intimate vibe. It's just it's back. Everyone's so happy. Everyone's happy. If you're mad or upset at spring training, you suck as a person. That's a you thing.

It's true. And I think I've made up my mind. I think I'm going to have to come out to Florida and just run around with you guys a little bit. Perfect. We'll make a day out of it. I'm excited for that now. Maybe you want to do a big guy. Oh, yeah, there we go.

See you guys later. Thank you very much for listening.