Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 93 | Chat With Max Fried & Dansby Swanson, Braves Camp & Some Signings

Episode Date: February 24, 2020

The boys have been to Yankees camp, Braves camp and Rays camp. They talk about their time in Florida. They chat with Max Fried and Dansby Swanson from the Braves and discuss some recent signings. 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, everybody? It's talking baseball. We're coming to you from the middle of our spring training tour, and we are going to talk some baseball. What's going on? What's going on? It's talking baseball episode number, whatever episode it is. We're coming to you live from behind the centerfield fence

at Charlotte Sports Park Field No. 5. CSP 5, baby. Little spot. A little setup outside of our RV. Day 5 of our trip to spring training. Really, day two of our tour. We did the Braves yesterday. Yeah.

We did the Rays today. Uh-huh. Dig it. That's cool. You like that? Yeah. That's a little bit of Tracy Morgan did a sketch on SNL called Astronaut Jones, which is just a whole buildup where he plays an astronaut.

and you're like, he travels space and he sings songs. And then there's always like a hot alien. And the alien starts talking in. Just like, you're here to save our planet. We need your help. And at the end, Tracy Morgan just goes, like, how about you step out of that space suit and show me that fat ass? It's a really good lookup astronaut Jones, SNL skit,

and that's baseball for you. Yeah, we are, we're in the parking lot technically behind center field of field five. where the race play. Ray's spring training. Look at all those birds. You know, I'm having a big bird spring training anyways, but they're... They're swirling because the game just ended so they know that trash.

What are those? Are those condors? Are those hawks? I've never been a bird guy. Bill, best guess on those birds. What do you got, Bill? Hawks. Official answer.

The official answer. Hawks swirling above the stadium. I mean, 20 of them? I can count those out. There's five up there. I'll let you count the birds. 10, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 15, 16, 17. 18.

18 bird swirling. Where we're at right now is pretty awesome. We've had a couple killer days back to back. And it's going to be coming to you guys shortly. Especially this episode, I think we're releasing. Monday. They're listening as this is released. I think we're about to release and listen to.

What? Max Fried and Dansby Swanson are on this episode. Correct, yeah. Yep. I didn't know where you were leading me at all. Apes. They were cool, cool guys. They're too attractive.

Yeah. Yeah, and I think, like, Danesby's known as an attractive ball player. Freed, he's got it too. The hair was looking at the end. Danzby accidentally called me not athletic at one point, which we all make mistakes. Yeah, so if anyone's, I mean, there are a lot of. storylines will cover. That's coming up. A lot of storylines will cover, but, you know, we did Tampa for the Yankees,

and we hung out there for their workout days, talked to some Yankees players. That was good. Those will probably land on talking to Yanks for now. And then we went to the Brave Spring Training, which is Cool Today Park. Brand new. They had one game there last year just to kind of test it out, but this was the official opening of it. And the Braves welcomed us in with opening open arms. Yeah. Press passes.

They gave us a tour of the entire facility. Let us review some food. We got some hats from the gift shop. Go give the Braves some love. We won't ask for a review today. Go, like, tweet at the Braves and be like, oh, John Boy and Talk and Jake were awesome. Yeah, yeah.

Have, try Jake at third. Try Jimmy as a bullpen catcher. Yeah. Something like that. That'd be huge. That'd be awesome. Something like that. But they were awesome.

And they sat us down with Dansby and Max, so we have a little conversation with them going. Did the raise today. They gave us tickets, but no one of the awesome stuff. Yeah, no big perks, and that's okay. We did sit down with Austin Meadows and Ryan Yarbrough, and that will be out next episode. Next episode of this show you're listening to. And if this is Monday, and you're listening to this on Monday, that means we are with the twins tomorrow on Tuesday.

we'll be with the Red Sox. Wednesday, we will be with the... Pilots. Pirates. And then Thursday, the Orioles. Friday, the Phillies. Saturday back in Tampa with the Yankees. That's the schedule.

Doggy. Damn. So really only two stadiums in a row. We saw some baseball. Two games. Spring training started. Hot takes from the games we saw. What can we tell the people about the games we saw?

I didn't watch a second. of the Braves game. Like a second of the... King Felix. Break the news on that. King Felix has won the fifth starter job. King Felix made the Braves. For the Braves.

From what we saw. Two scoreless innings pitched. He makes a million dollars if he makes the team. Yeah. And we talk to a lot of guys, a lot of the Braves, beat reporters, the radio guy, a lot of the guys around the Braves and we were chatting it up.

And basically, with Cole Hamils being hurt on the Braves, yeah. Newcomb is going to be on... They already had a... a battle for the fifth starter. Newcomb now is going to be the fourth starter, pretty much, unless something happens. That's what we were told. But King Felix, he's eye on that fifth spot, and it'd be really cool.

I actually am rooting for that. I'm rooting for him to be a starter for them, eat up a couple games. Then maybe Hamils comes back, but someone else will get hurt. Because Felix Hernandez, as they said, said, like, it would be cool to be in a playoff game. Yeah. Which is so sad that he's one of the best to do it for a decade. King Felix and he's just fading away

without a playoff game. Yeah. It happens a lot. It's not like specific. Well, I mean, he's really good, but it's just hearing, like, him vocalized that makes me really root for him to stick. Right.

And it, honestly, it makes you love dudes like that because, yes, I mean, you could play the card like, well, yeah, you know, baseball's all he knows. Like, what's King Felix going to do? He's also made enough money to retire eight times, a lot more than eight times, actually. And it's cool to hear someone like that say, like, yeah, I'm playing because I love baseball and be cool to make the playoffs. Yes, that's what I like.

So that was kind of cool. And yeah, it looks like he might have an angle at that fifth starter, which, you know, could be a fun thing for the Braves. And even if it's half a season, if he can stay healthy, we pitchers get hurt. So we're rooting for King Felix, officially. Officially. That's, yeah, locked that in. I saw Adley Rushman strike out. That was like the only a bad I watched of the game.

Nice. Yeah, we were running around doing a lot of other things. So. And Braves, they showed us their, like, behind the scenes, Braves that they're doing. It's like Hard Knocks. Yeah, go check that out. That took us into the editing room. If you're a Braves fan and you're not watching that, go watch it.

It was awesome. It's called Behind the Braves. Even if you're not a Braves fan, go check that out. They're doing a really nice job. Kudos to the Braves again. Don't leave us a review. If you leave us a review, I'm going to freak out on you. Damn.

Go tweet at the Braves and say, thanks for having John Boy and Jake. The other thing for Braves' Camp is that you and I, because we're both short guys. Yes, facts. Fell in love with Ozzy Albies. Oh, yes. Because we saw we were on the field for BP,

Acuna, crushing him, Freddie Freeman, crushing him. Ozzy's a little dude. What's he listed as? Let's look this up. Let's see. I'm going to say he's listed at 5-8-165. If he's listed at 5-9, it's a lie. Oh.

Maybe with spikes on. And we mean that in a nice way. Oh, yeah. But what do you think it's going to pop up as? 5-9, but they're going to say spikes up. What the fuck out of here, fly? 5-8. 5-8-165.

Yeah, that was my guess. So that's good and bad. You probably read it and then remember. I mean, I definitely. been on his baseball reference page. But pound for pound. What was the quote we heard? Someone told us that Fray Freeman said he was the strongest guy in the team pound for pound.

But we're not positive if it was Freddie Freeman. So it's kind of like all we can say, someone on the Braves told a beat reporter that Ozzy was the strongest guy in the Braves pound for pound. Someone told us Ozzy Albies was the strongest guy in the Braves pound for pound. And we just have to roll with that. Yeah. Which is a good little guy phrase anyways. Yeah. Albies.

not Albies. All these. Base is what a baseball record is. Then we went to the Rays camp today. Yeah. Rays versus Yankees. And the Rays showed out all their stars. The lineup was their one through nine.

One through nine. You could see that at any given Rays game. Yeah, that was crazy. Yarbrough started. Then they brought in, was it Castillo? Slider, dude. Diego. Diego, yeah.

And that's kind of all we watched of that. Yeah. Andrew R had a home run. Andrew R had contested home. run, I think. They called it a ground will double first, then a home run. Ray's came back in one. Rays came back in one.

Huge. Big for them. Good job. Yankees are 0 and 2. How worried are you? Worried. Hap for the Yankees has magically jumped up to the number three starter because the Yankees are all getting injured.

So he's having a great spring and just pitch two scoreless innings. And then that's really all I know. I haven't checked around the league. We have some, we do have some real news. We have a couple news things. What do you got, Jim? Let me pull it up. I had it up here.

All right. So the Red Sox signed Jonathan Lucroy. We haven't talked about that. Huge. Good for you, Jonathan. Yeah, that's huge. Maybe he plays. The Brewer signed Brock Holt.

Yeah, that's nice. Very brewers. $3.25 million. He can play all around. I like the signing. I mean, I like utility infielders, especially with the 26-man roster, a guy like Brock Holt is worthwhile to have.

And he's worthwhile to have in the American League, as he showed with the Red Sox. But as we hinted at, and now he's there, I mean, he's national league crack. Like, he can play every position. He can, he can, and I think the bigger thing with versatile guys is, like, Brock Holt can start somewhere for two weeks,

and it's not a problem. Like, he can start somewhere a whole, season and it's he's a good but he's a he's a solid end of the end of the line of bat to throw out there listen to all these guys the brewer signed also they signed uh louis euryas eric sogar jade guy ars what's that irias was the trade well they brought these guys in ryan healy ronnie rodriguez and mark matthias and now brock colt so like they're just a switch army knife dude they just bring a bunch of guys in but holts probably the best of that crew maybe and it's a one-year deal for not that much money.

So, I mean, if you're a Brewers fan, I think it doesn't hurt your club at all. There's no reason to be upset about that, and I think it's a good signing. It's a good supplemental signing. Pretty well known for being a good dude. And yeah, if you're a Brewers fan, you're going to be able to match up or do whatever you want.

It'll be interesting to see how that looks like on a day-to-day. And they've got so many solid guys that it's kind of like, all right, they need someone. step up with Yelly to be like the fear factor on the team. Is it Lorenzo Kane bouncing back? Is it Hira? It's Braun, dude. Brawny?

I mean, I think if you're a brewers fan, you think Hira is going to have a better year than Braun, but. Keston was great last year. Yeah. So it'll be interesting to see if it's the meat of that brewer's order, not Santana, but, yeah. Jane? Do you say him? I said Cain.

They signed a right field or two. He was on the raise last year. Avicale Garcia. Abesale. Did you hear what the White Sox keep locking guys up? Yeah, I did see that. The White Sox extended Lori Garcia's contract. And then they locked up one of the best names in baseball, Aaron Bummer.

I hate that it cracks me up every time. Oh, dude, this article, they just refer to him. Bummer, 26. It's so dumb that that's going to get me every time. So he's a reliever. for the White Sox. He's pretty solid. He gets ground balls as an incredible rate.

And they basically bought out his arbitration year. So, I mean, the contract's weird because, you know, he's going to get a million this season, $2 million next season, $2.5 after that, 3.75, 5.5. And then there's some option years that are higher. So, I mean, it's giving him financial security. Yeah, I mean, that's the big spin zone.

But, dude, if you're a White Sox fan, are you, my, my read on it is, it's kind of awesome that they're committing. They're bought in. And if you're one of these players and you're like, dude, are you here, how long are you here for? And you're just like, yeah, the White Sox, they want me here. And like, it's just, it's good energy. It's good energy. Yeah, it's doubling down on who you have grown and all that.

And I think that helps the clubhouse. I think that helps the individual players. And I think the fans should be excited, too. They're doing it with everyone. Yeah. They're extending all their core. They're like, if it fails, and all these guys in five years are still hanging around and none of them, like, really, like, panned out or a lot of them, that would be really interesting.

But I think from the outset now, I think it's kind of cool that they're doing that. Yeah. And, well, you were just talking about having a young core that's going to be there for a while. I asked the kind of generic question of Freed and Dansby, but Danesby actually had a really good answer to it. Well, they're about to hear it. And you're going to hear that in a second. But, yeah, if you're a White Sox fan,

and I was just laughing because, you know, there's been a lot of talk about ownership, spending, not spending, or whatever. The White Sox have wanted to spend. And now that they... They wanted to get Machado. They wanted to get Wheeler. Harper, now that they got a couple guys actually in,

and they've got these young guys coming up, they're just, they're like checking all the boxes. If you're a fan, you should be pretty happy with the White Sox ownership. I agree. Padres, another team. Kind of at the end of their rebuild type stuff. Your Padres? No, don't.

Not my pod. I don't like nor dislike the Padres. Okay. I like what they're doing. Anyway, they are signing Brian Dozier to a minor league deal. So the Doge is back. I think he's got some stats that surprise you. Like he's had 15 homers every season for the past 45 years,

Something like that. I don't like the name of his client agency. Okay. All bases covered sports management. ABC, baby. That sounds like when I was in sixth grade, I had to do a computer project, and I had to make a fake store and make a website for that store. And I made a hockey shop that specifically sold goalie equipment.

Right. And it was called the Puck Stops Here. Yeah, that's good. And I was 11 years old. Yeah. And that's kind of what all bases covered sports. Does sound like a little bit of a school project. Yeah.

Yeah. I get that. Yeah, okay. They had, Padres had Kinsler last year. And then he was bad and retired, right? And he, like, flicked off fans or something. There was one time where, like, he yelled at fans. So now Dozier comes in.

So maybe they'll just have, like, a old middle infielder thing going on now. Dozier's a shirt off guy, so I like that. And he's a twerker, you know. Yeah. They got jerks in pro far Greg Garcia and Breivik Valera. Oh, our God. Top three current options at second base. What?

Why are you throwing Bravick in there? Love Bravick. Raked at AAA last year. He did. No brain, though. Tough. You think that's mean to say? It's not nice to say, and I think you would agree with that statement.

I mean, the nickname Brainsless Bravick is cool, though. It is. Or Bravick the Brainless? Yeah, that's a really good game of Thrones name. That's a really good Game of Thrones name. Bravick the Brainless. If you don't know, I call them that because the Yankechic. he's called him up for about a week,

and in that week he made about 10. Mental errors. I think really bad. It was tough. Dude. So Bravick, the Brainless. It's a mean nickname, and I don't want it to stick, so don't repeat it.

And you're going to meet him, and you're going to feel sad. The cycle continues. I'm the only one allowed to say that. Okay. I mean, I think you're going to regret that even more. No. Hi, Bravick, Valer.

Nice to meet you. I'm the only guy that calls you brainless Bravick. See, I think Bravick, the brainless. is what I'd use on that in direction. Oh, well, I don't know if that else. Okay. Well, that's mean. What other stories do you have?

That was all. You're my stories guy. That's really all that happened. What else is there? Severino shut down. I guess that's news. That's a weird story that. Talk about seven.

Severino for the Yankees said that when he throws his change up, his forearm hurts, and it stems all the way back to the playoffs last year. He was going to pitch in game seven if they didn't lose in game. six, so that doesn't make sense. And then he came out the next day and said, you know, everything's great. And it's weird vibes because any Yankee fan those, last year they, like, they shut Severino down and they wanted him to go in an MRI to see where it was. But he said, no, I don't need an MRI.

I can tell I'm good. Right. I don't like being in the MRI machine. So the Yankees are like, okay, fine, you're good. And then they started ramping him back up, and he was still hurt and he aggravated it even more. And then they were like, well, Sevi doesn't like the MRI machine. And now it's like, it's all very confusing. Yeah, it's, I don't know, it's got all the bad signs you don't want around a starting pitcher.

Yeah. And, yeah, the Yankees injury bug continues. As you can hear in our voice, we are not too excited about that. Really weird, like the next day, Sevi said he felt like so much better. And it's like, okay. That's the weird part. Like Sevy, like figure on your body. Are you just sore?

Or are you broken? So that's, Jayhap is up to the third Yankee starter. That's fun stuff. And yeah, I think. I know that we don't want to do Astro stuff. Sure. But I want to say, like, maybe there's someone listening that hasn't heard this story.

Right. The Astros share a park with the Nationals. Right. And they played each other. I think technically it was a Nationals home game, not an Astros. But, I mean, at that point, who cares? The crowd is going to be split. And the employees were taking away signs from fans that made like asterisk signs or anything like regarding that.

Right. So the headlines are like now Astros employees are stealing signs. And it's too easy. Yeah. I know it's just, it's just crazy how easy that is, that headline and that joke. And I know a million people made it. So I'm not trying to make it, but I'm just trying to comment on like, I don't know.

I don't know what my comment is. It's just that it's too easy that now it's like the Astros are still stealing signs, but now it's from the fans. A lot of layup likes on Twitter. But I mean, it's accurate. So we also appreciate that. Yeah, I don't know. It does feel like in the past five days that the Astro stuff has gotten a little quieter.

now that baseball's kind of taken place. Well, I think the players all said their piece, which was good that they all did. And they're like, all right, we're done with it. I still think Manfred has a lot of shit to deal with. And I mean, just around the league, you know, people are looking for this. Tigers beat the Braves 5 to 1 today. Marlins beat the Nats 5 to 2 and a close one. Oriel's, Big Day.

11. They put up an 11 spot against the Red Sox. 115 are the Red Sox sellers. Philly's Pirates. Pirates, close one, 4-3. Oh, my God. We already talked to Yankees' Razor there. Blue Jays' twins, tie.

Oh, damn. Oh, that's tough. How do you think this one wrapped up? Did they tie it in the ninth and end? Minnesota tied at bottom eight. They went zero-zero, and they just left it a tie. So that's one of those things if you don't. I have my uncle.

Goes to a lot of Pirates games. I should probably call them. because we're going to be at Pittsburgh camp in a couple days. And when they first moved down there, they retired down there. And we talked to little baseball, and he's like, yeah, it's tough the other day. We a big lead and we blew it in the seventh spring training. And I was like, yeah, it's tough. That is tough.

I love people that care about spring training results. I feel bad for him. Cardinals' Mets tied to. I feel bad for people that don't know that neither team cares about winning at all. Yeah. And they have no idea about that. Like, his pitcher's just throwing fastballs today because he doesn't care about winning. And this guy, John Carlos Stanton and Joey Votto, they don't swing for like the first week.

Right. But a lot of fans out there, man. Dude, I think I've got one last thing I'd like to mention. Yeah. Before we kick it to the interview with again, Max Free, Danesby-Swanson. Chris Davis asked who was going to have a breakout year, and he said, me, I'm going to hit 247 again. I'm coming back.

Yeah. So that's pretty big news. Did you see our guy Jack Flaherty getting warm and the whole team was watching? Yeah, I did. Do we like that? No. Okay. I like it when it's the five starters.

Yeah. The bets did that and the Yankees stole it from other teams may do it where whoever's starting that day when he throws his bullpen, the other four. for starting pitchers, watch his bullpen, watch how he preps, just so they can bounce ideas and see what else and then, you know, be a unit. So I like that. But the Cardinals had the entire team. And I'm sure Jack was like, okay, guys.

He was giving it love. I mean, you have to. You have to. But, I mean, why was it everyone? I don't know. Sometimes in the back, we're just mingling. Yeah, I mean, not everyone could see. I mean, there's something kind of cool there.

I think a bug just flew in Bill's ear. Bill's producer or Bill, what's Bill's title? Bill. Bill. Our Bill, who's been in the interview with us, and Bill, not a germs guy. Yeah. Like, he's a normal human. Yeah.

You and I kind of don't care about germs too much. Yeah. You shared one drink with me, Bill. Don't get loud. But no, Bill, Bill's been cracking funnies lately. and he just tried to trip me up because he walked up to that water bottle by the fence over there

that I was pretty sure wasn't our water bottle and he cracked it and was about to drink it and then he just dropped it and walked away. Like he was just being a funny guy Bill. I didn't see that. Messing with us. Nice. Spring training vibes.

Let's think it's about time we throw it to our interview. Who were we interviewing again? Max Fried and Dansby Swanson. Good dudes. Yeah. Talk to us. before their game.

Yeah. Hot body, pretty face. Both of them. Here they are. We are live in Northport, Florida. We're joined by Max Fried, Dansby Swanson. Boys, how we doing? Doing great.

Obviously, the weather's nice down here. It's been rainy and stuff in Atlanta, rainy and cold. Oh, yeah. The nice weather here, and then obviously the new facility is beautiful. So I got really no complaints about being here. Yeah, man, this is pretty sweet. You guys played one game here at the end of last spring, so this is like the fake opener? What are we calling this?

I'm not 100% sure. We came down for one game at the end of spring last year where we just literally drove from Disney down here, played the game and then jumped on the plane to get to the season. So get up to Atlanta, but no, the facility's awesome. It's nice not having to share with anyone else. It's kind of our own. We can kind of do what we want, get our work in and get out. It's awesome.

Who were you sharing with before? Just Disney. It's just like inside of Disney, the Wild World of Sports, you know, getting permission from actually Disney and all that stuff. Are they going all out with the food and everything in there for the first game? Oh, we've got some unbelievable chefs. They whip up everything. My girl Jenny, yes. Shout out Jenny.

She's literally the best. Like anything, because a lot of us have gotten to the point where we know certain foods we have to stay away from. And they put out like a spread. And then if that spread has some things that like we probably shouldn't have because of whatever's unique to our bodies, like she'll have already like whipped up something else. Like a plate just for us. Yeah. No, she, yeah, she's, she's the best. Like literally every day I walk in, I give her a hug.

That's like the first thing I do. That's awesome. Danzy, you got the mic. So we'll start there. I'm a Vandy guy. Okay. Kind of. My girlfriend went to Vandy.

so you're not even close to Van dey that okay he goes to all the reunions and shit so now he thinks he graduated okay vandy's intense man in what regard dude it was have you the reunion was like so they have every five years there so there's like a big tent in the middle of the campus for every five years so it's like five 10 up to like 50 it was just a lot and as you can see maybe i haven't gotten invite because I'd never really graduated. So I think that I didn't actually get an invite. Do you get, I mean, are you proud Vandy dude? Like what college did you? Yeah, I'm a diehard. Okay. In every, I mean, really in every sport, just like, no, I mean, I'm a huge Duke fan. I will be on air saying that for sure. But I absolutely support and keep up with pretty much everything

Vandy does. Like women's soccer, women's and men's basketball, the baseball, the football, like all of it. I very much am trying to be involved. and I'm just like loyalty runs through my veins so that's just kind of it's like natural for me. I like that little blind loyalty. That's kind of that's all I've got really. It's just number one skill set. You guys season starting now is there like an activity or something that you're like not able to do? Like what's the offseason plan? What's the hobby in the off season that kind of gets put by the wayside? Well I don't know it's kind of been tough for both of us. We played we played like growing up playing basketball and stuff so I know that

You know, it's something we've bonded over, but I used to always love her going, you know, playing pickup. But ever since that's kind of happened, can't really do that. The most I get to is just like, you know, just shooting around. Who wins one-on-one? I'd take him 100%. Dan's McConnell. I don't even really know what to say. I come from a different part of the world than this guy does.

So it'd be an interesting game of one-on-one. Are you Georgia? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, Atlanta. So you're home? Yeah. When you got traded?

here was that like, hell yeah, coming out. He was drafted. No, I was traded. Both traded. Yeah, I was traded. I was drafted by Arizona. I mean, honestly, like, when I first got, no one likes getting traded and me being a loyal person, I kind of shifted all my loyalty to being with Arizona, you know, and getting traded

her. And the reason I wasn't too excited coming home, and this is just complete honesty is, I mean, I had, you know, 175 phone calls and, like, three and three and three and a few. or text messages that night. So, like, it was a little too much, you know, for me. Like, I didn't know from my story, like, how I had seen it written out. Like, that wasn't in the plan. So I was, it took me a while to kind of, like, understand that I wasn't the one in

control, you know, the situation. Yeah. That's tough. But you did end up being home now, so that's got to be cool. No, it's been the best thing that's ever happened to me. And you guys got a pretty nice squad here. Both got traded to this and, like, a lot of fun. We got a nice little, uh, nice little team here.

You guys got a young crew. man that's uh that's got to be awesome i mean we so we grew up yankee fans and i mean it was a good time to grow up yankee fans too um i mean i'm not we're not sending you guys up for anything like hot take so we get the shot but like i mean that's got to be exciting like you guys are looking to build some of you guys i mean you guys in the nL last year you guys kind of started pushing the dodgers is it like are they kind of the target or do you not think about other teams and it's just like i'm going to shove i'm going to do my thing and that that's it or what's kind of the mentality around the team?

That was professional, right? Yeah, that was very nice. Thanks, man. It opened up rather unprofessional. Yeah, you got there, though. No, I think one thing that we really do here is we just worry about ourselves. We know that if we take care of business, do the things that we need to do that, you know, we can play with anyone.

Since I've gotten over here, we've had, you know, the front office and everyone's had this, you know, this plan of, you know, doing things the right way and kind of building from within and being able to, you know, compete for a long time. And so far, you know, the steps are being taken to be able to do that. But as far as that goes, like, no, it's just focusing on ourselves and, you know, whoever's in front of us, just try to play the best game of baseball as we can. I mean, how I look at it is we're blessed to be in a unique situation

where we don't have to, we're not having to play for one World Series. Like, we very much are set up to have a World Series window for a long time. And I think that that's something that, are just rare in sports these days. You don't see it in professional setting because it's so hard to get a core group and to be able to piece things around it well. But we do have that core group that's so unique. You know, like you talked about with the Yankees and stuff, like they had that. You look at every great franchise across sports. Like that's what they had. You know, you look at the Spurs. You look at obviously what New England's done. Just teams have been really

good for a long time. Like what they've been able to develop from the middle out is huge. And I think we do have that here. It's just a matter of making it. happen now. I mean, that's kind of where we're getting to. It's like, we just got to go make it happen, which is why we do the whole, like, we focus on the Atlanta Braves. Like, if we put out our best product, then we believe in it. Yeah. All right, I'll go, yeah, I'll go ask our dumb question now. Nine of you versus nine of you, who wins baseball? One game. So, like, it's the whole roster. See, well, Max is in a normal pitcher, so I think I would give him the edge honestly. Okay. Wow. It's big of you. Here's the thing. No, because Max can

rake. Okay. That's the thing. Most pitchers, most pitchers, I think if you were to put an average nine fielders or like position guys versus average nine pitchers, I would say I would lie more towards the position guys. But in this case, because I think he would shell me if I was I do, I do. Because I think he'd be able to consistently put more runs than I'd be able to put up off him. Okay. All right. You got to have the same answer, though, too. I am very surprised that you said that because I was going to say that, I mean, I'm betting

on me, but I definitely I think it's not. I don't think it's going to be as, I don't know, it seems like you think it's going to be pretty like a lopsetter. I'll score more runs, but I think it would be closer than you think. I have a tough time. I'm a competitive person. I'm a competitive person. Okay, so

obviously, I'm not just going to say, like, fold in, but I think realistically you look at it, and I would say that with his athletic ability and his ability to hit that him, nine of him, he would definitely have the advantage on the mound more than I would. I haven't taken a groundball on one. Yeah, you got to like buzz them a couple of times, make him uncomfortable. Yeah, I mean, I do have a good curveball.

I do work on it. Okay. So what, let's, let's fluff you a little bit. What's something that he can't touch you at? I don't know if it's a video game or a sport or something. Speed reading. I mean, I don't know. You'd crush me.

Okay. I'm pretty good at ping pong. We'll take ping pong. Yeah? So the Yankees had a 64-man tournament yesterday in the clubhouse, March Manda style. Would you win that for the Braves? You know who I've heard is really good as Freddy? I've heard Freddy's super nasty.

He's got those long arms too, you know? But I tried to pride myself. I try and play like Federer plays tennis. That's how I try and play my ping pong game. Oh, yeah. Is Freddy the guy that's, like, good at everything? Like, the Yanke's dude is, like, LeMay. Okay?

He's just a ping pong guy. No, I know. Failures? I would. And when you say good at everything, you're talking about just, like, different, like, like, sports activities? Yeah, like, athlete. You drop them in any sport. I feel like I'm pretty good at a lot of things.

I really do. He knew I would say something. So maybe you're, like, the decathlon guy. If we set up, like, baseball. What's that? Like, no, like, real life. Like, ping pong, baseball, baseball, baseball. basketball, like a guy decathlon, not like track stuff.

We did that in college. Jake's event was you have to eat a hot dog, you have to eat a donut, and then you have to eat a cracker and you can't drink water, and then you have to run through a car. That was your event. It sucked, yeah. I think we're out of time, but we appreciate it. Maybe this is the last thing, and not Texal U, Trevor Plu said to ask about the dungeon. Is that an on-camera thing or is that an off-camera thing or what?

So the dungeon was basically this. I want to say it's like 15 by 15 room that a group of us would work out in for four or five off seasons. And it was the place where I met, I met Trevor. And it was, you know, right when I got drafted, go in the mornings in Malibu and, you know, kind of catch the end of their workout and then I would work out. But it was a good group of guys. It was, you know, Trevor, me, Lucas, Jack, Ryan Braun, John Mosscott, Tyler Skaggs. There was a big group of us that were there working out. And I have to give, you know, Trevor a ton of credit because he was the one that kind of

showed me how what it takes to, what it takes to, you know, put that work in. I'm not. I'm going to. Don't get him credit, man. He's helped me out a ton. And he's going to ruin our week. He showed me what it's like to work out in the offseason. He's a good role model.

Do you have a crew of like Georgia guys? Because the Cali guys are like weirdly tight. No, I got to, I live in Nashville in the off season. Yeah, so actually Bleacher Report just said an article yesterday on the Vandy, like, fraternity. Okay. Yeah, I know. But it's, it's, I mean, we probably had like 30 guys up there this all season working out. But the crazy thing, it's not just Vandy guys now.

Like, we got guys from different teams, went to different schools, like working out and stuff there. You welcome them? Or is it a little, like, you stay in that corner. I mean, it's pretty much like an open-door policy. I swear? It is good. You got to be athletic. Well.

No. I don't say anything. No, but I mean, it's one of those things where guys, if they're living in the Nashville area, tend to come over there because it's free access to the weight room, to the cages, on-field stuff. It is getting a little busy, so I'm not, like, still opening the invite to everybody. Doors start to close a little bit. But it's a very unique setup, and it's just cool to have. I mean, there's literally so much knowledge floating around.

I truly believe Nashville is one of the best cities in the country. And that program is, I owe, I owe literally everything to that place. And to me, it's one of the best organizations, programs like in all sports in college. Damn. Nice that you went there. Yeah. No. Thanks for sitting down with us.

We know you've got a game to go to, so we appreciate it. And sorry that you're going to get beaten that game of nine-on-nine. It's okay. All right, quick little chat there. That was cool. Yeah. That was fun. The picture afterward was not fun because those guys are tall.

We got a problem. Yeah, all these baseball players are tall and attractive. And then we take a picture and put Jake and I in the middle. And I asked, I told the team here, I said, hey, we need to make sure we take pictures with our guests because we always forget. And now I'm thinking we forgot for a reason. I much rather post the picture of us sitting at the table talking. We were subliminally forget. getting for sure.

We almost need to like, you and I need to stand on the steps of the trailer. Just sit at the table. Sitting makes a lot more sense if we just did, like arms around. Yeah. Okay, so look out for those. I don't know. It's kind of funny. I get it.

All right. Cool. We're short. We will be back tomorrow with another TPP. And then on Thursday, another little chat and maybe an interview or two. Thank you very much for listening. I will pick up my phone to play the outro music now. What about Monday?

What's today? This is for Monday. This is Monday's episode. I'm in such spring training mode. I was telling you that at the beginning of the show. Yeah. See you guys. Love you.