Episode Transcript
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Hey Daron, Welcome back to the Book of Joe podcast.
As we enter the month of September, the sixth month of the baseball season, I can't believe it's here already, Joe Badden, but here we are.
Speaker 2I was thinking about it yesterday.
I was driving with a friend and somebody you know, brought up that was September, right, and it is September, and it reminded me how quickly the baseball season goes.
When it gets going great, training is like it's like a trying to start a cranky vehicle, or it just doesn't want to go.
And then all of a sudden, you get to April and here you go, and you have days off and it rainy, and you just really it's hard to gain traction and get into any kind of a vibe.
And then all of a sudden, here comes June July all Star break.
And then after the All Star break, man, it gets quick.
And then we've talked about it earlier to you and I may have, and I the thing I used to tell my players all the time.
Tomino had mentioned to the press that September provides its own energy.
So the trick of the key is to get to September, where they say playing meaningful games in September, which there's there's a truth to that, because when you do do that, you're no longer fatigued.
For whatever reason, the dog days of August, appropriately named, are no longer there, and now September just says, here, have some energy because you're in it.
You deserve this, and it's just weird how that plays out.
And this was my favorite time here as a manager because of that.
The get Chris Pier.
We were talking about how the weather's changed already, and it's just you come to the ballpark and it's just a different you know, the sun's a little bit different shade, it's a little bit more yellow than bright, and it's.
Speaker 3Just it was my favorite time of the year always in baseball.
Speaker 1Well, speaking of a slow cranking starts, I actually should formally introduce myself, which I think I skipped this time.
Of course, I'm Tom Verducci and Joe.
We can always talk about what you want to talk about, and I want to know what's on your mind.
But I want to get to a couple of things.
The Philadelphia Phillies the New York Yankees, and I've got a story about Michael Jordan I want to share with you.
And I know this is sort of right up your alley, but let me start with the Yankees, okay, because the Yankees are starting September here with a losing record against winning teams, and I don't need to see them play anymore against the Nationals and the White Sox and the lesser teams in Major League Baseball.
It hit a gazillion home runs, and finally the schedule is going to give us a run here, Joe, where they're going to see the Astros, the Blue Jays, the Tigers, and the Red Sox twelve straight to warm up for the October festival that's come in our way.
Tell me what you think in the Yankees here, Joe, because we know that they can beat the really bad teams, especially when they get into some four pitching.
But how they measure up against the really good teams, which they have not done well so far this year.
We will have a really good idea of that the next week and a half.
Speaker 2Well, I think you nailed that.
They're just in a description without actually saying it.
The weaker teams, the lesser pitching staffs because they're primarily built on the home run, as we.
Speaker 3Know, and they hit a lot of them.
Speaker 2And I've got to watch them some nights and it's like, was it nine recently?
In one game they really played at the level of their pitching competition, I think.
And that's a big reason why they have done better against less Dan and not so good against those teams that have better than five hundred just based on normally that's based on pitching and beyond that.
Speaker 3Listen, I did not beat.
Speaker 2A dead horse when they're done, and they're not a dead horse by any means.
But if watched them play fundamentally, it's not good.
I mean, the brand of baseball is not good.
Eno'll talk about the metrics.
With their defense, it's better than you think it's not.
I mean, I see so many lazy mistakes on their defense, not their otfield.
Now their all field plays pretty firm.
It's probably primarily in the Inphil mcmaon has done a really good job.
I've kind of given them some kind of a cornerstone at third.
When Rice plays at first, he says he's in.
I love the guy's back, but he's just a less Dan average feel their Goldsmith.
You know, he's just older, I mean, and he needs time off and he might he might feel that September energy.
Over All, their pitching staff just has been what is the kid's name, Schuittler, right.
Speaker 1I love his art, Splitler.
Speaker 2You love his arm, He's like a young glass now.
I love the way he throws the baseball.
Hel is going to have to make this comeback.
Rodin's good, I mean, but overall their bullpen, I know they got great names, but they're too inconsistent.
There's nothing, there's nothing consistent about them.
So to just think that they're going to get to now and all of a sudden, like flip the proverbial switch, and all of a sudden be better than they had been against these better teams, I don't see it.
Speaker 3I don't see it.
So I think they'll continue along the same patterns.
Speaker 2And Toronto's failing a little bit right now, so that's going to help them.
The Red Sox are not, which is not going to help them.
So I think you're going to continue to see what we've been seeing.
There's no reason to believe that all of a sudden they're going to start beating better teams.
Speaker 1I agree with you on the Yankees, Joe, hundred percent.
And it is pretty simple to me.
I'll put it to you this way.
In an average game, Yankees hitters are going to take sixty nine swings.
If two of those swings produce home runs, the Yankees win seventy percent of the time.
Okay, if the Yankees hit one or no home runs, their winning percentage is only four to forty.
They're losing team.
But upon hitting a second home run, the Yankees winning percentage is seventy percent.
So if you get sixty nine chances to hit two or more home runs, what are you going to do?
You're going to put your a swing on everything.
And that a swing for the Yankees.
And now we can measure these things metrically.
Is on a more upward path to the baseball.
It's measurable.
The Yankees launch angle, their attack angle to the baseball is greater this year.
In fact, they have the greatest flyball increase rate in Major League Baseball.
The top four teams by the way and hitting fly balls are all in playoff position.
It's the Dodgers, the Yankees, the Cubs, the Tigers.
And that's the way the Yankees play baseball.
Yes, they're going to kick the ball around a little bit.
You know, they're a better base running team lately since they added Jose Cabaliro.
But I you know, they don't have to play clean baseball as long as they hit home runs.
Now, if they don't hit home runs, as I mentioned, the losing team, if they don't hit more than one home run, because they only have one path to me to win the World Series, and that is to hit home runs.
Milwaukee Brewers, they actually hit the fewest fly balls in Major League Baseball.
They're zigging when everybody else is zagging.
Now they have more ways to win a ball game.
They could beat you with defense, they could beat you with base running.
They can string hits together.
The bullpen's pretty good.
Starting pitching's got some swing and miss and certainly some velocity, so they can find different paths to a victory.
Yankees have one path.
They have to hit home runs.
But they do that so well.
Joe and I look at a guy like Jazz Chisholm to me perfect example of how the Yankees teach their swing mechanics.
Get the ball in the air to the polls side.
He was a ground ball hitter before he was traded to the Yankees.
He's become an extreme flyball hitter, with a greater attack angle to the baseball and even his attack direction, which means he's more pole oriented rather than middle of the field.
He was more of a neutral hitter up and down the line of Austin Wells, Paul Goldschmidt, Bellinger, Anthony Volpi, Ryan McMahon.
All these hitters have increased the number of fly balls that they hit.
This is the way the New York Yankees play baseball.
I don't know if it can beat good pitching enough, but that's their path to win.
And we shouldn't really complain too much.
But because the Yankees are not a good team in terms of striking out or runners in scoring position, all those numbers are down from last year.
But you know, in the newspaper business, we used to carry around a lot of white out, right, used to use typewriters and type things out.
When you made a mistake, you used white out.
That white out is a home run ball for the New York Yankees.
That's how they live and maybe they die that way.
Speaker 3Let me ask you this, do you haven't broken down like home and away with them too?
Speaker 2Regarding their home runs.
And you know, is there a higher percentage at home than there is on a road for them?
Speaker 1You have to look that up.
I do know that someone like Jazz Chisholm as Taylor is swimming perfectly and his road numbers are actually horrible.
He's got very big home road splits.
Speaker 2Yeah, I just I just watched them, you know, And I always listen to the announcers.
They always defend the fact at the big the middle of the ballpark defends the stadium well, and it's more of a neutral hitting ballpark based on overall numbers because of either ball or left center or center, it's harder to get it out of there.
Okay, I get that, But for the most I watched them a lot.
Speaker 1Man.
Speaker 2I'll tell you there's not only the poll ball, but we've talked about it with you before.
The OPO fly ball home run for the right handed hitters.
I mean, if I'm a right handed hitter, and I still have seen this a lot.
Everybody seems to be teaching to lift the fly ball to the opposite field.
Also, I know I've seen in my mind's eye at least more home runs to the opposite field on the fly ball, So listen, they do hit home runs.
Grisham has really adopted a different swing in a swing path, and it's all he's trying to do is put the.
Speaker 3Ball in the air.
Speaker 2And he has Bellinger better.
Bellinger's still more complete.
He'll still flip it when he has to take his base hit.
I've even seen Volpi hit the ball to right field out, of course, as he's stanton judge.
All these guys hit the ball to right field out.
So yes, they have the more home runs.
And I don't know how the overarching statistics break down, but the ballpark does help them, there's no question.
So it's a combination of who they're playing and where, and then, of course, as we just talked about earlier, the pitching staff, so they're facing good pitching staffs.
I'm still curious.
I don't like the way they play, but what you're saying is absolutely correct.
That may not, you know, from my esthetically, it might not be what I'm looking what I'm looking for, I do much prefer the Brewers method of playing baseball.
But then just put them in a neutral ballpark, a neutral site where pitching and hitting are more neutral, like even even Steven and now their claim in the Yankee stadium is, I don't see it, man, because the ball's in here to right field, it's a homer.
Speaker 1This may surprise you.
The Yankee slugging percentage at home and on the road is exactly the same.
Okay, so they actually number one in roads slugging percentage, number five in home slug percentage.
So you know, the way they play baseball plays.
I mean in the month of August they went sixteen and twelve with fifty nine home runs.
Only one team in baseball history ever hit more home runs in August.
Thirty two teams if fifty home runs in the month of August.
These Yankees, the twenty five Yankees had the fewest hits to go along with fifty plus home runs in August.
They're gonna leave guys on base.
But again, you know, two or three swings, and Bellinger has gotten on the plate more.
He got his pull side air back this year, which he hadn't had since probably twenty nineteen.
I think the ballpark had a lot to do with that.
You saw that with Juan Soto last year getting the ball to the pole side in the air.
More and the Yankees love and you mentioned this Joe.
Right handed hitters especially who let the ball travel and take fast balls out the other way.
Nobody better than Aaron Judge in that regard.
So I do think the Yankees are dangerous because of the home run ball.
I've been saying all along that you need to hit home runs in the postseason, you really do.
They're just the rallies just don't come often enough when you narrow down the rotations and the bullpen usage and you're seeing high leverage guys all the time.
That being said, you know Game five of the World Series last year, the Yankees hit three home runs and lost because they kicked the ball around in the field.
Speaker 2The the Darryla Monica Oakland Raiders of years gone by, they're always he was always throwing for the home run, and the Yankees always trying to hit the home run.
So uh it plays I get the three pointer and basketball.
These days, every sport is just looking for that that power position to score quickly.
Baseball the one swing of the bat.
We've seen the first and second place hitters in baseball lineups totally different from what we had grown up with, the on bass guy and the guy that moves them over for the three, four, five hitters.
Speaker 3That doesn't occur anymore.
Speaker 2So a lot of this stuff fashion ang and you know, I was definitely into it with the old Angels.
I loved hitting Jimmy Edmunds second back in the day when when that all became more appropriate to do, big guys in the leadoff spot, to just shock the other team system.
It's all part, it's all part of it.
But I still love, I guess my sensibilities.
Still love to see the game being how I perceived the game to be played properly and well and so okay, maybe maybe it is.
Speaker 3Becoming a dinosaur.
Speaker 2I don't like to root against anybody, and I don't I just the matter that I'd prefer, just, I guess, just because to see a team that really plays a more complete game, be the winning team as opposed to win that's more heavy sided and just throwing throwing the bomb all the time down the middle, to blitting the coffin who was the other wide receiver there was it, Well the little guy for the raider, branch, Cliff branch, thank you very much, branch deep sideline and go touchdown.
Speaker 1Yeah, well put it this way.
Last five years, the Dodgers have led major League Baseball in hitting flyballs.
This is what plays, and I'm with you.
I love the better all around game, and we're getting closer to that game.
I would say, little by little, I think we are getting there.
Speaker 2Joe.
Speaker 1I think that you know the guy who puts the ball in play.
I still think you need a few of those guys.
But just looking at the Yankees here, Joe, I do think this is being taught and it's certainly being emphasized.
They've gone from sixteenth last year in flyball percentage to second this year.
They went from twenty sixth and average launch angle last year to fifth in baseball this year.
So it is about I don't know how you feel about teaching hitting, but you know we can teach this attack angle here.
What did Ted Williams say?
What was the perfect angle?
Speaker 3Like?
Speaker 1Ten degrees?
Is the something along between five and ten the average attack angle to a baseball's ten degrees?
I think Yankees got guys like Chisholm and Judge.
These guys are fifteen sixteen percent.
I mean, they're well above major league average.
They're trying to hit the bottom third of the baseball.
Watch Judge, by the way, when before he takes a swing and he's taking his practice swings.
Just look at the angle he's practicing.
I mean, he's coming up well on the ball, and I get it.
I mean, is Aaron Judge He's going to hit fifty sixty home runs a year?
But I think up and down the lineup, and I know Grisham has talked about this.
When you play with Aaron Judge, with the play with John Carlos Stanton, who by the way, also has changed his swing career low percentage of ground ball's career high in fly balls, then your guy like Grisham, and you're starting to put your a swing all the time in terms of trying to get the ball airborne to the poll side.
Speaker 2If you did any research regarding big market versus media market or small market teams and regarding fly balls, and you know the home runs and how they're able to build their offense.
I'm just curious because the teams, like we're talking about the Yankees, a Dodgers, they could afford and they get who they want primarily.
Were the other teams maybe not so much because they don't payroll maybe not so high.
They're unable to keep guys or attract guys to begin with their free agent wise, you know the better players quite frankly, the money guys, the guys that.
Speaker 3You pay more money for.
So I'm just curious.
Speaker 2Do you have any understanding of does big market baseball play more fly ball baseball than small market baseball?
Speaker 1Well, in general, I think you're right.
I mentioned the top four flyball teams the Dodgers, Yankees, Tigers, Cubs.
I would say those are bigger markets, right, And I think in general, power is going to cost you more money.
Of course, there's no question about it.
And a lot of these markets are limited in what they can spend in terms of how many guys they can get there who are potential thirty home run guys.
I mean, Yankees up with five to six seven of those guys, right, but they can't afford it.
So I think you're onto something there, Joe.
I think there is something to that.
The other thing I look at is the Yankees absolutely destroy fastballs.
Now, they don't chase a lot their whole game, And again this starts with Judge is predicated on getting pitchers in the zone and hunting fastballs, and when they get them, they're gonna put their a swing on it.
They don't chase a lot.
So if you get behind the Yankees and have to come in with fastballs, and I know there's no such thing as a fastball count these days, but in general, the Yankees destroy fastballs.
Trent Grisham, Ben Rice.
They have the same profile, Joe.
If I'm scouting them, I'm not throwing them fastballs.
They don't hit spin, they don't hit off speed.
Almost all their power is on fastballs.
But the Yankees are able to leverage counts, or at least hunt fast balls early to get their damage done.
I think if you're playing the Yankees, you have to sink the ball and you have to deaden the ball.
You cannot beat them with velocity.
Speaker 2Well, the fastball first thought has always been there.
I mean even as a young hitting coach, that's everything played off the fastball, and you want it.
Your guys does use the word hunt.
That was my word hunt the fastball first hunt and hunt areas you know, like if you like the ball and middle in middle, in up whatever, in new situations, that's what you hunt.
Some guys do like the ball over the play more out over the plate, somewhat up to.
Speaker 3Drive the ball.
Speaker 2The opposite field, but you hunt your area and you're always looking fastball first.
That's how I predicated all my teachings is to do that.
And then then it comes down to, like you've talked about the organized strikes and we just don't chase out.
Speaker 3Of that zone.
And finally, with all of that, it's like, when.
Speaker 2You see your pitch, whatever that may be, if that's that fastball you've been hunting, you have to hit it hard and keep it fair.
That's where guys become really good.
Really good hitters don't fell off their pitch.
So that goes way back and got even into batting practice with guys would hit balls well hard and hit them foul.
I would get upset.
I said, no, no, you got to keep that ball fair.
If that's the pitch that you like, you hit it hard like you did, but it must be kept fair.
That was another part about batting practice.
I was really big on and on and on about that.
But it's always been about fastball first.
And then something that regarding that.
We've talked about this in the past, and I think you brought it to my attention first several years ago, is that more spin in the playoffs.
Speaker 3I remember the Cubs struggled.
Speaker 2We win the World Series, but then I think after that might even have been before that with the fifteen but we had guys struggle more when it got to the end of the year and in the playoffs because we saw more spin than we had during the regular season.
So I mean, obviously that could be part of all of this moving forward to again, it's just this cat and mouse.
That's the information game, and then of course it becomes don down to the execution game, where guys, even though they have really good plans and thoughts and ideas, if you have to be able to fulfill them and be able to throw that pitch where you want to when you want to, which really should be It is the definition of a major league pitcher to throw his fastball for a strike where he wants to and when he wants to.
That should be a major league pitcher.
So yes, this goes back and forth.
So I be once we get to that time of the year, I'll be curiously watching, and I know you'll be all over it if there is more spin versus a team like the Yankees or anybody in general as opposed to the regular season.
Speaker 1All right, Joe, I gonna ask you to do something I know you would never do as a manager, and that is to look twelve games down the road.
Okay, if you're say you're Aaron Boone and at the end of this twelve game stretch against the Astros, the Blue Jays, the Tigers, and the Red Sox, what would you sign up for?
Is six and six enough against that gauntlet?
Speaker 3No, I have to take it.
Speaker 2I guess I would have to take it.
But I'd prefer what eight and four?
Right, six and six?
I'd prefer something like that.
You're looking for somewhere in that general vicinity you want to win, Okay, First of all, you want to win series.
Yes, the bottom line would be to come out five hundred.
Yes, that would be the bottom line, but of course you're gonna shoot for higher than that.
For me, it's always about at this time of the year, I'm talking about one game series.
Speaker 3Win tonight's game.
That's something I always preached back in the day.
Speaker 2I read about Rogers Hornsby when he was the manager of the Cardinals in nineteen twenty five or twenty six, and his matra every day was to win tonight's game or win today's game.
Not a bad way to think about it.
It really isn't because even if you do win tonight and then here comes tomorrow, and all of a sudden, you get all full of yourself, and because you come to the ballparking you're all like, you know, you're kind of high about yesterday's win, and then all of a sudden, you get your butt kicked that night and then your back to where he had begun the night before that not knowing a win tonight's game one game winning streaks.
Yes, at the end of the time, I would bet five hundred.
Again, it just like it sounds, probably not going to move the needle, and they'll probably be almost in the same spot that they're in, which is not a bad thing.
Speaker 3But my goal would be to win each series.
Speaker 2And if you win each series, you're gonna look at the end of that and it's gonna taste pretty good.
Speaker 1Well, you know, Joe, this time of year, some wins seem bigger than others.
And the other day the Philadelphia Phillies had one of those wins, and we're going to talk about that right after this on the Book of Joe.
Welcome back to the Book of Joe podcasts.
Joe, I'm not sure if you saw it.
The Philadelphia Phillies.
They play Sunday night at home and then they play the next afternoon in Milwaukee.
They got into Milwaukee at one am for a day game on Labor Day and they fall behind Ford to nothing.
Speaker 3And guess what.
Speaker 1The Philadelphia Phillies won that game.
They came back on the Brewers' bullpen.
That showed me a lot.
Not that the Phillies have to prove anything.
We know they're, you know, other than the Dodgers.
I think they're the most experienced team in baseball.
We know they're a good team.
They're probably going to win the NL East.
I get all that, but man, that was impressive, Joe.
You know what it's like.
Sometimes it's easy just to give in to the moment, the travel, the deficit, you're playing a good team, you know, to see the Phillies respond like that, and again, they don't have to prove anything.
But I found that to be really impressive.
Speaker 2Yeah, they're buch of tough guys.
I I do appreciate them when I watch them.
They got the correct veterans.
They play the game hard and well and properly.
They are never out of it.
And on that particular day you're talking about, Brendan marsh Ruthy came up big for them, and I was really happy for him.
Speaker 3But that's that's who they are.
I mean, I think you know, that's.
Speaker 2That's the love affair between that particular group and the city right now, because they identify with one another so well.
Speaker 3They do represent.
Speaker 2Philadelphian in Philadelphia's within them, So it's it's not shocking, it's not surprising.
I watched their games and their the pregame show where sometimes but Ricky Botallico might get a little bit edgy with them, and I can't remember the host's name.
But then there's a lot going on there every day, man, between pregame shows, radio shows, and then you got your online stuff and whatever.
It's just it just keeps piling on.
And these guys are really thick skinned, and that's what I really.
Speaker 3Like about it.
And so are their alumni.
Speaker 2So Philadelphia is Philadelphia, man, and it's not for the for the faint of heart, regardless of what you do.
So not shocking, not surprising.
My biggest question is who schedules that kind of a situation where the night game in a day game the next day it's very difficult when you have to go on.
Speaker 3The road to do that.
Speaker 1Yeah, hey, listen, this is not a second guess here.
My first call the trade deadline.
I thought one of the most under the radar moves good moves, was Harrison Bader picked up by the Philadelphia Phillies.
You know, they needed a right handed stick in the outfield, they needed to improve their outfield defense.
And man, as he done that even better than advertised.
Twenty six games with the Phillies, He's hitting three thirteen, three eighty five on base percentage, slug is almost at five hundred.
This guy's playing such good baseball, Joe, that Rob Thompson is essentially turning him into an everyday player.
I mean there's times now where the Phillies outfield is Bader, Kepler, and marsh and that means that Castillanos is sometimes, you know, once every four or five games, is not in the starting lineup.
And I'm sure it's not an easy decision when you've got a veteran like Castianos, but Rob Thompson's got to make that call.
And I think the Phillies are much better defensively and even offensively the way that beater is going.
I'm not sure if you had a situation like that, Joe, But this time of year, you understand it's urgency and it's about hot hands.
Speaker 3Exactly, and you can't cater to anybody right now.
Speaker 2They're earlier in the year.
You're going to give certain people more of an opportunity.
It's the same thing in the minor leagues.
I mean, even when I'm in the minor leagues.
It got to August, which was the last month, and August I told all the managers, you play to win right now.
Up to that point, you do all your decisions are based on development, and then after you get to August, make all your decisions based on winning.
Speaker 3Because I really.
Speaker 2Thought that winning was a part of development.
I'll argue that with anybody.
You just keep using the word the d word development constantly.
These guys don't really know how to win, and I want I want players that know how to win, and when they show up on a nightly basis, they believe they are going to win.
Bater equals attitude.
So I'm in Saint Louis.
He's one of those guys.
I think sometimes from a distance you may not like so much.
But if he's with you.
Speaker 3You like him a lot, and you know he's got he has.
Speaker 2A tendency to get like like smoking hot, and then he can go.
He could disappear for a bit, but I think as adrenaline is really right and high right now, and it's all go, go, go.
So he's the right guy to put out there.
He does play good defense, but there's an attitude about him.
There's a lot of energy about him.
I don't know him at all, but these are my observations from a distance.
Now, Nicky, if you have two lefties out there, and listen, Nicky's gonna chase.
Speaker 3And if you can put.
Speaker 2Marsh and Kepler out there, and you know, if the matchups are right, there's no reason to run away from that.
And that's that's just a conversation with nick That's all it is.
Listen, in the past, it might not have looked this way, but right now we have this.
I don't want he's the word glut, but we're we're blessed to have all these really good outfielders.
Speaker 3And we have a ying and yangling on right now, left and right.
Speaker 2So it's appropriate, it's the right thing to do, and it's a conversation and everybody always talks about winning and team and all this other kind of stuff, and then you have an opportunity to put your your money where your mouth is, or your attitude where your mouth is, and you have to accept this because it is better for the group.
Speaker 1I want to ask you about Trade Turner.
He's playing some great baseball.
He leads to the National League and hits, he's running again.
But the biggest thing to me Joe is the way he's playing defense.
There was a period there last year where I thought, you know, maybe they have to start thinking about where his future is.
Maybe it's in the outfield.
A good enough athlete.
We've actually seen him out there before, but I thought his defense at shortstop really was getting to the point where he's concerning where his future would be.
And you watch him play this year, and I'm not seeing that.
I'm seeing a guy who's improved defensively.
The metrics show that, although I always caution people, you can't really put a lot of faith in metrics.
I mean, one metric you look at Bobby Whitt Junior as the second best shortstop in the major leagues, and another metric he's below average.
So depending on your metric, of choice.
You can find whatever you want, but just to the eye tests and some of the defensive metrics, he is very much improved now.
He did spend a lot of time in spring training with Bobby Dickerson, their infield and director, to really concentrate on improving on defense.
His range is certainly better.
I'd never thought he was a great hands guy at shortstop.
Obviously a great athlete, but he's playing the heck out of that position.
And I'm wondering, Joe, if this is something that you've come across a lot in the game where someone can make you know, not just an incremental improvement, but major strides defensively, especially at such a key position on the defensive spectrum.
Speaker 2Well, my first question would be, was he injured at all?
That he was, he's just hiding anything within the last year or so that you're aware of.
Speaker 3Anybody's a work.
Speaker 1Yeah, I'm not sure about that.
He may have had to be banged up a little bit along the way, but I'm not sure if anything major.
Speaker 2That's It almost sounds like to me something was bothering him that's not bothering him anymore.
Speaker 3That'd be the first place that.
Speaker 2Would look because if he's always he's been freed up if you're seeing movement better laterally.
The other thing would be throwing accuracy.
I watched him play a lot.
I've seen him play really good.
I've seen great ranged both ways, especially to his left.
Speaker 3He really can go up the middle and the arm.
Speaker 2The arm has been strong and accurate from what I've seen more recently.
Speaker 3So that's the first place I.
Speaker 2Would look is that if somebody like him, you know, established kind of a guy, look like he was on the decline and all of a sudden it's not.
Speaker 3Sometimes they do withhold.
Speaker 2They do withhold what's going on with them, and then all of a sudden it might be revealed down the road, well he was actually nursing this and never really nobody ever really talked about it.
But it's unusual, like as a guy gets older to say that he's actually going to get better at certain things like that.
It probably doesn't occur.
That's just not the way it works outside of injury.
And that's what I always ask about, because when the guy's getting older.
Speaker 3Okay, that things should decline.
Speaker 2And if then my next question is is he well or is he coming off of something?
Speaker 3And if he is, just be patient with it.
But if he's.
Speaker 2Well and he's getting older normally, it's like you're not gonna you don't expect things to actually get better.
Speaker 3So that'd be my biggest thing.
I'm biggest thing with him.
But I'm a fan.
I've always been a fan of this guy.
Speaker 2I love the way he's like, you know, Paul Malotar, the version that Gene Mok used to describe Paul.
He said, Paul Molataur Molotaar looked like a run as he walked up to home plate.
I mean, I think when you know, when Trey Turner's going well, he looks like a run.
He looks like a point every time he walks up there.
He's got His speed is so easy.
It's easy speed.
He glides and of course his signature slide in the home plate.
I just like him as a baseball player.
I think he does everything well.
He's got some pop.
You got to just winny kind of a way about him, and I'll pay more attention.
But I would bet that there might have been something bothering him that's no longer bothering him.
Speaker 1And another one of your favorites, I know, mister Kyle Schwarber, with a four home run game, Joan, I'm watching that game, and I see that he's getting a fifth at bat, the rare opportunity to try for a fifth home run.
Obviously, no one's hit five in a game.
There's been few opportunities where you get that fifth at bat to even have a shot at it.
And then I see it vidalbo Duhan.
The infielder is on the mound and Joe.
I hate to say it, but I was rooting against him.
I did not want to see a fifth home run with that sort of invisible asteris attached to it by hitting it off an infielder.
I was glad that he popped up.
It's no offense to Kylle Schwarberg, but it's just not the same to hit a fifth home run off an infielder as opposed to an actual major league pitcher.
Speaker 3I've seen it.
I've seen it.
I've seen KB.
Speaker 2I think KBA might have hit four home runs.
I'm not sure I think he did.
And the last kid, that's Chris Bryan against a picture.
When all that happens and the celebration still continue, but it's like, come on, there's something tainted about it.
Speaker 3I don't disagree with that.
It's not going to be logged that way.
Speaker 2And like you said, down the road, if he had hit his fifth, it would have been his fifth and you know, ten years from now or five years, it would just be about Shrob hit five home runs in a game, and nobody's even going to talk about the fact to the last one was hit against the position player.
Speaker 3It's part of the game.
The way it works.
I've done it.
Speaker 2You get to the point where you have to save your pitchers for the next day.
It's just the way the thing works.
And then and then you get blenty of some of your better guys sitting against guys like that.
I don't blame Sharp's were going for it.
I mean it's something to put on his resume.
Doesn't count, of course it does his account.
No, it doesn't.
Speaker 1That's a good way to put it.
Yes, it would go in the record right, but again I think it would be diminished historically.
I don't think people would accept it fully accept it that way.
But you mentioned Joe, it is a part of this game.
We see it more and more having position players on the mound.
We see it now even with teams up by more than eight runs, just to save pitching.
I don't like it, but I will say, Joe, I don't think there's an alternative.
You can't have a mercy rule.
You know, some of the people are in the ballpark going to their only game that year.
They're having a good time.
You can't tell these people to go home game over right.
I just don't think there's a workaround to it.
It's just I think it's an uglier side of the game that we just have to live with.
Speaker 3Agreed.
I mean we hate it.
I mean I hate it.
Speaker 2As a manager, I hate putting out good pitching in a horrible situation like that.
It's offensive to my sensibilities.
It's almost like, also, like this came up the other night.
Somebody was pitching and they're getting their butt kicked early on, and all of a sudden the game became lopsided.
And the part I hated about that that then you're asking your players to play a legitimate major league game when they're down so heavily, and the mental component of that's very, very taxing.
In today's world, there's only a couple bench guys normally, and so you really can't get guys off of their feet, which is always a big thing, and so it's one of the things I used to like about the September call ups more than anything was the fact that because we were in it often that in a bad game, or even in a good game, I could get some guys off of their feet.
But I would really be aware of that as a manager.
I'm talking a regular season game.
It starts going bad early.
When do you pull the trigger and get that guy out of there?
You're trying to save your bullpen, but at some and that's probably.
Speaker 3The more important component to it.
Speaker 2But then again, you got your guys out there just frying on a hot day, and the game's really hard to get into, and they're just going to get out there and just become fatigued without any real shot at coming back.
That would bother me, and that would think about it.
I hate it to waste good pitching in a bad game.
Speaker 3Hated it.
Speaker 1Tell me where you're at on the Philadelphia Phillies, Joe, they have four more games remaining with the New York Mets.
Uh, those are in Philadelphia.
We know how much trouble Philly has winning at City Field, But I'm assuming you like them to hang on to win the division.
They're also in a race to make sure they get the right seed.
You know you want that buy in the first round, right They're in a battle with the Cubs and the Dodgers there.
They were separated just by one game those three teams, so that would matter, and I'm sure I think Rob Thompson would manage that way.
John, I'm assuming you would as well to try to get that number two seed.
Speaker 2Of course, and I think it's gonna be different when they get to Philadelphia.
I watched the game a lot of the games in New York.
The kid was at McLean.
Speaker 1What's the what's the kids down with Nolan McLean?
Speaker 3Dude, Listen, that was the year A fan with pretty special.
Speaker 2What I was saying, I was seeing like Kyle Hendricks with ten more miles an hour on everything, the front hip comebacker to the lefties, the breaking ball that really was spun at a high level and for both sides.
Righty's and lefties both had a hard time with it.
Now, what I had heard was that he actually pitching better now than he had in Triple A, which kind of like concerning us a little bit.
But the guy's a great athlete quarterback in college all this kind of stuff, and he carries himself extremely well.
He's the guy there because they're pitching staff.
When they has come back, I think it is really having a hard time, you know.
There Peterson, he was the one go to guy.
So they're starting pitching has really been in flux, and that's that would be very concerning.
So they got off a little bit in New York.
They caught Philly at the right time there.
I think it's going to turn out differently when they get to Philadelphia.
So overarching, overall, I do like the Phillies better than the Mets now and in the future.
Speaker 3So I still think the Phillies are going to hang on and do it.
Speaker 2But that kid, that was very interesting to me.
The front hip comebacker.
Okay, Bartolo Cologne.
He had like a Bartolo Cologne front hip against the lefties.
That's spectacular.
I don't know if that always looks like that, but he won me over with that one outing.
Speaker 1Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up.
The fact you mentioned quarterback and I watched Bubba chan I'm not sure if you've seen him pitch yet for the Pirates, but wow, I mean, he had a scholarship offer to go to Clemson to be a quarterback.
He would be a two sports star there.
But the Pirates were able to sign him.
It's a great story because they you know, they took Henry Davis with the first pick, and you know, they save some money in the bonus pool and they use a lot of that.
He signed Bubba Chandler out of high school for three million dollars and watching this kid pitch, my goodness, that is a special fastball, really good athlete.
Love his armstroke, and it's kind of like Paul Skians.
Paul Skans was a catcher.
Know, he's a two way player.
He didn't become really a full time pitcher until he went to LSU, so he's only been doing that for what four or five years, And the same with Bubba Chandler.
I love these starting pitchers, especially who are really good athletes, played other sports, maybe played other positions rather than in today's world, since you're ten years old, you're a pitcher only and that's all that you do.
I'm telling you that the Pirates, they're just a couple of bats away.
And I realized I was saying that you're talking about thirty home running h or middle of the order bats, not just complimentary bats, but their pitching staff.
If you watch Braxton Ashcraft pitch, I mean he is spectacular.
They've got the makings of almost reminds me of the twenty fourteen to fifteen New York Mets with the young pitching arms that they have.
They just need to find more offense.
But Bubba Chandler to me is I think, to me, he's the top pitching prospect in all of baseball when they watch him throw and his mechanics, to me, I would have him number one.
Speaker 2I've not seen him it, I'll definitely make a point to watch him.
Wasn't it just a kid by name of Jones there also that throws really well.
Speaker 1Yeah, Jared Jones.
He's been out the whole year.
A little bit concerned about him, Joe, because he's like five foot ten, you know, one hundred and eighty pounds throwing one hundred miles an hour.
Just from a starting pitching perspective, I think it's hard to keep up and withstand the torque and the amount of pressure it puts on an arm if you don't have the body to withstand it when you're throwing one hundred.
But yeah, that's a special arm as well.
Speaker 2Yeah, they've done a nice job with all of that stuff, and like you're talking talking about there, they're missing the power and know they're considered small market, I guess in Pittsburgh.
I just I've always loved the franchise.
I love the city.
I was a quasi pirate fan kid growing up.
I was big on Clementi and all the guys.
I love their uniforms, so I've always you're always looking for them to turn it around and get things going in the right direction.
Not a better place to start than some really legitimate arms right there.
So again I don't know they're overarching philosophy, what they're trying to get done, and what they're doing in the minor leagues, et cetera.
But that's the kind of stuff you don't want to waste.
You get pitching like that, you don't want to waste those kind of arms and just be mediocre man, because they're there.
Of course, I believe what you're saying.
I can't wait to watch this kid and then schemes of course, and they have others too, so we'll see how it plays out.
But I'm excited to watch this guy.
They need to get whatever it is that you know they exit philosophically.
I don't know what it is, but it's got to turn because they have a lot of potentialities going on there and I love to see it work well.
Speaker 3Joe.
Speaker 1Early on I mentioned Michael Jordan's story we need to get to It does not involve the way socks or baseball, but it involves another one of you or favorite topics.
We'll dive into that right after this on the Book of Joe.
Welcome back to the Book of Joe.
Joe.
I know you like cars.
Has there ever been like a dream car for you that you still don't have that you'd love to have?
Speaker 3Yes, so there is as a matter of fact.
Speaker 2In nineteen fifty eighth im polla convertible or bill Air convertible, fifty eight, the fifty.
Speaker 3Eighth shau, Yeah, that'd be awesome.
Speaker 2The fifty eight, you know, that was between like those fifty five, fifty six, fifty seven with the fins, and then fifty nine.
It came back to the big fins because I have a fifty nine, Oh Camino.
They were just different.
The Camino fins were kind of like they spread out, almost looked like eyeballs.
If you look at it from the back like a bees eese or something.
And then the fifty seven, of course had the fins sticking straight up.
At the fifty I've always thought was one of the prettiest cars I've ever seen.
And they also had the exposed Spirit tire in the back that was part of it also kind of rides behind the trunk.
That's been the one car that I mentally pursued.
I haven't done it yet, but a fifty eight Chevy and Pala Slash bell.
Speaker 3Air convertible blue be fine.
Speaker 2I would prefer having an ls Enginet of some kind, not the old whatever that they possessed at that time, the two eighties whatever, that would be it.
Speaker 3It's the best.
Speaker 1There's a place in Miami that can help you.
It's a place called Curated Vintage Supercars, and they actually will try to find these vintage or you know, really rare especially sports cars.
And this is a story from them in their hunt to try to find this Ferrari Testerosa that Michael Jordan bought in February nineteen ninety two.
Now this is the height of the bulls in Jordan's dominance.
Right February of ninety two, he buys this Ferrari TR five twelve tr in your old neck the woods up in Lake Forest.
Right, there's an iconic picture, I think it was an SI picture of Jordan showing up for a playoff game against the Knicks and he's getting out of his black Ferrari and there's like five or six security guards around him outside the United Center.
It's like the height of Michael's kingdom, right, I mean, he looks every bit the crown prince of basketball.
Superstar.
Well, they wanted to find this car and they were tracing what happened to the car Now was Michael didn't travel discreetly.
He had a license plate that said m Air j driving around in a black Ferrari.
So he got he had noticed, right, and why not, You're Michael Jordan.
So in October of nineteen ninety five they found out he sells the car to a guy named Chris Gardner.
Now, I don't know if that name sounds familiarated Chris Gardner, but if you remember the movie The Pursuit of Happiness with Will Smith that was based on the life of a guy named Chris Gardner who went from being homeless to being a millionaire, stockbroker, and his inspiration happened to be One day he met a guy driving a Ferrari and he asked the guy, man, how did you get that?
How did you earn that?
He says, I'm a stockbroker, and Chris Gardner says, well, don't you have to go to college to be He's like, no, you don't have to go to college.
You just have to be good with numbers and good with people.
Long story is short, Chris Gardner becomes a millionaire being a stockbroker, and he buys himself a Ferrari, not just any Ferrari, but Michael Jordan's Ferrari.
Now Chris Gardner also gets a vanity license plate and his license plate says, not.
Speaker 3Mj that's outstanding.
Speaker 1Well, flash forward, they find out in twenty ten the car is sold at auction and it's sold to a guy in Los Angeles.
And you know, he's not a Hollywood star, he's not NBA player.
This guy buys the car at auction out in LA and nine months after the guy buys the car, he's diagnosed with bone cancer, and so he puts the car away and actually, if things turn out fine, he beats cancer.
But had the car basically locked up in his garage for fifteen years, doesn't drive it at all.
Well long behold the wildfires hit in California last January.
The whole neighborhood is scorched except this guy's home and his garage.
The car is untouched.
So they finally tracked the car down.
They find it.
The guy's are now probably in his eighties or nineties.
Who owns the car, and it's like, listen, it's a young man's car.
I really can't drive it anymore.
I will sell it to you.
So this place in Miami buys the car from this guy.
They promise him that once they have it restored and fixed up rate running condition, they're going to let him drive the car just once.
That's all he wants to do, drive it around the block.
And Joe, the kicker to the story, is to restore the car.
These guys in Miami are sending the car to Italy to have the artisans at Ferrari work on it, because they consider it like a work of art.
They're just not going to give it to any pep boys shop and have people work on it.
They're sending it over to Italy.
They're going to put a quarter of a million dollars of work into the car.
It's probably four times the value of the car itself.
So Michael Jordan's Ferrari is going to be restored.
I don't know what they do with it after that, but it sounds to me like they should, I don't know, put it on display or maybe sell it to somebody who wants to keep the legacy going.
But I love the providence of things like this.
I'm a big fan of history, Joe.
I think there's stories behind everything that we touch and every place we go to.
And when I hear stories like this, I think it's so cool that they're honoring the legacy.
And it's just a car.
I get it.
You say, just the car, But Joe, I know you appreciate the stories and the meeting behind what a car is.
Speaker 2Use the word art as you were describing the whole thing, and that's we've talked about that.
We talked about that in the book.
Also regarding the art form of the cars of yesteryear.
I have several fifty six fel Air, the fifty nine Camino, seventy two Chevelle convertible, and even my seventy six Dodge Van Tradesman two hundred, which I absolutely.
Speaker 3Love on a door.
Speaker 2One of the best vehicles I've ever had was in nineteen ninety or fifty four SS Chevy pickup.
Limited number of those made, but that things drives so well.
It's just a different feel, and of course the four to fifty four engine makes it fun.
But everyone is I could be standing I don't know what one hundred yards away.
Speaker 3If I could actually see that far, I could tell you which one it is.
Speaker 2We put like six or seven cars today's cars out in a discernible distance and make them all the same color.
You can't tell them apart because they're all They're going to be white, gray, or black.
And from a distance it's really hard to tell the lines.
But I'm telling you from the fifty nine with the fins in the back, the even the fifty six spell there.
You have to know the difference between the fifty five and the fifty six, and I would just have them facing me from the front side of the grill.
Much easier to determine the difference with those two.
And of course the fifty seven completely different, but you knew what it was.
Speaker 3And that's when.
Speaker 2Multiple colors were two tone was popular, where today cars just get dipped once and they throw them out there and they put an interior interior in them, whereas I'm sure they cost prohibitive in a sense to get the two tone made.
Maybe that's part of why they don't do them anymore, apart because maybe people don't.
Speaker 3Want them, but that was part of the artwork.
The chrome.
I love chrome.
Speaker 2I don't like chrome on my shortstop, but I love it on my fifty six bell Air.
You know, it's just the way they did things, man.
And the interior is the fifty nine el Camino has this like pattern checkered pattern red interior with like the you know, the fake vinyl pleather leather trimming around the interior, which is just really groovy red kind of stuff, with the red solid red, same color red dash which is metal.
Of course, if you hit your head on that, it's gonna hurt that.
They just don't do it.
And of course i'm describing a non safe kind of a situation compared to what we have today.
Of Course, you love drubbing driving today's vehicles.
But as it comes to art, as it pertains to art, as it pertains to universality, that never gets it is always attractive.
Speaker 3That's what these cars had and have, so them doing this.
Speaker 2Listen, I'm in on that, and I think it's fabulous.
I'd love to see a picture of that.
And after at the end of all this, is it gonna if they're gonna sell, is it gonna get even more money?
Based on the fact that it's been rehabed like that, and the fact that Jordan had it and all this, and also this other gentleman that became the stockbroker.
I mean, there's a there's a great history behind that.
I've bet somebody's gonna go a million on that at some point.
Speaker 1Absolutely.
I mean, when there's meeting, when there's story is behind something, there's added value, there's no question.
And to your point, Joe, looking at this year the top twenty five the highest selling cars in the US, nineteen of the top twenty five are sport utility vehicles or pickups.
Sure, I mean, and if you can tell a sportage from a cross track to a forester, you knock yourself out.
I mean, look in a parking lot these days, folks and look at these.
I guess they call them a crossover, sport utility whatever.
You want to call them.
There is a that has gone rampant.
Now I'm not sure where this took off, but everybody wants one.
I don't understand that.
You know, these sport utilities have become that popular.
Speaker 2I just recently purchased the Ford Expedition, and I was debating among that the Ford Expedition, the cheap Wagon here, Grand Wagoneer, and the Chevy Tahoe Slash Suburban, And so I drove them all and I settled on the Fort For one of the best things about it, I loved it was a V six with an echo boost engine.
There's a twin turbo, and this thing really goes and as it really firms I mean a night when I say firms smooth, hugging the road kind of a ride, I thought.
And plus it was the Platinum version, so the interior is really comfortable.
It's a twenty twenty two that I purchased.
I don't want to pay for all that that money.
I'm gonna lose the moment it's front run out of the showroom floor.
All the depreciation, I'm not into that.
So I like a couple of year old vehicle.
I thought I got a good deal.
But I drove all the different vehicles and I was looking at like the interior basically comfort what I thought of him.
Speaker 3You know what it looked like.
Speaker 2It look more stable, secure, and the fact that it's gonna wear well or is it gonna be something I just I thought it was a little bit sincere looking lack of a better word.
And then beyond that, like even what's become really important now, it seems is the GPS systems, the screens.
And then when I got is a portrait in this thing, and I really I like that also having done the landscape for years.
But I went through all these history on its and it really came down to I took it out of the highway, and damn, I just love the way this thing took off.
The expedition, the twin turbos.
I mean, it really does have some pop.
Again, you could you could this could be the show.
And I have a Chevy guy, and I went away from Chevy, and I probably would buy a Chevy normally.
Speaker 3I've had.
Speaker 2I have a Taha at twenty twelve Taha out front, and that's going to be a local car.
Speaker 3But I kept an open.
Speaker 2Mind and I settled on the expedition based on field and I did my research and different YouTube's got some great videos regarding evaluation.
But then again you have to consider who's doing the evaluation.
Is this guy or a woman getting paid by Ford or cheap or whomever.
So anyhow, I know you're talking about I got it for my trip to Florida and back.
I needed to extra room and the comfort, and I'm here to tell you I do dig it.
But like you're suggesting and saying, from a distance, you parked them down the street, It's very difficult to tell that from a tahoe.
The wagoner's got a little bit more of a distinct look.
I think about it.
Speaker 3But overall, we're just dealing with the same this and everything that we do.
Speaker 1So while you're on the lookout for your dream car, if you ever come across an old rambler, and I can't I don't know the exact year, but my mom's green Rambler was probably around fifty nine, sixty sixty one somewhere around there.
Okay, it might be hard to find one of those that's still actually running.
Speaker 2I'll keep my eyes open, brother, I'm gonna I'm gonna start looking.
I'm gonna start looking at what I did I bought.
When I bought that four fifty four SS pickup, I was in spring training with the Rays.
I'm in Port Charlotte, and I wanted a truck because I didn't have a truck anymore, and the utility of a truck is great.
So I was driving a Highway forty one from the Almond Brothers down in that neck of the woods, and there was like some kind of a used actually a used car a lot that really was dealing in quote unquote classic car.
And I drive in and I didn't have any particular I just looking for a truck, nothing in particular, and I drive around the back of Boom, there it is.
It's sitting in the back kind of and it's sitting up real proud.
And I just got online and I started researching it, and he never made and it's like the first cup of its kind that really led to other pickups being built along the same model of this four fifty four SS nineteen ninety Chevy pickups.
So I bought it for like I think it was ten thousand bucks.
The original sticker was in the glove box for eighteen thousand, and I've already been offered like forty fifty thousand for this thing.
I've had it redone great paint job out west.
Joey's relatives, my cousin, my son, Joey's relatives did it out there.
Fabulous job inside and out, and it runs like a bear.
Speaker 3So, I mean, you know that's the thing, man.
I found.
My point is I found it.
Speaker 2So next time I'm just driving around, I'm gonna look for that old rambler for you.
Speaker 3We're gonna find it.
We'll have it.
We'll find that sucker somehow.
Speaker 1And if it's not running, we'll make it runs.
You know people who can make it.
Speaker 3We people.
Speaker 1Well, we've reached that time, Joe where you bring us home to end this episode of the Book of Joe.
What do you have for us today?
Speaker 3Well, it's the late Nobel laureate.
His name was Herb Simon.
Speaker 2I didn't really I don't know the man, but I was reading this yesterday and I thought it was pretty interesting.
We talked about information a lot early on, and you know, how do we use all this information?
There's so much of it out there, and you know, you were wonderful about supplying all the different things you already talked about earlier about ball in the air Yankees these the angles of their swings and other balls in the air.
But just to call it down, and he said, a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention, and I had to read more.
Key challenges for leaders in today's information ecosystem included not only collecting enough information, but also deciding where to direct their limited focus.
Souse, That's the thing, like limited focus is like the keywords for me there, because analytically, I mean everybody, you want to provide all this information and I mean a lot of it.
Speaker 3There's reams of it.
Speaker 2It's like they're going to get to the playoffs right now, close to the playoffs, and then the playoff, and every organization is going to create these little novellas about each team that they're going to play, even though they've played them all year long, and even though you've seen them firsthand, and even though you know what you want to do against them, they're still going to do it.
So with all this information at your disposal, we have limited focus.
Speaker 3I mean, you know, titting the.
Speaker 2Golf ball today, I mean trying to bet better with my driver and I can only hold one thought.
I mean I did but I'll try to hold two or three, and then if I tried to hold two or three, obviously it never works out well.
So in regards to all this glood of information that we're getting, and it's wonderful, but understand that we only have a limited focus.
We can only hold on to so much, so you have to be able to the really better ones.
I think, take this large pool of intel and they're able to call it down to the point where they hand out nuggets.
I give you a nugget, Tommy, I give Vincent nugget.
I give everybody I'm working with her a nugget.
But you might be able to handle two nuggets.
I don't know, but it's nuggets.
It's not this vat And I think that's the trick in all of this is to realize that all this stuff is good, but what is really pertinent to us winning right now?
What do we have to focus on among all this stuff that we've mined, you know, from this this this deep, deep mind of information, what really matters, what's going to help us get over the top and get to the promised land.
That's the focus we need to be able to understand, and that's where we have to apply it.
Speaker 1I love that thought, Joe, because the amount of information out there, it's much much more than what it was, certainly twenty years ago, even ten years ago.
Right absolutely, But our capacity to you know, kind of distill usable information has not grown.
It is not going to grow.
Our bandwidth is only so wide.
So to me, those people I call them distillers, you can call them translators who can give you actionable intelligence, are even more valuable.
And you just brought me back while you were saying that, Joe, to a classic story.
And I know a lot of people have heard this before.
The nineteen eighty eight World Series.
Before the series begins, the Dodgers are going over the Oakland pictures and it's Mel Didier.
This the old scout who is running the meeting, and the Dodgers are sitting there on the floor in the clubhouse, backs on against the wall, listening to Melon Didier go through each Oakland picture and he gets to Dennis Secresy and at one point he says, Padna, I'm sure I'm standing here.
He gets you three and two, He's gonna try to go back door slider, and of course Game one's Kirk Gibson coming off the bench to pinch hit.
The count gets the three and two.
All of a sudden, Kirk Gibson has Doug Harvey, the umpire for time, steps out of the box and he literally hears the voice of melt Didty eight in his head.
Pardner, Sure, I'm standing here.
He's gonna throw you a back door three two slider, and Kirk Gibson sits on three two slider, gets it and hits it out of the park.
The rest is history.
But that to me is the classic case Joe of just one nugget that changed the course of history.
And that it's just amazing to me that Kirk Gibson, in his mind, in that moment heat of the moment, was able to remember that and use it.
Speaker 2I st to the example i'd give my players, my hitters I was hitting coach for many years, is I would tell them I would sit in my room after a long day at the ballpark as a roving hitting instructor field coordinator, and I start writing my notes, and I said, I'd be watching TV, and then I would also want to check my audits report to see how it was going with the different teams on that particular night.
And I said, I challenge any of you to sit down, watch TV and pick up a telephone and at that point listen to your messages and see if you could actually listen to your messages and watch TV simultaneously.
Speaker 3And of course you can't.
And so my point was, you have to pick one.
Speaker 2You just have to focus on one thing at a time in order to become a better hitter.
One thought.
You can't go up there with multiple thoughts.
And that really jumped out of me because I've always I was sitting I think it was in Lake Elsinore when I was doing that, sitting on the phone, checking out my reports, and I'm trying to do both, and I said, damn, I can't.
Speaker 3Of course I can't.
Nobody can't.
Speaker 2You can't listen to a report and watch and understand what's being said on the television.
So that was one of my ways back in the day to try to get my point across to my hitters.
Speaker 3Just pick out one.
You can't go up there with multiple thoughts.
I love it.
Speaker 1Great thoughts as usual.
Joe, say you by next time.
By the Book of Joe.
Speaker 3Thank you, brother, you be well man, Thank you.
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