Life as a Minor Leaguer: Insights from Antonio Menendez

In this episode, Matthew de la Rosa interviews Antonio Menendez, a professional baseball player with the Arizona Diamondbacks. They discuss Antonio's journey from being a late bloomer in baseball to becoming a Rule 5 draft pick. Antonio shares insights on the challenges of professional baseball, the importance of mental skills, and the significance of education in an athlete's career. He also elaborates on his training techniques, including the use of multiple arm slots, and provides a glimpse into the daily life of a minor leaguer. 

In this conversation, Antonio Menendez shares insights on the importance of mental skills coaching in baseball, the adaptability of a player's process, and the journey of navigating high school baseball and recruitment. He also discusses his entrepreneurial venture in creating custom gloves, emphasizing the need for quality and personalization in sports equipment. Menendez concludes with motivational advice for young athletes to enjoy their journey and keep pushing towards their dreams.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

What's going on, y'all? Welcome to another episode of NJ Healthy Heat, the podcast. I'm your host as always, Matthew Delarosa. And today I've got Antonio Menendez. He is a current professional baseball player with the Arizona Diamondbacks. He was just picked up in the Rule 5 draft, played at Wake Forest, has played on Team USA, is also a business owner of a company that I am involved with as an affiliate called Prospect Gloves, which is a custom glove company. And today's podcast is actually brought to you by Prospect Gloves. So if you are in the market for a new glove for the season, this company is amazing. I'm not just saying it because he's on here. I've bought in two gloves myself. You can fully customize it. He'll go into much more detail about it today. But the code is NJHH20, and that's 20% off a full custom glove. Custom gloves can run you, you know, a ridiculous amount of price. And so that $20 uh 20% off uh great custom glove is going to be worth it. So um without further ado, man, I want to get into just you as a person and uh understand kind of what you're coming from and and how you got to the position that you're at. So kind of just paint the background for us on uh who you are and and uh you know how you got into this position you're currently in as uh you know professional baseball player and uh business owner.

SPEAKER_00 1:17

Yeah, well, thank you, Matthew, for having me on. That's the first thing I want to say. I I love everybody who's you know grinding away at these platforms and trying to reconnect with the younger audience and connect with the people that follow them because baseball is surprisingly a small world. Um, you know, everybody when you're younger looks up to all these professional players and big leaguers and college players, and they're like, man, it must be so hard to get there, which it is obviously it is difficult to get to those levels, but at the same time, it's a small world. And you notice that as you hang on in the sport, um, you know, you could start off as the terrible little league player that's riding the bench to all of a sudden being a big league, uh big league player. So um you hear stories all the time. I saw a post recently about Scoobyl and Skiens, how like Skeens had two college offers and Scoobyl had one, and obviously now they're incredible pitchers. So uh I think platforms like what you have here isn't is great for the young audience. Um, and hopefully that my story can help inspire somebody. Obviously, that's my goal as a player is to pass on my knowledge to the next generation and inspire people to continue to play this game of baseball that I love so much. Um but yeah, obviously sponsored by Prospect Gloves, repping the gear here. Um, super excited to talk about that as well. Um, you know, anything to get kids fired up about playing this sport. Um, but a little bit about my background. Uh I played regular high school baseball and travel ball, obviously competitively, because I loved the the sport. Um it is a little bit crazy nowadays what I hear about travel baseball and kids playing 24-7, and it's all they focus on, and they're becoming POs at 10 years old and stuff like that. And we can get into that, but a little bit about me, like I just my dad played growing up. Um, I just always loved the sport. I did play multiple sports. I played basketball, played golf, I played other stuff, and and I just always was drawn to competing on a baseball field. Um, I bounced around in different travel teams and felt like a late bloomer. I never really threw hard, but I was a really good competitor. Um, I loved playing the field, playing multiple positions, just being an athlete. And um yeah, I started throwing for multiple arm slots because of uh Billy Wagner, the Hall of Famer. He was my pitching coach uh at one point growing up. So couldn't have a better uh, you know, role model than Billy Wagner um when I was younger. So he was the one that actually recommended that I drop down and throw submarine a little bit more often. I would do it kind of as a joke because I was a third baseman at the time, would make those running plays and uh had a good arm from that angle. And I in game I would occasionally throw one from down there, get some ooze and ahs from the fans and the parents. And um Billy was like, yeah, you're really good at that. You should do it more. And that's what's kind of developed into what I do now with my multiple arm slots. A lot of it just comes down to being an athlete. Uh, and that's actually something that the Diamondbacks harp on a lot, and maybe that's why they picked me, is they want their players to and their pitchers specifically to be athletes. At the end of the day, you need to be an athlete on the mound, throwing from different angles and catch play and doing things like that just makes you a better athlete and thus makes you a better pitcher. Um, but over time, I slowly started to develop some size and in terms of uh my body, grow into myself a little bit. I was a late bloomer, started to throw a little bit harder once I got into college. But at the end of the day, it's just competing. Uh, even in Pro Bowl, we have guys that take a long time to develop. You know, there's young kids here that get drafted because they're freaks early on. But a lot of guys go to JUCO, they play D3 ball, and all of a sudden they're late bloomers, they're a free agent sign, they're from Indie Ball, and next thing you know, they're in the big league. So I want to make sure the kids nowadays aren't discouraged if they're not the best on their team at a young age. Um, because I definitely was not. Um then I, you know, I went to to Wake Forest and was blessed with the opportunity to go there and uh and compete for a great organization. Obviously, now they're cream of the crop in terms of uh names and baseball, but at the time, you know, we we weren't. Obviously, it's ACC and it's it's a great honor to be a Division I player, but um it was a great place for me to develop as a player. Um I I went there with the intention of getting an education uh and playing baseball. I went there over some other top SEC and ACC schools that maybe are more prolific in terms of baseball because I wanted the education. Um, and that's what's led me to my business and some of the other ventures that I am I'm in. And I encourage people to go somewhere that they're gonna play. Um, I could have gone to some other schools where it would have looked cooler on paper, but if you don't play, there's no point, in my opinion. Uh, you need to get a good education if you can, and you need to play. And Tom Walter and the staff over there gave me a lot of opportunities from freshman on to get on the field and compete and learn and quite frankly, fail. Um my freshman year was not great in college, and it's because there's growing pains, right? You learn to get punched a little bit harder as a freshman uh than you ever did in high school. You know, you may be a good high school player and all of a sudden you're playing with guys three, four, five years older, and there's an adjustment period. Um but I think that is really valuable. And some of those high school kids that get drafted, they don't really experience it the same. Uh, they get into Pro Ball and a lot of times they're top picks and they're just very talented, and that only gets you so far. Yeah. Um, the really talented players, surprisingly, are not always the guys that make it. Um, but yeah, I mean, I we can stop at any point. I can continue on with my kind of career at this point if you want to get an arc, or we can stop and and hit on the young the younger age stuff, whatever you think.

SPEAKER_02 6:48

Yeah, no, man. Uh, one, I think that it's awesome that you're mentioning being a late bloomer. That's what a lot of I like, I speak a lot on that because my journey was also a late bloomer. I was the JUCO guy that had to go the D2 route that ended up, you know, performing after, you know, two years of basically failure in college and then ended up getting drafted and and you know not making it to the big leagues, but at least getting the opportunity. And I always try to tell kids like, hey, at least that's you know, at least that's what you want, right? Is the chance to at least get there to play as long as you can. So um, you know, spreading the message always of being um comfortable with where you're at and knowing that that's not the end destination is always a great message. But yeah, I'm I'm interested to to learn more about you a little bit and we'll spend a little bit more time on you um and and you know, get some of your wisdom. I'm I'm curious because of the rule five. I don't think a lot of people know what that is. I think you know your common baseball person like us, right, knows what the rule five is. We obviously you're living in and I've I've been around and had teammates drafted in it. But to the everyday folk that maybe watches baseball occasionally or a kid listening to this right now doesn't know what the rule five is. So kind of break it down of what it is and and how you ended up in this situation and kind of what you're tasked with now being a rule five draft pick.

SPEAKER_00 8:06

Yeah, so I actually think it ties perfectly into where I left off with college and then getting to rule five. So basically with college, uh 2020 was my junior draft year. So I was not drafted in that year because of COVID. It was a five-round draft, it really ruined a lot of stuff and has honestly set up the environment we have now where it's so hard to get in a Pro Bowl. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:26

Um I then had Tommy John as the year I got kicked out of Pro Bowl.

SPEAKER_00 8:30

Yeah, everything started getting cut, jobs are harder to find, uh, and that really set us up for a weird environment in Pro Bowl. But I then got drafted as a senior, but I did have Tommy John. Basically, didn't I did not play my senior year uh and I fell down the draft boards because of that. Uh, didn't basically play for two years, junior, COVID, senior year, Tommy John, and the Rays were um, I was blessed for them to give me an opportunity to play. Like you said, an opportunity is all people want. And uh they gave me an opportunity to play. It was a 14th round pick, not big money, not a high draft pick, but had an opportunity to play. Um then you sign, I signed a seven-year contract at the time. That's what the minor league kind of contracts are, first-year player contracts. Now those are going down. Uh, but once you hit a certain time in Pro Bowl, certain amount of years of uh service, you then are eligible for what's called the rule five draft. Um, there are two phases. There is a major league phase, which is very rare to happen. Uh, teammate of mine in college, Shane Smith, was a pick in this major league phase where if you are selected, you go to that team and you are then uh basically trying out for to make the active 26-man roster that travels with the team the whole year. You're taking a minor league guy and putting them in the big leagues and guaranteeing them a spot for an entire year. Most of the time that does not happen and pan out because you're taking a minor league player and risking that they are going to perform at the big leagues the entire year. Shane Smith, he's an unbelievable player. He was uh uh an undrafted free agent. Tommy John, the same year I was from Wake Forest, next thing you know, he's in the big leagues as an all-star. So it does happen, but it is very rare. Um, the next portion is the minor league portion, which is what I was picked in, which is you are eligible if you were on a AA or lower roster after a certain amount of uh service time. And uh because I was on the triple A roster uh even a year ago, I was not eligible for this. And so um basically what this does for players is give them an opportunity to go to a new team. If you're stuck behind Derek Jeter and you're a shortstop and you have no shot of making the big leagues, this is something that allows players the opportunity to go to a different team that wants you. Uh, and thankfully, this uh was an opportunity that I had. I it didn't seem to have an opportunity with the Rays to really get to the big leagues. I was in triple A with them, played at every single level. Uh, it was just made apparent that they it wasn't the right fit for the big leagues. And at the end of the day, everybody's trying to make the big leagues. And so they allowed me to uh be put on the double A roster at the end of the year, and the Diamondbacks took me. And so now they can kind of do whatever they want with me in terms of uh where they place me. There's no requirements, but they do pay uh to take that player from uh the raise in this case. So now I'm an Arizona Diamondbacks minor league player uh with two years remaining on my contract, and now I'm fighting to obviously make the big leagues. Um, I think there's a lot more opportunity here with Arizona than there was with Tampa. And now we'll see you know where this um where the season pans out. Um I do think that with the ability to go back to throwing multiple arm slots and all my different pitches, which I was not allowed to do with Tampa, I think there's some opportunity to uh make the big leagues here, hopefully. And I know Tred's posted some videos of me recently thrown from all my arm angles. And yeah, you're like the roster child right now, man.

SPEAKER_01 11:48

I I saw that at the end of the day. I was like, dang, dude. I thought you were training there. I was like, and spring training just makes it.

SPEAKER_00 11:56

Yeah, and it's been good. Obviously, like people don't always see what happens behind closed doors in terms of the training that happens and what organizations tell you. So every organization in Pro Bowl has their philosophy, just like coaches at youth, like, hey, this is how you need to play the game. And unfortunately, the game right now is super technical with models and stuff plus and uh everything that goes into making decisions for their business. And unfortunately, I didn't fit into the model for the Rays. Um, they value different things and different metrics that I didn't particularly fall under. And so I may be a better fit with Arizona now. So I'm hoping that uh with being freed up to allow to uh to throw from different arm angles and be myself as a player will give me a little bit more confidence and allow me to perform and hopefully make the big leagues and impact the diamondbacks and get us back to the World Series and win it this time. Um, I do think I can do that uh this year. I mean, I feel really confident in my stuff, and now we'll just see what happens and just continue to grind through spring training and the rest of the season.

SPEAKER_02 12:55

Yeah, so let's talk about the the arm slots and all the work that goes into there. Obviously, spending your time over at Tread, that's a world-class facility with world-class trainers and world-class obviously talent going in and out of there every single day. Um, after coming out of Tampa Bay with just your straight submarine slot, uh, and then obviously always had the three-quarter slot. How do you go back to training that? How do you find that arm slot once again? How do you know which pitches you're throwing out of it? How do you even decide at what point are you gonna go sub- to three-quarter?

SPEAKER_00 13:29

Sure. Yeah, so I played all the way through double-A with the Rays, throwing for multiple arm slots. Um, and then they basically said that for me to crack their bigly roster, they wanted me to be like Tyler Rogers and throw submarine only. That was what fit into their model. They didn't like the other stuff, and that was mainly because the model can't, there's a lot of stuff that doesn't go into a model that they can't account for, and deception is one of those really tricky metrics. So the fact that I throw an over-the-top fastball after a submarine sinker or whatever the two pitches end up being, they take the pitches and put it in a sandbox and say, hey, this stuff is really good or it's not good. And so they couldn't determine whether the deception had value or not. So I got stuck last year throwing just submarine and two pitches, uh, and I became less of an athlete, uh, quite frankly, because I had to throw everything from the same slot. I wasn't able to throw as hard from down there. And now that I've been freed up, my coach Ryan Flippo has been doing a great job helping me out with redeveloping those different arm slots and simply just becoming an athlete. Um, it was something that was natural for me since I was 12 years old with um with travel ball and and uh what Billy Wagner allowed me to do. Uh, I wouldn't recommend it for most people to try and throw for multiple arm slots in game. I think it's a great tool to just be an athlete on the field. Uh, it is difficult to do what I'm doing because usually you want consistency in your delivery on the mound. I'm the opposite. I don't want consistency. I want to have different arm slots and angles and looks and timings. Um, but the approach is with right-handed hitters, the lower slot works. Um, even at the triple A level, I got right-handed hitters out from a very high level, just simply throwing sinkers and sweepers. It's a really tough angle for them because I'm throwing behind them, uh, and it just works. So the Rays were right in that it does work against right-handed hitters to be just submarine. The lefties were my Achilles heel and AAA, and now with freeing up the various arm slots, now it is a deception game. And this is what I enjoy about baseball is the chess match, the the mental side of the game. Guys can go out there and blow a hundred by people. That's very common nowadays, unfortunately. Um, but that's not the type of player I am. If I could go out there and throw 101 by people like Mason Miller, I played with him in the Fall League, I wish I could do that. I can't. I have to get very talented hitters out with different looks, deception, timing changes, making them uncomfortable. And I do that by changing arm slots and manipulating pitches in different ways. Um so I read the hitter, I look at scouting reports, I figure out basically mainly how steep or flat their swing is as a left-handed hitter to determine the type of pitches that I need to throw to get them out. Um you look at a track man plot, movement profile, and you can basically figure out what types of pitches are optimal for those types of hitters, uh, and that determines the different angles I throw from. So if the guy has a really flat swing, I try and pitch more north to south, uh, usually over the top and submarine. If he's got a vertical swing, trying to get over the barrel and uh horizontal is a better play. So figuring out what you think they're guessing at, what they're hunting, uh, that's the fun part of the game for me is playing that chess match. So yeah, there's no real rhyme or reason outside of just feeling the game and kind of having some of that just baseball IQ, whether you're trying to get a ground ball, a fly ball, a strikeout, and reading the swing and the hitter in the box.

SPEAKER_02 16:56

Now at your level right now, and I guess it's gonna it's gonna change from team to team and probably catcher to catcher, manager to manager. Um, are you do you have the ability to call your own pitches, or are you trusting that the pitching coach and the catcher are doing their due diligence on their end and that you just have to basically go with what they want, or how how how does that work for you to because you obviously you seem like you're very in the weeds with understanding what each hitter does, so you would probably want to trust your scouting report over anybody else's, not saying that they don't know what they're doing, but yeah, you you you you you you you're gonna live and die by your bets.

SPEAKER_00 17:35

Correct. I think that's the right philosophy. At the end of the day, even if the scouting report says this guy cannot hit a fastball to save his life, does not mean you should just throw a fastball because of that. You have to be confident in what you're throwing. And so my entire pro ball experience with the two orgs I've been with so far, uh, and even in college, I called my own game. Um, because at the end of the day, if you don't have conviction throwing the pitch, you're not going to execute that pitch. Uh, I can live with me throwing a pitch I was convicted to throw and it getting hit over the wall, than me throwing a pitch I am not convicted to throw and it get hitting it getting hit over the wall. There's a different feeling as a pitcher. You need to be confident out there in what you're doing and live with the results. Um, so I've always called my own game. I feel like I know my stuff best and I can read hitters um potentially better than the guy sitting in the dugout because I'm in it, living the situation. But at the end of the day, too, in Pro Bowl, especially as you get higher, you do trust what the catcher is, you know, putting down. Uh at the end of the day, they're seeing stuff too. They're the guy right there calling the game. They know what the players have done over the last series, they know what they've done earlier in the game when you weren't in the game. Uh, and so you do weigh what they are putting down uh to a point. But if you're not convicted in the number that he's putting down, or nowadays the pitchcom button that he's clicking, don't throw it. That's my opinion. Um you need to you need to have conviction. Um so I think it's a little bit of both, right? The the coaches don't call it game, uh, and and they also don't throw the pitch. They will provide you all the information uh that you need to make those decisions, but they always tell you it's your career, right? If you go out there and you give up 10 runs or your career ends because you can't get guys out, if you are convicted in that, you can go to sleep at night, knowing that you did your best. Um, but they're not the ones throwing the pitches. Uh so I'm definitely an advocate of trusting your stuff, going out there and just throwing whatever you're convicted in throwing.

SPEAKER_02 19:27

Yeah, yeah. I think it's difficult. Um not saying that you know coaches can't do it because maybe you know that their job's on the line in in college and in high school, whatever it may be, um, and they gotta call the game. But it's I I've I've been in the dugout as a coach and I've been on the mound as a pitcher. Like the two angles are just I can't see anything from the dugout. Like to even lie to a kid and be like, yo, I saw like that pitch was on, I can't see that. Yeah, you're you're looking right at it. You got a way better shot than I do of of understanding what it is um and and learning the game faster that way um is is much better. So um appreciate that insights on on a day-to-day basis right now. I think a lot of people are always intrigued with what goes on with with professional athletes on a day-to-day basis. Like, what are you guys doing? Walk us through what a day in the life of a minor league or slash you know professional baseball player is right now um in 2026.

SPEAKER_00 20:24

Yeah, so spring training is obviously different than the season. Um it's early days. What do you think? Yeah, yeah. So you wait, you wake up early, 6:30-ish, you get into the field, you eat. Usually you have meetings in spring training, whether it's administrative with MLB or the organization. Uh, a lot of times they'll go through like pitching specific meetings, going through pitch philosophies, how they evaluate you, what they're focusing on this year. Um you'll do individual meetings based on maybe your live BPs that you've thrown or in-game performance to work on certain things, have discussions with coaches to figure out what your game plan is that you're working on this year. Uh, and then you go through practice, right? That's typical stretching, you know, uh throwing PFPs, uh blunt defenses, things like that. Yeah, it's it's you have to do it, right? Yeah, you have to do it, but it does stink. Uh and usually if you do it right, it doesn't take that long. Uh, and then you know, then you have your lifting uh and all of that and conditioning afterwards.

SPEAKER_02 21:24

They don't got y'all shagging this year or what?

SPEAKER_00 21:26

No, well, I think it's funny, a lot of the stuff is dependent on the level that you've been to. So, like younger guys will have to go and watch the minor league games and sit there and you know be there, I guess, to learn and watch. Uh as you have AAA experience or big league experience or whatever, you kind of have different perks since you've been around the block a little bit. Um, but then after lifting, you kind of if once you're done for the day, you get to head home. Um, you'll have some mindfulness training and some different stuff that you can do. Sometimes it's optional, sometimes there's um you know mandatory stuff that they want to build within the organization. Organization. So talking about mental health and uh general mental philosophy, because the mental side is huge with baseball. So um they'll have some of those things scattered in spring training, and then the season is kind of flip-flopped, everything's at night. So you get to the field in the afternoon, you have full-blown practice, um, BP, you may be shagging then too, uh, and then the game starts, and then that happens six days a week in the minor leagues, traveling and all that. Um, so it's obviously really different spring training and the season. Um, it's go time and season, you're trying to compete to move up in the system and get to the big leagues. Um, but then there's just all the politics that you can't control in the background, right? Like you just have to go out there and perform and hope that your performance will get you to the next level and hopefully eventually get you to the big leagues. So it's really tough mentally, uh, I would say in the minor leagues because everybody wants to be a big leader and you don't understand what's happening on the business end in the background. They're making decisions to promote guys, move guys, cut guys, do a whole bunch of stuff that you have no idea what they're looking at, and you just have to go handle your business. But it is really tough when guys are getting promoted or sent down or whatever, and you're like, why not me? Right, because you think you're doing good enough to get to the next level or to the big leagues. And quite frankly, you it's really hard to do, and I'm a culprit of it, but you can't sit there and play GM. That's what they tell you, and everybody does it, even though they tell you not to. Oh, yeah. Um, but it's uh it's a tough part of Pro Bowl. It's it's something that makes it hard to enjoy the sport because it is a business. Uh hard. Yeah, so I tell the kids, man, enjoy the crap out of high school and college as much as you can because it's so different once you get into Pro Ball. Um, not that it's not fun, it's great, and I'm super blessed to have the opportunity, but it becomes real. Like it is, it is real.

SPEAKER_02 23:52

I like I like went into a mental dark place because of how unstable I felt in my own job, just showing up to the ballpark. I was always so nervous that like today was I'd be going through a rough spell um where I'd give up or I'd block some guys and give up a couple doubles, and I'm like, dude, I'm just gonna show up and they're just gonna cut me, and then I I spiral into like what's next. You know, I didn't have a business that I had started, you know. We'll get into that, but I was like, what am I gonna do, man? And then you see people just getting chopped, like, and then you're saying peace out to your boys, knowing that like that might be the last time you see them in your life, and like they're crying tears, and you're like, dude, this is real. Like, you know, you didn't just get cut from your baseball team, your high school team, like you just lost your job, you just lost your family's income for that. And oh man, I just couldn't handle that uh at at my age at that time. So yeah, definitely enjoy it while you can, because like you said, it it gets real very, very quickly, and uh yeah, it's it's the business side is nuts. It's really it really is. They don't tell you about that, they don't tell you about that, man.

SPEAKER_01 24:52

No, they don't show that.

SPEAKER_00 24:54

No, they don't show it, and people don't people don't understand, right? Like people are like, you guys are playing a game for a living, which is very true. Um, very blessed to have the opportunity to go out there and compete and play baseball for a living in front of thousands of people. Um obviously you're not as compensated in the minor leagues as you are in the big leagues, which makes a big difference, but it doesn't make it easier, right? Like even in the big leagues, you the hardest thing I've heard is not necessarily getting in the big leagues, it's staying in the big leagues. Yeah, and even up there, there's even more politics because they don't want to pay you, right? Like they you see these guys uh school boy, I what did he have? Some crazy arbitration hearing where they were off by however many millions of dollars. Like, yes, it is millions of dollars for guys like that, but for most people that's not the case, and even for him, you're fighting for every dollar that you can because in two seconds you can get hurt and never play again. And now that's part of the reason why I started my business. The main reason, quite frankly, is be I love it. But second, if I went home and I had nothing else to do, I would stew in all of the thoughts of what we're talking about. Playing GM. Why am I not in this position? Why did I walk this guy? Why did this outing go poorly? You know, looking at calculating my ERA, all right, this is how many runs I need to not give up or innings I need to play.

SPEAKER_01 26:11

I was like, dude, no way to get my ERA back down. I gotta go like next nine innings without giving up a run that I gotta check. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 26:19

Exactly. And I I can't, I've learned I can't do that. So what I do is I go home and I grind on my business and I love it, number one. But number two, it keeps my mind occupied on something else. It people think, oh, how are you running a business and playing Pro Bowl? Aren't you taking away from your Pro Ball career? No, I'm actually helping myself because if I didn't have something else to do that's productive, I would drive myself crazy and I would not perform well in the field. So everybody's got to find what works for them. Um, some people are able to just turn their brain off. I wish I was one of those people. Um, but it is truly a mental game, like on and off the field. And it starts in college because college now is becoming a job with NIL and everything going on there. But um it's it's a learning curve and it's tough. And I just tell kids to just play the game and enjoy it as long as you can, obviously, continue to improve. Um, but there's politics even in Little League. I remember, oh, the kid the coach's son has got to play shortstops. That means I'm on the bench. Yeah. And you're training your kids early to start stressing over this stuff. So as much as you can, like enjoy the sport and learn to develop those skills mentally because it only gets harder as you keep going.

SPEAKER_02 27:32

And so you've talked about the mental skills a little bit and saying that uh you know they need to be learned and that the diamondbacks are hosting those. Like, what's what's being taught at that level right now? What are they really harping on and what do they really want you guys to focus on uh to help block out some of that stuff?

SPEAKER_00 27:47

Yeah, so there's a couple things that the mental skills and the rays were the same thing uh organizational.

SPEAKER_02 27:53

At this point, understanding how important it is, how important it is to like not only have mental skills as a baseball player, but you as a person are still that same baseball player. So if you're not, I talk about kids to I talk to kids all the time about this. Like, if you yourself as a human being are not, you know, where you need to be mentally, like you can't expect yourself as the baseball player to all of a sudden block that out. You're one and the same, so you have to figure it out for yourself as a person in order to succeed at the game.

SPEAKER_00 28:20

Correct. I think the big thing with mental skills is process over outcome. That is one thing that's huge. Um because everybody's gonna fail. This sport is about failure. It's not like you're I mean, if you fail in every sport, but you fail a lot in baseball compared to other sports. And being able to be process-oriented and and focus on what you can control. Like for me, I feel like I've done a much better job this year in spring training so far. Once I release the ball, I can't control what happens. Like, I all I can do is focus on my day-to-day work to build myself up mechanically, right? Work on my pitches, work on execution, work on my delivery, work out for the specific correctives and postural things I need to work on so that I can execute pitches when I'm out there. But then at the end of the day, I have conviction, I throw the pitches I want to throw. Once I release the baseball, I can't control what happens. And I think the Diamondbacks have done a great job. Everybody wants you to throw strikes. At the end of the day, that it is the most important part of baseball. You have a thousand guys, unfortunately, nowadays, that throw 102. And it's crazy that that's the case, but those aren't the guys that make the big leagues. Um, it's the guys that execute pitches and throw strikes. And if I go out there and I focus on my delivery, how I'm feeling, and my confidence, I know that I'm going to execute pitches. So on the mental skill side, it's about process over outcome, ensuring that every day you show up to the ballpark with a plan in mind and you execute that plan and you analyze the outcome, right? But you don't as long as your process was there, that's what you can live with. And then secondly, I think a lot of times they talk about developing chemistry in a team environment because it's an individual sport hidden in a team atmosphere. Um, because there's one guy throwing the pitch, there's one guy hitting the ball, and then there's one guy fielding the ball at a time. Because there was only one ball. And I can control what I can control, but like I said, if the shortstop boots the ball or the guy trips and falls or whatever happens, I can't control that. And so developing and understanding that you have to do the best that you can do on the field, but also this isn't a selfish sport. Like you cannot have success, I don't believe, solely focusing on yourself, right? You have to do the best that you can do as an individual on the team, but you have to also support everybody else around you, build everybody else up. Because if everybody else is working together and and striving for the same goal, which is winning, I think everybody's just gonna improve. So they work a lot on like team chemistry and how you need to work together as a team in a baseball environment while also obviously worrying about yourself and your process. Um, and then they provide a bunch of resources to you, and that's the big thing is you got to talk about it. Like if you have an issue or you're dealing with something, you have to have somebody to go to and talk to. Um it's tough to do that, but it's a necessity, especially when it gets to a professional level. So that's generally what the mental skills coaches do, and they just provide you a lot of exercises and have sessions of communication that allow players to discuss their feelings and work through some of the things that um that make the sport really difficult.

SPEAKER_02 31:38

Yeah. No, that's good stuff. I'm I'm glad that we're at a place in the game where we're accepting that a little bit more. Um, you know, I think some people who are the old school baseball players might call it soft, but again, like it's a high pressure game. It's a lot of stakes on the line there. And uh, you know, in order to just bundle up those feelings and act like you know, you're not thinking about all of these situations would be a lie. Everybody's thinking about them. It's a lot to carry, it's a huge burden to carry on your back just solely by yourself. So having people to share that with is obviously you know a huge uh advantage for anybody that can get that off their chest and just feel a little bit lighter, makes you play a little bit better overall. The team gets better. So that's good stuff. Um so preparation, showing up to the field with a plan and process. What is your like daily process and like how did you get there? And more so I'm trying to help parents and players understand how they go through the process of finding their own process, right? Because it takes a long time. You know, the process that you use now is not the same one that you used day one of Wake Forest when you walked in. So, what does it look like for you now, and what does it look like to get there?

SPEAKER_00 32:43

Yeah, that's that's a great point. Now that I think back to my first day at Wake Forest, my process was very different. Yeah. Um, and I think that's a good thing, is your process needs to be adaptable. It needs to grow as the situations change, as the seasons change, as you get older. Um, my process now is very different. Um, when I got to college, my process simply was throw as hard as I possibly can and do anything that I can do to throw as hard as I possibly can. Uh, because that's kind of the separator at a young age nowadays. It's all about VLO and stuff, unfortunately. Um, and so that process was really oriented on getting stronger and mechanically efficient. So my focus every single day was what can I do in the weight room with my arm care, with my prep, um, with my daily correctives, and throwing-wise my delivery work, uh, the different drills that I'm trying to implement, uh, the focuses of that day or that, let's just call it a period of time, a month, a week, a year, whatever it is, to have specific goals in mind and executing on those. And your plan has to adapt, right? If things aren't working, there's no point in just doing it to do it. Now, my process is much more staying healthy and continuing to work on the delivery, uh, because that has to be your anchor when you're on the mount. If your delivery's out of whack and you don't feel confident to deliver the pitch, you're never going to be successful. So, right now, my plan a lot of times is high days high and low days low. So, my high days are my bullpen days, my lifting days. I do everything really, really high on those days. Um, because your central nervous system, as you get older, starts to wear down, and you have to take those low days and take them as rest days, but at the same time, you're still being productive in those days. So I'm doing my mobility work, I'm doing my recovery stuff, I'm still focusing on my delivery during my plow routines, even if I'm not throwing 300 feet in catch play. Um, I'm doing a lot of like just general analysis and review of the high days, right? Like, if I get in the game, I will need to see what did I execute, what did I not execute, what can I do better next time. Um and I think that's very different, and it's a more of a mature, I guess, uh plan. I have very scripted lifts that work for my body. Like what I lifted in college is not at all what I'm doing now. In college, I was back squatting as heavy as I could and deadlifting as much as I could to get stronger because I didn't have a strong enough base to throw hard. Now I'm just trying to stay healthy. So I'm trying to maintain my strength that I build in the offseason, stay healthy so that I can throw hard and be mobile throughout the entire year. As a bullpen guy, especially you're getting calls back-to-back days. You're getting calls when you least expect it to get in that game, and you need to be able to perform. You're lifting pregame on days you're throwing because you just don't know when you're gonna throw.

SPEAKER_02 35:30

So in Pro Ball is probably one of the hardest things to do. I mean, yeah, it's tough. You're on zero routine, really. I mean, you try to root you try to build routine into your day, but you just don't know when that high day is gonna come, and you don't know when to bake in that low day for you to get a quick recovery in. Because God forbid, you try to go on a low day and they're like, Menindez, get hot, and you're like, God dang it, dude.

SPEAKER_00 35:54

I didn't really before the game. It's tough. It really is tough. And I think part of that is just learning, right? You can kind of get a vibe on what's happening in the season, what's happening with the team. Um, but at the end of the day, you just got to take the rock and compete whenever they call your name. So, like you said, you just have to be adaptable with the routine. Uh, if you're a youth player too, if it's having a routine is great, a band routine all the way through like your daily routine. But if all of a sudden, you know, you got a double header because the game got rained out and you got to travel and you got high school and you got like you still have to have some level of adaptability with your routine. But for me, it's all about being goal-oriented with the routine and having constant checks on, hey, am I striving towards my goal? And are these elements in my routine actually supporting that? Like, if I'm doing all these med ball throws, and in three weeks I don't see any difference in the video for my delivery, and I'm not throwing any harder, and I don't feel like it's helping me, maybe you need to change your routine. Uh, if you don't feel good and you're throwing every single day 500 feet because you you heard that that's gonna make you throw harder. Some people it does, some people it doesn't. So I think sometimes you need help too. You need like a third-party consultant, a coach that um doesn't necessarily preach their philosophies, but can help guide you and test different things. To me, it's like a big science experiment. Hey, let me test this for a certain period of time, see if it works. If it doesn't work, let me go back, go back to the drawing board and figure out something else that's gonna work. Um, sometimes you need some help, and that's what coaches are there for in theory, to help guide you through those ups and downs and to figure out what routine works for you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:33

No, that's good stuff. And Drive Line, not that uh you work with drive line and you're more of a tread guy, but their whole thing is test and retest and uh trying to find different ways to um implement those changes for you know a better you. Um I want to touch a little bit on your high school and then we'll get into uh you know some prospects stuff here. Uh a lot of people who listen to this are high school kids and high school parents. Um so it's great that they're getting that inside look into Pro Ball, but you know, they're just trying to figure out high school and what comes after high school, which is college. And many people on this uh who are listening to this would love to either go to Wake Forest or would love their kid to go to Wake Forest, especially at this point. So, what did high school look like for you? And how did you get um seen? What did that development look like? You said you were a late bloomer. I was a late bloomer, and I wasn't getting calls from SEC ACC schools, so I you can't be that late of a bloomer.

SPEAKER_01 38:27

You know, you definitely get some looks.

SPEAKER_00 38:30

Yeah, it's uh, and again, the the landscape is probably so different. So I guess the parents that are listening to this or the kids take everything I say with a grain of salt because nowadays, even college, I can't even speak on college with NIL. So I can talk about my experience and maybe bits and pieces will still be uh relatable. Um, but with high school, um, I played on various travel teams. And the reason why I wasn't just one travel team for four years in high school was because I didn't always play on those teams. Like if I wasn't gonna play, and at the time I wanted to be a two-way player. Uh I was a two-way player all the way up into college, and then once I got to college, um, I wasn't going to play as a position player, so I focused on pitching. But I wanted to just continue to play the game that I love, and I love being a hitter and a position player. So if I wasn't gonna play, I wasn't gonna be on that team. That's how my family handled it. Um so I played on the best possible team that I could that I was going to play at. Because at the end of the day, if you're not playing, you can't get seen. It it I'm like, it's just that simple. So um I played high school ball, which was great. It was uh just a place to compete and represent my school, and it was fun. And yeah, I have nothing against high school baseball at all. Um, but obviously, travel ball is where you're going to get seen. So I played on various teams. I played on U.S. Elite, I played on Tri-State Arsenal. I don't even know if these teams exist anymore. I played on uh, let's see, the Evo Shield Canes a little bit. That's where Billy Wagner was my coach. And then I played on the dirtbags, uh, which I think still exists. Andy Parton was great. And I just kind of worked my way up, and it was funny, like a lot of the travel teams that I was on, I was with a lot of talented players, which I think is valuable. You don't want to be the best player on your team, you want to go learn from players that are better than you, but you still want to play. Um, because quite frankly, I got all of my offers because scouts were going to see other guys on my team. They weren't there to see me. Um, and I just went to a number of different events. Um I don't, I mean, I went to a lot of uh not a lot, but I went to some of those perfect game showcase events. Uh, I don't know how much value they had or didn't have. I I honestly couldn't tell you. All I know is that I got all of my college offers. I think I got 30, 35 or something, 32. You're talking about being a late bloomer and then he drops a 30 piece on us. Well, it's funny because I told that story my first day I got to college, and people did not believe me. And I it I think it was like 32 college offers in one one week, and it was all because I had uh teammates that were really, really good. A couple guys had committed at the time to really good D1 schools, um, you know, UVA. Um that was the big one at the time. But we had a teammate of mine, shout out to my friend Brian Morrell. Uh, he was on the team, he was a huge prospect at the time, threw hard, and everybody was there to see him, of course. And I came in after him at a perfect game event, and I think I hit like 89 or 88 to 90, I think, like from sidearm slot, and I I did what I always did, which is just get outs. And uh they were there to see him. I happened to come in the game and do really well, and I think I hit in that tournament like really well as well. And next thing you know, a couple people see me. They see me pitch, they see me do well because they're there to see all my teammates, and next thing you know, I got a ton of offers in one week, basically. Um, so it's kind of luck as part of it, is just always being out there competing, doing your best, because you never know when people are watching. Um, and so kind of right place, right time, and I got all of my offers. Uh and I it was a tough decision um between the schools that I kind of narrowed down to. And at the end of the day, like I said, it came down to where was I gonna play the education that I was getting, um, and obviously the cost because uh educations are very expensive depending on the school that you're going to. So I had to weigh all of that, and I made the decision to go to Wake Forest because it was the best of of you know both worlds in terms of the education and the ability to play and be in the ACC. Um so I I I was super discouraged, I'll tell you what. Like in high school, I was like, there's no way I'm getting an offer. I knew I was good enough, but I wasn't built enough, I wasn't throwing hard enough, I wasn't hitting balls hard enough, I wasn't fast enough. I just was this tall, skinny guy that loved to compete and would get guys out and would hit, but I didn't have the tools to go to Vanderbilt, you know, at the time. Um but obviously that was my dream. So yeah, I was really discouraged, but at the end of the day, you just gotta play and play, and eventually all these guys start to fall off. Like all those little league all-stars that were playing all the time and were the best in my area, all of a sudden they weren't playing anymore. Yeah, and I get to college, all of a sudden those guys aren't playing anymore. I get to Pro Bowl, all of a sudden those guys who are the best college guys aren't playing anymore. And so my agent tells me all the time, even in Pro Bowl, it's the same thing. Like, I'm waiting for my opportunity, and I I would be lying if I said I didn't want to quit baseball many times uh during my professional career because you're like, Man, I don't know if I can do this anymore. But it's a game where you just gotta keep grinding it out, and eventually you stick around long enough, you're the last guy standing, and whether you feel like you deserve it or not, you'll get a shot at some point. That's my thought.

SPEAKER_02 43:59

I think that's Real thought, man. I've seen plenty of guys who I've played with who are now who are now watching on TV where it's just like by no means were you the outstanding player on our team. Like, you just get out and you stay healthy. And if you can do those things long enough, you're gonna get a chance. I mean, you know, somebody's gonna get hurt, somebody's gonna have a bad stretch, somebody's gonna leave for a maternity leave, or something, you know, the randomest things happen. You know, it's all it takes, is your one shot, and then you go out there, do well, and now you're a back and forth guy, you know, now you're a 4A guy, and next thing you know, maybe you're a big league guy, and you're gonna get two years of service time in there.

SPEAKER_00 44:38

Yeah, and it's the same thing. That like the same thing in Pro Bowl, it's the same microcosm that you have in Little League and and high school. And you know, A-rod got cut from his high school team, like he didn't quit. And and again, I didn't I wasn't a Juco grinder, like I don't know what that's like. And and fun, you know, fun. Anybody out there, it's fun. Yeah, that's the thing. If you're enjoying the sport and you you truly believe in your heart that you can make it and you want to continue to pursue it, keep doing it. I mean I just if you quit, that's it. Like at that point, you've made the decision that you're done. Uh I'm gonna play until somebody else makes that decision, in my opinion. Or I truly believe in my heart that I am capped out on my abilities. Um, but until that point, I'm gonna keep playing. And as as terrible as it could be in whatever situation, like I don't know, I'm with the Dimebacks now, they could send me back to low A. I don't know. I have no clue. Like, do I feel like I belong in low A? Absolutely not. But at the end of the day, I know I'm good enough to make the big leagues, and I'm gonna keep pursuing it until either I don't believe in myself that I can make it, or they tell me that my career is over. Like, there I'm not gonna make that decision.

SPEAKER_02 45:48

Yeah. I'll tell you from experience, brother, you're gonna know. And if you don't know, then yeah, you just keep going. At one point I looked up and I was like, dude, I there I don't see any path towards the big leagues at this point in time. If you if you see that path still and you still feel it, keep going, brother. I'm I'm rooting for you for sure. Um, so let's talk, uh let's talk business now. You know, you're an entrepreneur. I think first off, people need to understand that baseball players at the professional level, they got time on their hands, trust me. They they got they got hours to spend, especially in spring training. Uh Antonio is probably done with his day on some days at 11 a.m. That's a day today. That'd be a good day. He's done at 11 a.m. He's back at the crib, and you got from 12 until 9 o'clock when you go to sleep to figure something out. Me, my dumbass, what was I doing? I was getting good at Fortnite. I should have been building a business. I should have been building a business, god dang it. Now a little late. But uh yeah, talk talk to us how how it got started, man. I'm a huge fan of I you know, I've gotten a couple people on the product already. Um, but but tell us the origin story of it.

SPEAKER_00 46:56

Yeah, so it started when I got into Pro Bowl. Um, I got a 44, and um it came, I was with the Rays, and it came in Miami Marlins colors, so that stunk. Uh, and then the glove broke like immediately. And you know, I I'm not gonna talk bad about any other business. Like they do a really good job. They are in uh Dick Sporting Goods, they're killing it. Um, but I was frustrated with the quality of the glove that I received, and I was rehabbing at the time because I was drafted with Tommy John, and so I was around a bunch of major league guys that were also rehabbing, and uh, we were talking, and it was like, man, there's no way that we can't customize these gloves more than what they give us. Like, you know, if you're Garrett Cole, I'm sure they give you the whole treatment of getting everything that you want, but why can't the regular consumer get that? Why couldn't I get that when I was 13 years old? And I thought about Wake Forest at the time, we weren't a huge name, but we had to wear stock Wilson gloves. And I was like, man, why does Vanderbilt get fully custom with their logo on it? And we just have to get the gloves basically from Dick Sporting Goods. Like that's yeah, the the the gloves we were receiving. Um, and so I started to research like glove manufacturing, and uh over time I just made a ton of connections in the manufacturing space. Um, you know, next thing you know, this guy knows this other guy. His brother has a factory that does this, and I started to draw connections mainly in the tannery space because I was interested in the raw materials that go into gloves.

SPEAKER_01 48:24

What is what is tanner? What is tannery? I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 48:27

A tannery. So a tannery is where the hides come in. So they they sell the cow hides to a tannery, and the tannery is what processes and makes leather that goes into products, so that goes into your boots, that goes into the glove, uh, that colors it, that treats it for it to be a usable product. So is that a machine? So it goes through a tanning process, which obviously has a lot of tanning, correct.

SPEAKER_02 48:51

Oh, I thought you said you tanner tannerine. I didn't know what you said.

SPEAKER_00 48:55

So the name of a uh the facility that makes the product is called a tannery.

SPEAKER_02 49:00

Got it, got it, got it.

SPEAKER_00 49:02

Uh and then from there, obviously I learned where they supply their products and thus the factories that Rawlings uses, Wilson uses, etc. Uh, and I learned a lot about the glove industry. So Rawlings, Japan is not the same business as Rawlings US. Wilson, Japan is not the same business as Wilson US. That's why people go and buy gloves from Japan because they're better quality over there. Um and I just was interested in the glove space, and next thing you know, I started to work with these uh factories directly, source my own materials from the tanneries that I wanted to work with that are the best in the world. So we source all of our materials from the best tanneries in Japan, Korea, Vietnam. Some of them come from the US and are U.S. steer hide products. And then the second layer to that is the craftsmanship. So each factory will have various craftsmen that work on products. They could be as small as literally a mom and pop guy at his house making gloves from hand by hand, and he's been doing it for 40 years and he's really good at it, or it can be at the industrial level for printing out cheaper products for mass production. So, what my company does is we source everything from around the world and we use various factories depending on the client's needs. Um, and we are soon opening our own factory in the United States. So that is a sneak preview uh to what we have coming. We'll have a U.S. factory here where we have our own uh full-time craftsman, and you'll be able to go into that factory, have a full custom glove experience, even be part of making the glove yourself. So that's going to be something that is going to be fairly unique in this glove industry. Yeah, it's gonna be really cool. And some of the things that we wanted to fix in the glove space, obviously the customization. I hated that I had to represent whatever company on my wrist, right? I was stuck with their logos. Maybe I could put my name in a custom product. What we allow is a true white labeling service that allows brands like yourself, um, like Trevor Bauer with Bauer Outage and everything that he does, to brand the glove as a white label product where you can then brand yourself. I felt like gloves need to represent the player wearing it, not the brand behind it. So as a kid, you want to represent your travel team. You want to represent yourself, you want to represent your university or a foundation that you've started or care about or something that uh is important to you and your family, not Rawlings, not Wilson, not 44. Uh, it's about representing the player. Um so that was really important to me. And then secondly, the quality. So we already talked about the raw materials and the craftsmanship, but there's a level of customization that companies don't really give you in terms of how you squeeze the glove and the pattern that goes into that. So people may love a Rawlings or a Wilson because of the pattern that that glove feels like. Oh, it's it squeezes a lot better, it fits my hand better. You know, I squeeze it thumb to middle finger or thumb to pinky. That they'll make different patterns. So we actually make custom patterns for our professional players. So uh, you know, Brandon Nimmo is going to be wearing a glove uh this year in the big leagues. He was Rawlings for the last 10 years, same with Sean Armstrong, big league pitcher, wore Rawlings for the last 10 years. And we developed custom patterns that fit the way that their hand squeezes the glove. And that is the customization level that we offer at prospect that you can't get at Rawlings. If you called up Rawlings and said, hey, I want to make a custom pattern, they're gonna hang up the phone. Yeah, they're not dealing with that. So that's the type of stuff that we are bringing to the market, and quite frankly, it's not good for business. Like we don't make as much money because we cater to the customer rather than mass production and just selling cool designs, right? You see all these companies that sell gloves or merchandise, and it's just like catch the wave of the coolest colorways or designs and make money off that. Not that I don't care about making money, I'm about supporting players. Like I was the player that wanted the coolest stuff out there, and at the end of the day, that's what I'm trying to supply is like give a platform, people are excited to wear the product, give them something truly custom that is super high quality. That's kind of the goal of my my company.

SPEAKER_02 53:13

Man, that's and dude, I I I'm again, I'm not just saying this. I've obviously already committed myself to your your company and your product. Like, I've I've worn the Rawlings. First off, was never a huge fan of Rawlings. I just wasn't my dad, made me wear it, Derek Jeter wore it, so I was wearing the Derek Jeter model. Never really fit my hand well. The leather never felt right. However, got to college, the Wilson, I did like the DP15 model. I really felt like it was light, it felt good. My first uh uh uh glove and Pro Bowl was a Wilson A2000. You were able to customize it. The first time I saw that you could put the Oreo logo on it, so I had the Oreo logo on it, and I felt like crazy cool. I was like, oh my god, like I'm customizing it. Like, this is what it means to be a professional. You can customize the stuff. And then uh we got connected. Shout out Evan Wise. Um, Evan Wise hooked us up. I was like, man, where'd you get that glove? That glove looks sick, and he was like, Oh, this company out there, they make gloves for pro for uh uh pro players, and it's another pro player himself. So I was like, oh man, I gotta check this guy out. Lo and behold, you walked me through the entire process, customize it. I'm like, okay, so what can I customize? And you're like, bro, literally anything. And I was like, nah, like, and then I saw the back end, you did it live, and you were just like putting stuff anywhere that I wanted, and it was the first time ever. I was like, I felt like again, I was in control. It felt like my brand, and that's my glove. And now people, when I you know, have my glove that I'm using in lessons and stuff, they think I own a glove company. They're like, how do I get that? I'm like, well, you go through postpec, and it's you know, don't buy my glove. Like, I don't really need you to buy my glove, but you can customize and put whatever you want. I've got my logo on the palm, I've got my logo branded into the glove. Like, I've never seen that before. It's a one-of-one, you know, so that's really cool, man. I'm really, I'm really excited with what your business is doing. I think that there's a huge market for it, um, especially for kids like me who always loved the uniqueness and want to stand out on the baseball field and want something really, really custom to them. So, again, he didn't pay me to say that. Um, I'm just saying that because again, I'm a huge fan of your product. So congrats on that. All we're doing it from Pro Ball, man. Yeah, I appreciate playing professional baseball, dude.

SPEAKER_00 55:22

Yeah, and one thing you hit on that I I want to address to kids watching this, like maybe they don't a lot of kids will be overwhelmed sometimes with designing custom stuff, which I understand. But what I'm trying to do is also build a platform for our professional players. So I mentioned Sean, I mentioned Nemo, obviously Trevor Bauer, myself, and a bunch of minor league players, they're all designing their own player models. And now we are really trying to push for selling their player models. Like if you have a player that you like or they represent a cause that you care about, or you just simply like their design, you can buy their gloves, just like how you mentioned you bought Derek Jeter's model. So the ability to buy not just the number one player in the world's model, you can buy any player's model that supports the player. Uh, that money's going back to the player instead of Rawlings or Wilson, they're paying players nothing basically to have a glove deal and they're making thousands of dollars off these players' names. Instead of if you actually want to support this player and you buy their product, we as a business give that money back to that player. So we are supporting the player as much as the business itself. So we're just the person in the background. I only represent the brand because it's obviously my company, but just like with NJ Healthy Heat and his glove, you don't see the prospect logo on the glove. It's all about his branding. Bauer, it's all about his branding, it's about representing what they care about as a player. So if you're interested in representing or wearing something that your favorite player wears, you can buy their glove model. And so that's something that we're going to be uh really pushing out over the next year. Uh obviously, we're gonna have our custom stuff, but if you want to represent and and wear something that your favorite player wears, we're gonna have that for you as well. Man, awesome.

SPEAKER_02 56:54

So if you guys want to support me, hey, NJ Healthy Heat, NJHH20, hit that prospect link. I'll drop it in the uh comments below anywhere that you're listening to this, YouTube, Spotify, Apple, it doesn't matter. Um leave the people with something, man. If if they're a kid out there, you know, what what what are you what message do you want to send to to a high school or a college kid who's out there pushing their dream right now?

SPEAKER_00 57:16

Yeah. Don't give up. I mean, at the end of the day, if you love the sport, go out there, compete, have fun. Don't take any inning for granted. Um, you never know when this journey is gonna end with the sport. And I just think that too many kids are so focused on obviously you want to get to the big leagues, you want to get to college, you want to get your offers. I get it. But you really have to enjoy the moment. It goes by so fast. Stay focused in your process, but enjoy every single inning that you get to play the sport because you never know when it's gonna end. Um, too many teammates and friends I've had, all of a sudden, tragically at some point, it ends for whatever reason, and it's gonna end for everybody, it's gonna end for me. And I don't want to have regrets. Um, for one, not giving it my all because you never know how far it's gonna take you. But number two, enjoy every single inning. You're getting to play a sport that you love. Go out there, have fun, compete your butt off, work really hard. And all of a sudden you might look up in your dreams, you might be in the big leagues, you might be in college, you might have that offer. So don't give up, keep pushing. That's what I give to all the young guys out there.

SPEAKER_02 58:18

Love it, love it. If you guys want to follow his journey, I'll put his uh Instagram information below. Uh I'll also put uh Prospect Gloves uh Instagram information is below as well. If people want to get in contact with you, people want to order a glove, what do they do? What's the process? How they how they do that?

SPEAKER_00 58:34

Yeah, so you can obviously follow us, follow us on Instagram. Um, you can DM me if you want. Uh, I answer all the DMs personally. Uh, you can email us. Um my personal email for the company is Antonio at prospectgloves.com. Uh, we also have a chat function on the website, prospectgloves.com. So many ways to get in contact with us. Myself or a member of our team will help you out. And honestly, if you just want to reach out to me personally on Instagram, send me a DM. I answer all my DMs too. So um reach out. I'm here to help. I love connecting with kids. Uh, a bunch of sidearm kids obviously always reach out to me. So um I love helping kids out. So feel free to reach out at any point.

SPEAKER_02 59:09

You need to strike a deal with one of your old travel ball teams, bro. You need to be sponsoring uh all of dirtbags, dude. Every dirtbag player needs to be rocking a prospect glove.

SPEAKER_00 59:17

I know. The problem is is all these big conglomerates, Rollings and Wilson, they they already scooped them all up. So they they give out all these free gloves or they have these deals, right? And it's like it's like Pro Ball. You have two-year contracts, three-year contracts. And as much as a lot of these uh organizations want to get out of them, um the big conglomerates, they got the money to back it. And they just, you know, Rollings and Wilson, they control it.

SPEAKER_02 59:40

What about like high-end high schools? That those are on the market still or those are absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 59:44

I any any organization that wants to have their own organization gloves, please reach out. Like we are here to help you guys. And a lot of times we we've actually had uh some travel teams say, like, hey, I I actually got a kid to transfer to our team, uh, whether it's college or high school or travel ball, because we're offering them a free glove or something, or we're giving them a custom glove that they're not getting somewhere else. So kids obviously love their drip, and it's been a cool incentive that some of these organizations have built in. Um, and a lot of organizations and colleges are on deck for the next couple of years to sign on, but they have to wait for their previous contracts to be up. So would love to get involved in the high school and travel space, but obviously need the contacts. So if anyone's interested, please uh reach out. Sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:26

Awesome, man. Well, hey, I appreciate you coming on. Um, best of luck to you for the rest of the spring training, man. Rooting for you in your journey, rooting for you in your business. Um, obviously, we'll stay in touch, but uh again, thank you for the information you dropped on this podcast.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:39

Awesome, thank you so much.