Josh Donaldson and Russ reveal MLB pitchers they HATED - GIDL Ep. 11

On this week's episode of GET IT DONE LEAGUE, Josh Donaldson and Russ Martin talk everything from the current state of the TORONTO BLUE JAYS, to adjusting to pitchers as a game goes on, to the difficulties faced by Trey Yesavage this year, and more!

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

I was like, hey, Petey. I was like, if I just beat the crap out of you right now and we went and I like we got kicked out of this game, I think that our team would win the series. Like if we just took you off off the field. I was like, I'm like, you're just a little I said something like you're a little shit or something like that. Yeah, I said like a little pest or something like that. And he goes, he goes, yeah, I might be I might be shorter than you, but I'm taller than you when I'm standing on my pocketbook. This isn't the tri league. This is the get it done league.

SPEAKER_02 0:52

Get it done league! It's another episode of the Get It Done League. It is the week after the All-Star break. The festivities are over in Philadelphia. You already know who's part of all of this. There's the MVP Josh Donaldson. There's Russell Martin who's been locking it down in Marielle this summer. Boys, um, you know, all the hoopla you'd expect from All-Star Week, etc. I I'm wondering, like, it's such a needed break for guys. And, you know, mentally, physically, all of it, just to get away for a minute. When when does the break actually kick in? When does the body feel relaxed? And then when you get back, do you even remember that you had a few days off? Like, how does that really work in the everyday evolution of a of a baseball season where you're working every single day? Josh?

SPEAKER_03 1:44

Yeah, I mean, I think uh like for me, it was like probably around day two or three is where I kind of sort of was like, okay, starting to feel like getting a little bit of like mint. For me, it was more mental than anything. Um, but also physical, you can you can heal as kind of you get yourself right. Uh, but I didn't really like to sit around too much. I wanted to make sure that I was I kept moving, I was lifting at least once or twice during this break. And I wanted to get like one really good lift in just to make sure that the nervous system was firing because I always felt like I would see guys come out at all-star break and they would kind of either still be like asleep for like a day or two, and I wanted to make sure that I was like still primed, ready to go. So I was I was staying with my baseball activities, but um I think after like day two, three, like I felt like I was like, all right, like mentally I start feeling a little bit better or or or more refreshed, I should say.

SPEAKER_02 2:47

Cause it's a grind, Russ. You know, these guys now they're at the 90 game mark going into the break.

SPEAKER_01 2:53

For sure. Uh I'm I'm with Josh on this one. It's definitely more of a mental break. And for me, the mental break kicks in right after that last game before the break. Like right away. You know that you know that you don't have a game tomorrow. You know you don't have a game the next day and the next day. So like immediately you kind of you get to relax a little bit. Because when you're playing in the season, I mean, you're going out. I mean, not you're going out, but you're you're you go to bed the night before a game and you're probably thinking about the picture you're about to face. You're you're you're doing your mental prep, probably as you're going to sleep, you know, or at least I would try to imagine, you know, some at bats or or or picture myself doing good things, you know, at the plate or or or behind the plate. Um, so when you don't have to have to do that, you actually get to sleep and and and get good sleep and and and some good rest. Um, but he's right when he says, when Josh says that you don't want to just not do anything at all, because you'll you'll you'll kind of lose that edge that you have. You know, you definitely want to keep your mind and your body in sync. So, you know, just just the mental break of not having to play and the stress of of going to perform is huge. Um, but you definitely want to keep the body active and and move. You don't want to overtax it, but you want to you want to keep doing stuff.

SPEAKER_02 4:16

Well, that that's an interesting one, Russ. Like in season for a catcher, you're talking about, you know, you put your head on the pillow, you start thinking about the next game. How much are you thinking about the pitcher you're gonna face? How much are you how much were you thinking about the pitcher you're gonna call and work with that day? Like, where's the balance there in terms of offense and defense?

SPEAKER_01 4:37

Well, you separate them, but you need to do both. Um you need to do both. I mean, um, but as you're like deeper into the season, uh you have a feel for for you know your pitchers and and what they like to do. So, so that kind of just happens on its own. Um, obviously you have to know the opposing team and and what their lineup's gonna be, but you don't really know that until you know you have an idea of who the main guys are in that lineup um on a daily basis. Um but you go in, you do your video work, you you look at um maybe like their their past few games or their past that bats against that pitcher, how you approached them, uh and um and then you kind of build your plan off that. But then there's also on that day what's working for that pitcher, right? Um at least for me. Um nowadays it might be a little different. You know, they have that cheat sheet they have on their wrist, and and they kind of just go to the zones and the pitches that that they they have like their least amount of slug or or you know where their biggest chase is. Um but you know, I used to factor that in and kind of just go with the flow of the game.

SPEAKER_02 5:48

Josh, for you, you got like you the tail end of your career was in the wristband era when you had all that information, etc. How much did that change things?

SPEAKER_03 5:59

Um or did it? I think I mean it definitely changed it to some extent of like you would build scouting reports based off of like who was catching as well. Like, I mean, not only just of kind of what like Martin Maldonado, I remember like one of his things like from when he was catching, if you swung and fouled a pitch off, like he would come back to that pitch immediately. Like he wasn't ever like thinking like because most people are scrapping that saying, like, oh, he took a good swing at it. No, he comes right back to it every time, versus like some guys might go if it was a fastball, some guys go to the slider next. If it was a fastball, he was coming right back to it. That was one of his like things that he liked to do. Um, so you could kind of game plan a catcher just as much as you could uh a pitcher, right? Especially in certain situations. Uh, maybe they didn't like the block, or um maybe they didn't uh you know didn't have good hands, strong hands at the bottom of the zone. I mean, I used to love watching AJ or with AJ Prozinski was catching uh because he had the heaviest hands ever. He anything that was at the bottom of the zone, he just ripped right out of the zone. So I never when he was catching, I never had to worry about the bottom of the strike zone. Um so it's like that kind of is out a little bit. I think the biggest difference right now for like obviously the pitch shapes, and there's a lot of different things as far as like what they're featuring, but you just don't see guys in the game long enough anymore. I think and then the turnover, there's just such a rapid turnover of guys from every team's bullpen now more than ever. Um, whether it's due to injury, whether it's due to just uh roster flexibility. So I remember towards the tail end of my career, like every guy that I felt like I was facing, I'm like, I've never heard of this guy. I've never seen this guy. I've never heard I don't even know what this guy is. What does he throw? Like, what's his what's his what's his go-to pitch versus like the first 10 years or so of my career? It was like I kind of knew like, oh, CJ Wilson's on the mound today. Like I've had a bats off him, I know what he's gonna do. I knew what he was gonna feature in that kind of things. Like, I knew where he would go to if there was runners in scoring position. Like you just kind of have this innate ability, right? And then towards the end, the turnover just got so much it you just didn't really you don't know, you don't know what's their their makeup as a pitcher.

SPEAKER_02 8:37

The biggest thing I noticed just from afar is just how much more guys were watching video in 2021, 2022 than they were, say, in 2009, 2010 during the afternoon in the lead up to a seven o'clock pitch. And you're just trying to look for anything that you can find in addition to your scouting reports, but I guess nothing matches you can watch all the film you want, but there's nothing like just seeing it up close, just seeing how that pitch breaks, what what's going to happen in a certain situation? What what's what's the biggest difference, guys, that you see with your eyes when facing a guy rather than what you see from your eyes when watching it on video?

SPEAKER_03 9:21

Yeah, everybody's perspective is different of that, right? I remember watching, like this is why I was playing. I remember watching Garrett Richards, and they were it was like Sunday night baseball, they were playing against um they were playing against the Yankees, and he still had like 97, 98, and it's cutting, it's sinking. He's got like a hammer, uh curveball, like 87, and then like a little slider or whatever. And I remember watching it on TV. I'm like, this guy's nasty. Like, how is how does he get hit? And then I got into the box against him, and I was like, uh, this definitely doesn't look like what it is on the TV. Like I and I I felt like I was pretty successful against Garrett, not to say that he wasn't uh he was a good pitcher, but I just remember watching him on TV and being like, there's no way I'm hitting that. And then I got into the box and I'm like, yeah, I feel like I got a chance. So there definitely is that type of perception, and then you know, you have all the analytics of guys like perceive velocity. I'm I'm not a big believer in that, especially guys that were um like that have like big extension, like that that's like a that's a big term that they like to use. And it kind of that's been around for a long time. They're just have a measurement for it now.

SPEAKER_01 10:43

That guy's I'll give you an example. I'll give you I'll give you an example of you know, a guy that if you watch video, he's he's not gonna he's not gonna awe you like Marco Estrada. Super straight fastball, great changeup, and he had a pretty good curveball. Pretty much a three-pitch guy. If you look at him on video, you're like, nothing is gonna, you know, nothing's gonna surprise you. This is just it's it's it's right there. But then you get in the box, and then you you get to feel the change up for the first time, and you're like, okay, this thing's never getting there. And then that fastball ends up playing up, and then he's got the curveball that that plays off the fastball plane because he you know he'd he'd throw it up in the zone. So, and it's it's hard as a hitter to be able to say, like, as a hitter, first of all, unless you get in a two-strike count, you can't go up there and hit fastball or or hit the whole pitcher's arsenal. And uh Josh was talking about hunting pitches. The good hitters will have a plan and they'll hunt a pitch until they get in a situation where you know they they might have to protect a little bit, they might have to cut down on some power, you know, to not strike out so easily. You know, these the big league pitchers are too good to go up there and be like, oh, I'm gonna hit fastball, curveball, slider, changeup, and I'm just gonna see it and hit. Like there are there are times where like you feel like Superman in the box and and you can hit anything, but especially nowadays, these these guys, their stuff is too good. Like you have to you have to have a plan. You have to have a plan. You have to be hunting something. And what happens, the pitcher's job is he's trying to get you in between pitches, so you you have a you have a tough decision to make. And that's that's where the game is, you know, and that's why you know being ahead in a count as a pitcher is so important. And that's why when you're in good hitters' pounce and you can stay selective, that's when guys do damage the most. And that to me, that's that's the game of baseball is you know, who can get strike one as quickly as possible, who can get ahead and counts. And as a hitter, you know, who can keep the pitcher from like first of all, you got to keep them in the zone. If you give them free strikes, you know, you're you're you're kind of cooked. Um so you know, the plan is really important, hunting good pitches is important. And as a pitcher, it's the other way around. You know, you want to attack, and then if you can get the guy to chase, that's that's even better. Um to me, that's the game of baseball.

SPEAKER_02 13:17

So let's dig into that plan that you talked about, Russ, because it's an interesting one. You're gonna face a starting pitcher three times in a game. So your plan, JD, going up against a pitcher for the first A B, how much does that evolve into the second or the third time you see him?

SPEAKER_03 13:32

It definitely evolves. I mean, you you get more comfortable. I mean, let's say he's a starter or whatever like that, and he you've had a couple starts against him now, like that's even more so like until like two or three. Like now you start getting a really good feel. The first, I would say the majority of the time my first at bat, I was going up there and I'm I'm I'm taking the fastball away. Um, and I'm gonna make because especially because I hit up to the front of the lineup early on. I was gonna make him establish throwing something that was spinning early, whether if it was a curveball slider, change up, um you know, split, whatever it was, he was gonna have to throw that in the strike zone and show me he could do that through the course of our lineup before I was like, okay, now I'm on that pitch. Or I'm gonna look for that pitch. Because if he can't throw it for a strike, and even so, like let's say he's getting strikes with it, are they in the zone or are guys swinging out of the zone strikes for it? If guys are swinging out of the zone on it, I'm definitely not looking for it because now people are it's looking like a good pitch and they're swinging out. I don't want I don't want to do anything with that in the first place. Um but once, and this is where like young hitters, especially this is what I had to learn because when I was younger, I had a little bit of power and I would get spun to death a lot, right? So people talk about sitting on off speed, right? I had to learn how to do that, and as a as a hitter, like you're trying to figure out like where does this slider have to start or curveball, whatever it may be, where does it have to start at out of the hand for my eyes to say yes? Because like what ends up happening as a younger guy, like you start swinging and missing at the breaking ball, and the coach is telling you, like, hey man, like you gotta stop swinging at the breaking ball here. Well, internally, now you become even more paranoid about swinging and missing at the breaking ball. That now anything that has spin, you start swinging and expanding even more. It'd be like by freshman year when I was in the SEC, like the Friday night guy, I would hammer, I'd hit like a home or a double off of him, and maybe have a couple hits that night. And then Saturday, Sunday, like by Sunday, I was bunting to try to get a hit because they started throwing me all sliders and I couldn't hit it. And I was just swinging. So when I got older, I had to learn like where does that pitch need to start at in this window for me, or like at me? Like, does this start does it need to start at my head? Does this need to start at my ribs? Like, where does it have to start at? And when people ask me, like, who's one of the toughest pitchers of all time that I faced? I immediately say, like, Dylan Batansis was like a nightmare. Really are yeah, he was a nightmare because he threw a hundred, you had no idea where the heater was going. He missed up and into righties with it. And the breaking ball, the only one you could hit would have to start, you know, behind my ear hole. And so, like, you have to stay in, like, you have to stay in on that. So, like, I when he was a closer, I remember like I get into the box and sitting there, I'm like, before I can step up, I'm like, Are you ready to die right now? And I'd be like, Okay, like I'm ready to die. Like, I'm I can get in the games on the line, boom, boom, boom. But then, like, towards the end of his career where they he scuffled and the Girardi sort of put him in the seventh inning and they were losing. Yeah, I was like, all right, dude, you can have this one. Like, I wasn't a guy, I wasn't a guy that gave away too many of bats, but I'm like, look, dude, like I'm I'm my my plan right now. My plan right now is to take till I get three or I go to first base.

SPEAKER_01 17:29

This one is not worth dying. This advent ain't worth dying for. Right.

SPEAKER_02 17:34

Who's the pitcher who drove you nuts, Russ?

SPEAKER_01 17:37

I mean, I had a few, but the one that comes to mind first is Tim Linskum.

unknown 17:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:42

And his heyday. Yeah. I just, I mean, he he could get me out with any of his pitches. You know, electric fastball. And he he's one of the guys who would just he'd throw me righty on righty changeups, and I just hit a weak ground ball rollover. You know, it was just one of those things. I just never felt like and I never felt the girl action. Yeah, I never felt like I was hunted. Listen to him. I felt like I was being hunted. You know?

SPEAKER_02 18:12

They called him the freak.

SPEAKER_01 18:13

I mean, no, his yeah, when he first came up, he was electric, and then he had a couple Cy Young seasons. He was, and we faced him a lot because he was in our division when uh when I was in LA. Yeah, he gave me a hard time. I don't even know if he ever got a hit on this. It's just he's good. I mean, I'd battle him, I'd I'd get to 3-2, and then he'd just he'd find a way. He'd find a way to get me out. I mean, I may have had a couple walks and maybe like a nubber or a blooper somewhere. That's a win. That's a win. That felt like a double in the gap.

SPEAKER_02 18:45

And look, that guy wins two Csy Young's three World Series. Like he established himself as an elite, like all-star game starter. He established himself for quite a long time. And you never know when phenoms arrive how long they're gonna last and if there's staying power with it. Some dudes they're around forever, they're lincicums, they're uh, you know, they're they're able to really sustain a borderline hall of fame. Verlander. Verlander, others aren't. You know, and I I've often wondered. Yeah, and and not always just one-hit wonders, JD. Like that they had their moment and then they just kind of you know, flounder for a while, or they just become a guy, or they just disappear. You're right, they can be one-hit wonders, too. What like how long does it take for that air quote book to come out on a pitcher, especially somebody who may have a bit of a funky delivery, somebody who may be a little unorthodox, or whatever. What what what what's the how how do you know how do you figure somebody out?

SPEAKER_03 19:52

Well, it's it's not a I I think a this is where pitchers get in trouble, right? Is if they have to feature everything they have, every at bat. Right? Like if they have to go to the well, fastball, curveball, slider, changeup, cut or ball, as a as a starting pitcher. If you're having to do that for every single at bat, I feel like your lifespan in that game is A is gonna be shorter, and then your lifespan throughout that, like your career is probably gonna have to be a little shorter because guys eventually start kind of tracking you. It's like okay, like oh oh, like you all pitchers fall into some type of tendency of what they like to do over the course of time, and the biggest telltale sign of a guy is like their strike to ball ratio. Like, I mean, like, I think like the perfect example of a guy is like Alec Manoa, right? Like had some great years early on in Toronto, was balling, and it always seemed, it wasn't that he didn't ever have jams on the base, but it always seemed like he when he would get to that jam, he'd get to that 3-2 count that he could make that pitch, right?

SPEAKER_01 21:14

I think the pitch clock got to him. I think it was like a being able to. I don't know if he he could recover quick enough in the new pitch clock era. As soon as the pitch clock came, that's when he we saw him struggle. I feel like that was right.

SPEAKER_03 21:31

It it maybe part of it was physically, and maybe some of it was mixedly for him to kind of get going in that in that time to really bear down on that pitch to where the pitch clock doesn't give you that time. I can I could definitely see how that would play. Um but once he was never a guy that was just filling the strike zone up, right? So once the stuff started kind of diminishing a little bit, once he started started kind of not. Make being able to make that pitch when he needed to. Like it was just it's over. Like it went, he went from like a Cy Young type of guy, or like top five, maybe. I'm not sure what his career was in that area. Yeah. But he that's what it seemed like. He was he was pitching in a lot of big games. Uh, I know he pitched well against us when I was with the Yankees. And it went from there to surgery done, trying to come back and having you look at it right now.

SPEAKER_02 22:30

Yeah, back into the minor leagues, that whole thing.

SPEAKER_01 22:33

But to continue on, to continue with what Josh is saying is with especially with with young pitchers, young kids, it's they get in trouble when they start walking people. And it's not like they're they don't always get you know hit around. It's they get themselves in trouble by giving free passes. Like how many two talents are you getting into in that game? 100% of walks reach base, right? Yes, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, it's just there's no analytic needed for that one, Russ. No. So like if if you're if you're just giving free free pass after free pass and and and you know, that's it's gonna cost you, right? So, and if there's what that one day where like the command isn't there and and you're feeling off, like I feel like veterans do a good job of they have you know the memory of like, okay, I remember when I was leaving the ball up, or or if I'm just keep missing down, like this is my cue, I can make an adjustment in game and the game doesn't speed up on them, they can kind of weather the storm. Young kids, sometimes the game speeds up and they're not able to make that adjustment, or they just don't have that cue yet where it's like, okay, when I when I struggle with this, this is what I need to do. Um, and the game kind of speeds up and it kind of just snowballs from there. Um the the good ones, they work on it, they they they learn from their mistakes and and they're able to adapt. And then there's some guys who have a harder time of that.

SPEAKER_02 24:02

So this is an interesting time because you talked about the walks, and we talk about sometimes pitchers with unorthodox and kind of emerge onto the scene. The Treya Savage story last year was incredible, you know, went through every level of baseball all the way to the World Series in a season. Amazing. And then he doesn't break camp with the team, and you know, some shoulder inflammation or whatever it was, impingement, I think they called it. And now he comes back and it's been scattered, it's been hit and miss, and that last start before the all-star break, seven walks, five outs, which is about as bad a ratio as you're ever going to get. And I wonder how much of this is is he getting out of his mechanic? Are guys kind of figure have is the book out on him? Have they figured him out a little bit? What what what's your guys' take on just that, especially for a dude who hasn't even pitched a full season in the big leagues yet?

SPEAKER_01 25:00

Um so like with Trey, it's he's got a funky delivery, he's got that, you know, kind of like fastball that starts way up there, you know, in the window. Um and then he's got that chase split that he likes to use. And guys, like if you're not getting ahead of guys, you don't have count leverage as a pitcher, like you're you're you get to kind of like decide what pitch what you're looking for. They're not gonna chase, they're not gonna chase that splitty that's down. So for for me, the key for him is is to try and stay aggressive. And I'm sure he is trying to stay aggressive, but when you just don't have that command, it it's gonna be tough. So, so he's for him, more more so probably than anybody on the Blue Jay staff, is he needs to go get strike one quickly. No doubt. And if he doesn't have that command and he's it's ball one, ball two, then guys get to keyhole him and be a little bit more selective. When he's gonna be effective is when he just when he attacks and he gets strike one early and and he keeps count leverage. That's when the split is gonna be effective. And and and I'm not sure what's what's his what's his off speed?

SPEAKER_03 26:12

It's like uh he's got like a little like cement mixer, like slider. It's not it's it's like a little bit off, like it's not your typical slider, so he kind of gets a little bit of play, but it's definitely a hittable slider when it's a strike. When it's a strike, the one that's down is kind of that's his better one. It's a ball, right? Like it's a ball. That's most guys, right? Most guys, right? And that's that's gonna be the problem that that's exactly kind of where I was gonna go with this, is a lot of his stuff that he features is effective outside of the zone, and so his fastball is what's gotta keep him in in the count, get strike one. I just really feel like he needs to find something um that can be a little bit more effective in zone so he doesn't always feel like he's having to get the guy to chase. Because right now you're you're seeing it. I guarantee you guys are talking about it like, hey, two strikes, like still see him up with the fastball and take if it's spinning, take it, right? Because if it if it's spinning, like it's gonna be featuring and it's gonna go out of the zone. So that's how a book can get out on you, too, as far as like just don't swing at it because it's not a strike. Um, so he's gonna get something in the in the in the zone. And honestly, like I was never a guy that loved to hit the bottom of the zone because it sets you up to go below the zone, right? So if I'm giving Trey U Savage credit or uh some advice, find some off-speed pitch that you feel like you could land in the zone at at least a 50% clip, and then you gotta find the bottom of the zone with the heater. Like if you can start throwing strikes at the bottom of the zone, now that's where the splitty takes place, and guys are gonna because they have to honor it at some point. They're gonna be like, Okay, he's throwing it strikes there. Now I gotta start committing to it, and then now that's when you get the strikes, uh, strikeouts with a splitty, and then you can go up top and beat him with the fastball up, too. That's uh that that's what he was doing, like in that run last year. Yeah, and so it's kind of like you gotta find that strike one. That's I I heard a thing with Roger Clemens he was talking about the other day on Instagram. He goes, What do you think the best pitch in fastball or the best pitch in baseball is fastballs? No, two seam fastball, no. He he lists all the different types of pitches. He's like, the most important pitch in baseball is strike one, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:44

And that is Russell Martin line, too, by the way, JD.

SPEAKER_03 28:47

Yeah, do that, do that, like get strike one, and uh as a hitter, as we were talking about earlier, like it was some of these guys that had success early on. It's you go, it's not even as many walks. Like a guy can have seven walks, that's terrible. That's no good. But let's say he didn't have seven walks, but like he got to eight counts that day that were two-o. Let's say he got to 12 counts that were 1-0. Like, you just start looking at the numbers there like after 1-0, after 2-0, like you're not in for a good day today. Like you're not in for a good day. And and so that's like guys get especially younger guys that get called up to the big leagues and they have a little success. When they start getting hit around a little bit, when they start hearing that that whack, and and they start getting a little bit like, whoa, like that hasn't happened to me in a long time, they get nervous. Like you can scare guys out of the strike zone. Like, that was part of like Batista's presence, my presence, Russell's presence, like too low. Like when we got into the box, like we wanted we wanted to put fear in those guys' hearts. Like, if you throw something over the heart of the plate right now, like something's gonna get hit hard. And I think that happens a little bit more to the younger guys early, where they get that kind of like, oh crap, like that deer in the headlights look, right? The older guys, they know that they're gonna get hit eventually, but they're gonna keep coming, like they're just gonna keep pounding the zone. Like, you're not gonna the tear like Justin Verlander led the league in home, giving up home runs for a lot of years, but he also led the league in strikeouts because he was doing what getting strike one, attacking. You know, he was attacking.

SPEAKER_02 30:44

Who was there a time that you could sense you had a pitcher, JD, with that intimidation? Like, did did oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:52

I mean, it wasn't even just my it would it wasn't even just myself, but like our team, like you could tell by the time like they ran out from onto the field for the first pitch they were doing their warm-ups, or like this guy's done. Yeah, like he does not want to be there.

SPEAKER_01 31:09

But there's really there's just guys, there's just guys that that you pick up better than others, right? Where you just feel more comfortable. Everybody has their guys where they're like, I own this guy, you know, like I just see the ball, you know, or you have a tip on him and he doesn't know it and you know exactly what's coming, right? That's that's happened too. You you can be you could be you could have two strikes and you're like, Well, here's a fastball, you know, and next thing you know, you're putting uh like a 3-1 swing on an O2 pitch and the hitter's scratching his head, like, what the hell's going on here? That happens a lot too. I I for do you remember the guy?

SPEAKER_03 31:46

I remember I don't remember a lot of like pitching tips uh that we've that people had. Like I just couldn't focus on something unless it was like so early because of my leg kick. But we had a guy uh Jason Streve, I think it was. Is that how you say I think that's how you say his last name? He this poor guy, I felt so bad for him. And I tried to tell Alex several several times. I'm like, if the Yankees like ever decide to get rid of this guy, like you need to jump on him because he came into Toronto or we came into New York and he'd have like a 2-7-3 ERA as a reliever, and every time we would leave, he would probably have like a five. And and then he'd work his way back and get it back down to like a 2-7-3. But like this is like how crazy like little tips could be, right? If when he would come set, if he looked down at all, it was like his split, right? If you do you remember that, Russ? Yeah, I remember that. It was like because like he had like a good fastball split and maybe one other pitch and a curveball, too. I think curve something, and but if he looked down, it was off speed. But if he came up and his head stayed here the entire time looking at you, it was fastball every time. And I just couldn't believe it. Like something that obvious, like guys weren't around the league, weren't picking up. We were the only team that I guess that was picking it up, and even more so, when I was with the Yankees, we had guys that were on that team that literally their only job was to pick up pitch tips for the other team, right? No, that's their only job. All they did was sit there and analyze video, try to find pitch tip, and they didn't find that on this poor guy, and we just I felt bad for him because he just got absolutely like destroyed every time we came in the town.

SPEAKER_02 33:47

Does that get notice from the dugout, or is that something in the scouting report, or did somebody pick that up on video and start kind of yelling it around at the clubhouse? How does that work?

SPEAKER_03 33:56

I think Navi probably picked it up. Navi was just so good at that kind of stuff. He was good, or Edwin.

SPEAKER_01 34:02

It's I mean, nowadays they they have people that are dedicated to finding tips and stuff. That's it. But what happens is they look at opposing players more than their own players. So it's they won't be looking at their own pitchers trying to find a tip on like how to hit the own pitcher, they'll be looking at the the opposing team or who's coming up in the next couple you know, series or whatnot.

SPEAKER_03 34:26

But I think it it is funny though, there are times like where pitchers can like I've been around some good pitchers, right? And if they get hit at all, they're like, oh my god, I've got to be tipping my pitches. I gotta be tipped like so you can make pitchers like extremely paranoid um about like oh my god, there's there's they're mental midges, most of them when it comes to stuff like that. But um what was I where was I going with that?

SPEAKER_02 34:57

Um pitchers who uh think they're tipping.

SPEAKER_03 35:01

Oh, like some of my teammates, and they're I would see him down in the video room after the game, like seeing if like they're tipping pitches, and they like hang a slider right down the middle, it gets blasted up. I I would go over to him and be like, hey, dude, uh I don't think that had anything to do with the tip. I think you just think he just hung that one and he gets paid to hit that out of the ballpark. So let's not do that. Like stop hanging it and start executing. Like sometimes that sometimes you like I'm telling you, these pictures they get in their dome about stuff like that, to where sometimes I had to bring him back to reality in the nicest way possible that I couldn't.

SPEAKER_02 35:38

The nicest way possible with Josh Johnson. Yeah, the touchy feely, put your arm around him. Um, that's that's what it is. It's the get it done league. It's Josh Johnson, it's Russell Martin. I'm your host, Arash Madani. Please like, please subscribe, please comment. We actually do read your comments. Well, Josh and I do anyway. Um yeah, um, here we go. Like August is around the corner, and it seemed, it seemed, shoot, at the start of July, the Boston Red Sox were out of this entire mess. Um, because they are they were a mess, and then suddenly they win nine in a row going into the all-star break, and you're saying to yourself, you know, we had Gibby on the other day, he calls Tampa a house of horrors. I found going to Fenway Park, they were the last nine outs often were some of the toughest outs in all of baseball. They're in Colorado. They're in Colorado, yeah. What is it like Colorado? You can almost understand with the altitude and the ball flying all over the place. Guys, what what made Boston, what makes Fenway just so damn hard to get out of those seventh, eighth, ninth innings?

SPEAKER_01 36:51

It's sweet Caroline. It just resets the crowd. Boom, boom, boom. Yeah. Once that song hits, it's like, you know, the crowd could be down for six innings, and then they just sweet Caroline comes on, and you're like, uh oh. Kind of like in Anaheim, they had like, I forget. The rally monkey. The rally monkey, that one too.

SPEAKER_03 37:17

Like that was like a thing, like that was like a legit thing. Like we were like, when it comes up, like you can't look at it. Like, don't look the rally monkey in the eyes. Because I swear, every time, every time I did, or someone else did, like we were giving it up.

SPEAKER_01 37:34

And then the song came on. But yeah, but but to get back to Boston, man, Boston, yeah, it's just there, it's it's blue collar, it's gritty, it's like it's it's part of that city's DNA. Like there's there's no quit. There's no quitting Boston people. I agree, right? So when you're playing that team, they're they've they've always been kind of dirtbags, you know. They they play the game the right way. Um, and I think it's just the culture of Boston that kind of rubs off on the team. So there's no uh I'm not surprised. I mean, I'm not surprised that you know Boston Boston's doing what the Blue Jays need to do, right? The Blue Jays need to get on a run like that to kind of get back into it a little bit. Um but they they've they've always been tough. And I remember playing when I was with the Yankees, those those the Yankee Boston series, those were always exciting, you know, and and it was never over till it was over, kind of thing.

SPEAKER_02 38:35

Um, and it wasn't just one run leads or two run leads, like that there really no lead is really safe there. I I remember a game while back. Mookie was still there, and like I'm getting ready to do a walk-off interview, you know, Jays are about to win, and the next thing you know, it's a walk-off grand slam for Mookie, and I'm just like, what the hell just happened there? And it felt like that was all the time, like they were just there, they were just there, they were coming. There was never a moment to exhale in that ballpark, JD.

SPEAKER_03 39:10

Yeah, yeah. I mean, well, you have the green monster over there in left field, and lefties can just play ping-pong with it if they know how to use it, and then anytime a righty comes up, and I mean, I think pitchers especially, like, they just know that like you can almost feel that when you're on the mound, like that wall's so close to me. Like, if I make this mistake, it's getting hit out, right? Yeah, and um, I don't know. I think like when you look at it, I got it's like talking about Boston just reminds me of this story. I remember like Dustin Pedro, like he like to me, like he like epitomizes like what it is to be a Red Sox, right? Just a gamer, just a gamer, like a guy like he never quits, like you literally like you could you could literally cut his head off, and if he was biting your ankle, like he would still like try to kill you, you know. Uh and I remember one time we were over at third base, and he used to kill us when I was with Toronto. And I look at him, I was like, you know what? I said, I was like, hey Petey, I was like, if I just beat the crap out of you right now and we went, and I've like we got kicked out of this game, I think that our team would win the series. Like if we just took you off the field. I was like, I'm like, you're just a little, I'm like, I said something like you're a little shit or something like that. Yeah, I said like a little pest or something like that, and he goes, He goes, Yeah, I might be I might be shorter than you, but I'm taller than you when I'm standing on my pocketbook. And this is before I got paid, and I looked at him, I said, You win, you got me there. Good job. Congratulations. Man, I got a you can pass go.

SPEAKER_02 41:02

That's good, that's really good.

SPEAKER_03 41:04

In the heat of the moment, too.

SPEAKER_01 41:06

It was fucking I got a story about Petroya. I used to train with him um at a place called API in Arizona in the offseason, and I think he had just signed, he had just signed his first big deal. And um some of the NFL Combine guys were training, and those guys are they're just huge, huge, and they're crazy strong, super explosive. And uh, I remember Pedroya, who's probably like, I don't know, what is he, five seven, five eight, a buck sixty tops, right? Sure. In heelys. And and you know, it's not like he's shred piece, like, you know, he's got he's got little love handles, you know what I mean? He's he he doesn't look like MVP caliber body type, right? Whatever that means. So all the baseball, all the baseball guys are are are in API, and uh P Petey kind of goes towards the the football guys who are training and they're they're just they're yoked. And he takes off his shirt and he's like, You guys want to know, you guys want to see what 60 million dollars looks like, and then he just flexes on him and it's like just a little chubby everywhere, and he's like, and um just everybody starts dying laughing, and he's like, he's joking, but at the same time, he's kind of he's kind of serious. It was so funny, dude. And that's Petey in a nutshell right there. Like he he he he was you know undersized, but like he played, he played like you know, he was a giant kind of thing. I love that kid. He's such a good dude.

SPEAKER_02 42:45

And there's so many of them over the years, you know. Big Poppy. Yeah, there was Mookie, and on and on it goes. Any uh any Poppy stories from either of you?

SPEAKER_01 42:58

Um man, there's there's one there. I I think I was at New York and it's late in the game, and uh I think Poppy hits a home run off Mario Narivera, and it's a cutter inside. He breaks his bat and sends it over the right field wall. And I heard it when he hit it, and I'm like, I'm like, what the hell, dude? Like, like that's unfair. Like you break something, you break somebody's bat and and he hits a homer. And to me, that one was was like, okay, he's just this guy's built different. Like, there's not many people that can do that. That was crazy.

SPEAKER_03 43:38

Yeah, I mean, to me, I don't know if I have like any like one on one stories because he was DHing a lot, right? But what I would say about Big Poppy is that like he has that like aura about him, right? Like he has like a presence about him and Like it's a fun loving, but also like you want this guy that like he's a killer, like in the box. Yeah. Like, but like he's like, Oh, you know you love Big Poppy. Like, you know, it's like, you know, everybody just like how he says it, like, you're just like you you love him and you laugh. And I've he was definitely a guy like I I played against that. I had him sign a jersey for me. I used to go to a lot of like his uh charity events that were in the Dominican Republic that they would do for um kids that needed heart transplants, but just like a like a genuine dude, love to have like a great time.

SPEAKER_01 44:37

Um contagious, contagious smile and fun presence, right?

SPEAKER_03 44:43

I mean his his last year he banged like 330. I think like I think he was up for he was obviously unbelievable.

SPEAKER_01 44:52

I got an all-star story about him. We're in Arizona, I forget what year it is. Uh I think it's like 2011 or 2012, whenever the the all-star game was in Arizona. And I think it's like our practice day or or BP or whatever, and it's Poppy's on the team, Adrian Beltre's on the team, and Adrian has this thing where like he hates to have the top of his head touched. And and the and we're on the bench, and the first thing, the first thing Poppy does is he goes and sees Beltre and he like he goes close to him, he's like, guys, check this out. And he just he's he just tap he taps him on the head. First thing he does, and and Beltre, like he gets pissed, but when Beltre gets pissed, it's it's kind of funny. It's funny until it like it's too much. But anyways, it's the first thing that he does, and he starts laughing, and and Adrian, Adrian's kind of pissed, but you know, not crazy pissed. And it was just like, and it just ever anybody who was nervous, you know, about the game or or whatever, that kind of just disappeared. And it just, you know, it just creates this fun environment, and that's what I think that's what Poppy's all about. Like, you know, even under pressure, that like the guy's enjoying himself.

SPEAKER_02 46:08

It it's hard to get mad at Big Poppy, it's impossible to stay mad exactly at David Ortiz, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 46:15

Yeah, I would I can see, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:18

Love it. Um, so what's up, fellas? How we uh how we doing for the week? Josh Johnson going to the east coast of Canada. Like as a maritimer, I just love hearing JD's heading to Prince Edward Island.

SPEAKER_03 46:30

Yeah, I mean, I think um I I've heard a lot of great things about uh Prince Edward Island. I'm looking forward to where it's for a good cause. Um it's a charity golf tournament that we're doing over there, it's gonna be for like four days. So it's gonna be a bunch of old hockey guys. I I think I might be the only baseball guy. I'm not sure. Um apparently the hockey guys are drawn to me.

SPEAKER_02 46:58

Russ, what's going on with you?

SPEAKER_01 47:01

What do I got going on? Man, same same old, same old. You know, I love it. It's just fan family, family style. Uh, you know, I'll be in Montreal for two more weeks, and then it's back into the the Arizona heat. And uh so play a little bit of golf and and you know, just hang out with the kids and friends and family.

SPEAKER_02 47:25

Yeah, I love it. It's the Get It Done League with Josh Johnson, Russell Martin. Please like, subscribe, and leave a comment. I'm your host, Turesh Madani. This has been great. Some great stories from Boston and talking a little inside baseball with the fellas. We will see you all next week.

SPEAKER_00 47:41

Get it done, leagues.