Welcome to Guardians Weekly on the Cleveland Guardians Radio Network. Guardians Weekly is brought
to you by Progressive helping Guardians fans save hundreds on car insurance. Hi,
everyone, welcome to Guardians Weekly. Gim Ro's in house along with you from
Progressive Field in downtown Cleveland. Davey along with us as we continue our off
season shows for the Guardians. With Major League Baseball's postseason continuing, the matchups
are set for their respective championship series in both the National League and the American
League. A lot of upsets in the early rounds of the postseason, so
it's the Battle of Texas in the American League, the Astros and Rangers getting
set for what should be a thrilling best of seven American League Championship Series,
and the surprising Arizona Diamondbacks taking on the Phillies, who upset the Braves in
their National League Division series. They'll have at it in the National League Championship
Series. Should be some great baseball coming up as the postseason continues in Major
League Baseball. Coming up on this week's show, we begin our look back
at the twenty twenty three season. Some of the great games of twenty twenty
three, and we'll take it back to that first road trip. Optimism running
high for the Guardians coming out of spring training, and they open the season
on the road in both Seattle and in Oakland very impressively as they came home
five and two after that first road swing, and we'll take a look back
at two of the extra inning wins on that road swing. But first we
visit with one of the top prospects in the Guardians minor league system, hard
hitting outfielder Chase de Lauder. De Lauder is in the Arizona Fall League currently
and heading into play on Saturday, De Lauder was hitting two seventy three,
a couple of home runs and a dozen runs driven in in very limited playing
time so far as the Arizona Fall League is just getting started. He and
Kyle Manzardo another hot prospect for the Guardians in terms of position players who can
hit and hit for power. Both of them off to fine starts with the
Peoria entry out in the Arizona Fall League. But De Lauder just turned twenty
three earlier this month. He's still in his first season of pro ball on
the field. Even though he was drafted with a first round selection back in
twenty twenty two, sixteenth overall out of James Madison University, the first player
ever in that program's history to become a first rounder in the Major League Baseball
Draft. He batted over four hundred in his three seasons there. Why hasn't
he been on the field, Why is this just his first season of pro
ball on the field, Well, he had a broken left foot that really
gave him some issues at the tail end of his college career, and he
reinjured that foot, needed to have surgery and as a result, did not
take the field until this season, and he only played in forty two games
overall this year in the minor leagues, thirty nine over at Single A Lake
County. But by season's end, he hit three point fifty five with five
homers and thirty nine driven in in fifty seven games, with an ops of
just under one thousand, which is tremendous. You get up over eight hundred,
and you're talking about a good combination of on base and power and all
the good things that make an offensive player, and he is well above that
benchmark numbers. So some big things expected from Jace to Louder, and Louder
really starting to contribute in the Arizona Fall League. We had a chance to
catch up with him from Peoria Arizona earlier this week and he talked about how
things have been going in his first Arizona Fall League experience. Great, awesome.
I appreciate you having me and I love it here. And when you
talk about the Arizona Fall League before we get into your summer and and how
things are going for you, what is the vibe like out there? You
mentioned playing with some other teams, but it's such a well respected league and
do you feel that when when you're out there playing knowing past players who have
gone on to big things in the major leagues. Yeah? Absolutely, I
mean, you know, the talent here is is like it's it's supposed to
be, I would say, and you know, you got all the guys
in the stands watching, you know, take a note, so I would
say, it's every bit of what it's supposed to be and what it's portrayed
to be. And when you look at your background James Madison University, Uh,
not as well known as maybe some other baseball schools, But why was
that the right fit for you coming out of high school? And and how
did it work out for you to allow you to become the player that you
did there. Yeah, I mean James Madison. You know, it was
awesome. You know, the huge praise of the coaching staff that was there
when I was there. You know, they did everything they could for me
personally. That was the only school that offered me. So that's what That's
what I rode with. And I have no regrets going there, even you
know, sticking there throughout the three years. You know, those guys are
awesome, very low to me, so I felt felt the need to return
the favor and you know it worked out. How much did you change from
from the time you you stepped on campus to the time that you were drafted
by Cleveland? H you mean like physically, Yeah, it's physically and as
and as a player. Well, actually I committed. I committed to school
as a pitcher only by my junior year of high school, so I was
going there originally as a po you know, gave me a shot to two
way once I got there. You know, just had a had a successful
fall that that fall, I think that was the twenty nineteen fall would have
been. So I had a good fall and he gave me a chance to
start in the outfield that spring and pitching. Pitching kind of fell backwards after
that, and you know, obviously Covid had hit and just kind of hammered
the weight room from there on out and started just swinging it. Do you
miss pitching at all? I do. I mean, pitching is just a
different It's a whole different ball game. I mean, you're you're in total
control of the game and kind of you know, it's kind of like a
quarterback, You're kind of in control of what happens from the start. So
yeah, I definitely miss It's a very different, I would say, like
kind of mindset than a hitter. But yeah, we're joined by Chase,
a lot of former top round draft pick of the Guardians who had a tremendous
season once he was able to get on the field and participate in the minor
league season. And Chase, you mentioned that the development you had at James
Madison and I know you also went had that opportunity to play in the Cape
during one of the summers there, and what did that do for your game
being able to play there? Yeah, I mean you're a Cape was awesome.
I didn't really know what to expect when I first was going up there,
but that was kind of like the intro. It felt like to some
real real baseball, some real competition, some playing every day. So I
think that was like, that was awesome experience for me. And that was
the first time I really you know, traveled far away from home and played
with just a bunch of random guys that I didn't really know. So it
was awesome experience. And for every player in a minor league system trying to
get to the major leagues, how do you view this period of time where
you're in Arizona here this fall and most likely we'll start at a fairly high
level next season. What are your goals for twenty twenty four as you round
out here in twenty twenty three. Yeah, I mean my goals are,
you know, obviously to just make the improvements on my game from both sides
of the ball as I need to after you know, seeing the results of
obviously the season and we'll see what happens with the rest of the fall league,
but making those adjustments to early spring training, and then other than that,
staying real healthy, you know, getting getting in a good routine and
keep myself out there. And I think the rest should take care of itself
well. Chase. It's been fun to watch your development from a distance and
certainly looking forward to seeing you out in spring training. Thanks so much for
coming along. Appreciate it. I appreciate it. Thank you. That is
Chase the Louder, a name to certainly keep an eye on next spring,
along with Kyle Manzarto, two new young power hitting prospects who has certainly put
together some really good numbers both during their minor league seasons this year and now
in the Arizona fall Leaf. Stay with us when we come back. We'll
visit with Bart Swain, the Guardians director of Baseball Information, with a look
back at the life and times of Jim Poole, who passed away last week
at the age of fifty seven, a former Cleveland Indians relief pitcher from those
great teams back in the nineties, And will visit with Bart and some of
his thoughts on the untimely passing of Pool who had a courageous battle against als
and he succumbed to that last week. That's coming your way shortly on the
Cleveland Clinic Guardians Radio Net. Baseball, basketball, pickleball. Those are sports
and people love sports. If you love sports, you should know this.
Drivers who switch and say with Progressive could save hundreds deceiving of anything to do
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Hockey, swimming, golf, not all sports of the word ball in
there. So save big when you switched to Progressive those sports teams Progressive Casualty
Insurance Company in affiliates, potential savings will vary. Welcome back to Guardians Weekly,
Jim Rosenhouse along with you from Progressive Field in downtown Cleveland, And unfortunately,
last week the Cleveland baseball community lost a valued member, certainly one of
the good guys in the game when he pitched here back in the nineties for
some of those great teams in a relief role. Jim Pool a relief pitcher
who spent eleven seasons in the major leagues, and parts of four of those
seasons came with Cleveland, the team that he ended up pitching the most for,
and that included stint for the nineteen ninety five ball club, as he
was a valuable arm for that team that reached the World Series that year.
And unfortunately he passed away last Saturday due to complications from als, he had
a courageous battle against that disease. He was an integral part of Major League
Baseball's efforts to raise awareness of lou Garrigg's disease, and certainly sad news and
something that hit a lot of people very hard. In the Guardians organization,
Bart Swain is the director of Baseball Information for the Guardians, and he was
just getting started on his career in baseball information at the major league level during
those nineteen ninety years when the team was a perennial contender not only to reach
the postseason, but make it all the way to the World Series, and
he developed a close relationship up with Jim Pool and he talks about how difficult
this past week has been, but also some great memories of a good guy
in the game, Jim Poole. It was sad to read that when I
came up. Paul Assenmacher actually texted us Me and Charlie Maggy and a couple
other guys, Frank Mancini one of our clubhous guys, and yeah, I
mean it really hit home hard. It's Jim and I were really close,
kind of took me under his wing in ninety five. As you know,
a twenty five year old first year PR guy and I'll just I'll never forget
him. He was a special guy. Did you mentioned that It's ninety five
and at your first year with all these superstars, all stars at every position,
and we were talking earlier, jim was he was a middle reliever,
kind of a matchup guy at times. But you know, those pictures sometimes
get lost in the show, but there's such key parts of it and and
what did it mean to you to have a friend like that on that particular
team. Yeah, Jimmy. Jimmy was kind of just you know, if
anyone would look at our roster in ninety five, we kind of forget about
him, especially if you didn't remember what happened in Game six. But but
he was just such a friendly person, good with money, went to Georgia
Tech, so we had a lot in common as far as you know,
talking about college and stuff, and just just someone that if you're having a
bad day, he would always lift you up a little bit and it was
always there for you. And it was just a great friend, a great
teammate, a great guy to have around. A lot of the players gravitated
to him because he was really good with math, with numbers and financial planning,
and he was really tight with some of the people in the union as
far as the benefits of the players. So he was kind of like the
glue in that bullpen. Just as far as a personality. Bart Swayne is
joining us. He's the Guardian's director of Baseball Information. We're talking about the
life and times of major league pitcher Jim Poole, who spent actually, boy,
you look at it, and this was a surprise as many years with
Cleveland as with any team in his eleven year major league baseball career, parts
of four seasons with the then Indians, and part you got that phone call
when he lets you know what was going on in terms of his battle with
ALS, and baseball will always be intertwined with that disease because of Luke Garrett.
How hard was that phone calling and what did he fill you in on
in terms of what he was going through. So must have been probably May
of twenty twenty two. He said he had been diagnosed about six weeks prior
and he had just noticed it, maybe playing pickleball or doing some stuff around
the yard and his balance was affected and he tried to throw a ball at
one point they got you know, he was walking around the neighborhood and a
ball came over to him and he was going to throw it back to a
kid, and he tried to and he like threw it in the ground,
and he knew something was not good. So he had some doctor visits and
that's what they eventually landed on. And you know, God loved him.
He called all his friends and I know it advanced pretty quickly for him,
the disease, and I'm just I'm just happy to know him. It was
it was a tough phone I'm sure there was a lot of tough phone calls
for him there, and but that's just the kind of guy he was.
He's a stand up guy and we're all better off knowing him. I mean,
you talk about a stand up person and someone that just wore it for
everyone else. It was it was him and bart. Baseball can be a
I mean, it's it's a fun game too, and then sometimes there's there's
circumstances that maybe legion in a certain path, he actually stayed with you and
during the postseason and explain that how does why does that happen? And then
you know the reality of living situations sometimes when when a team plays October baseball.
So yeah, like a lot of guys signed leases for six months,
so you know, baseball seasons from April to in the September. He had
signed the lease in ninety eight. I think he joined us like mid years,
so he probably has signed like a six week you know, eight week
lease, and his lease ran out October first, and he ended up living
with me in Rocky River in UH for the month of October in ninety eight.
And those were the days when October's went a long way. Oh maybe
not necessarily ninety eight, but certainly ninety five and ninety seven. It was
fun. It was really cool. We had an extra bedroom and there was
our our son, Jim. Oh listen, you know, it's obviously hard
to get that news, but sometimes you can think back to some fun times
and hopeful, oh yeah, hopefully this has allowed you to do that a
little bit. Absolutely. I mean, it was I had forgotten about ninety
eight and him living with us, and just all the times that we would
hang out on the road and hotel rooms or lobbies and just you know,
or clubhouses and just talk about life. It was. It was great.
He was you wanted a kind well, we thanked Bart for his contributions to
our show this week and for stopping by and sharing some memories of someone who
really made a nice impact here in a very short period of time with the
Cleveland Ball Club, and he certainly will be missed. Stay with us,
We'll have more to come after this the Cleveland Clinic Guardians Network. Welcome back
to Guardians Weekly. Jimm rosen House back with you from Progressive Field in downtown
Cleveland. And once we hit the off season, what has become a yearly
tradition and certainly a fun portion of our shows each week during the offseason,
or at least on a very much regular basis, I'll look back at some
of the great games of the prior season, and in twenty twenty three,
well those got rolling early in what turned out to be a year of a
slew of close ballgames, the Guardians trailing only the Cincinnati Reds, and the
amount of one run games that they played that got started on that first road
trip of the season, you may remember, coming out of spring training,
the Guardians opened the year with a West coast road swing, four in Seattle
and then three in Oakland, and on that opening road swing, they ended
up playing three extra inning games. They won them all. Two of them
turned out to be one run victories. They lost a one run game in
Oakland. There was a two nothing, shut out victory over the Mariners.
So the close games started early for this ball club. And we're going to
highlight a couple of the extra inning wins in that Oakland series, starting with
the opener. Now, this was after an extra inning victory to close out
the Seattle series on Sunday, April the second, So then it was down
the coast to Oakland, California and the Oakland Coliseum and on a Monday night
in Oakland the Guardians after taking three out of four from Seattle. It was
a wild start to the series with the Athletics. They got things going in
the first inning when Stephen Quan and Jose Ramirez reached base and that brought Josh
Nayler to the plate. Josh Nayler the BA and he swings drills of ase
hit into center field. Quan around third, he is heading home, Ramirez
will stop at second. Guardians leaded one to nothing on a two out RBI
single to center by Josh Naylor. He has now knocked in three and the
Guardians have jumped on James Kaprillion for a one nothing lead, and they still
have runners at first and second. Boy, and who knew at that point
Naylor would have a tremendous season, falling just shy of the one hundred RBI
mark. But that got the game going one nothing Cleveland. The next batter
was Andre Simenez. His next delivery swung on line toward first, fair ball
down the right field line, rolls into foul territory for extra bases. That'll
score Ramirez into third is Nailer and an RBI double down the right field line
for Andre Cemenez and another clutch two ot RBI hit. The Guardians lead two
to nothing. Now, the A's would cut into the lead with a run
in the bottom half of the first inning. Then a five run second inning
put Oakland on top six to two, but the Guardians would not beat a
turret. They started to chip away in the fourth with a blast from Naylor.
I'll try and get something done here against the starter, James Kaprillian,
who is set down seventh straight. He goes to work on Josh Naylor and
Naylor hits one high and deep to right. This one is into the seats
home run Josh Naylor, his second on the season. Guardians cut into that
lead. It's now six to three Oakland. Later on in the fourth inning,
two men on and Miles Straw at the dish. Here comes the two
to two pitch to Miles Straw. It's on its way, swung online,
drive left field that gets down for a base at rounding third, heading for
home. As he meant is he scores big waved around third is Brennan.
He will score standing up. It's a for Straw that drives in two,
and just like that, the Guardians are right back in it. In the
fifth inning, Ramon Loreano, who would be a future Cleveland Guardian later on
in that twenty twenty three season, he game to the plate for Oakland,
trying to extend the Athletics lead. Here's the pitch swung on and here's a
high fly ball deep left field. Back there looking up, but Quan won't
get this one. It is gone. It's a two run home run for
Loreano and Oakland is now out to an eight to five league Well, once
again, back came the Guardians, this time in the sixth inning. They
had a man on third and Stephen Quan hoping to deliver. There ain't handers
ready. Here it comes, swinging a fly ball to left, medium deep
near the line. Brown makes the catch, tagging is Sonino. He's coming
home. Throw to the plate is cut off and it's a sack fly to
left by Steven and the Guardians now trail eight to six with a runner at
second and now Timan out here in the sixth inning, and then I'm d
Rosario came through with a big two out hit. Familia is ready here.
It comes a swing and a shut up the middle base at center field that'll
score Will Brennan from second, and it's once again a one run game.
And once again Cleveland gets a big two out hit. They have had three
two out RBI hits tonight. Onto the eighth the ballgame went Guardians down by
a run. Miles Straw and Steven Kwan both singled to get the inning started,
and then Rosario got the job done again. The pitch swing in a
little fly ball not very deep and left. Brown will make to catch straws
tagging He's coming home. Throw to the plate cut off at the mound by
note of the first basement, and we've got an eight to eight game.
So Ameda Rosario didn't hit it very deep to left, but it'll go as
a sack fly. Second RBI tonight his third on the year, and Cleveland's
come all the way back to tie this game at eight. And then who
else but Jose Ramirez to put the Guardians on top. The pitch swung on
line drive, that'll be a base hitting the right. Kuan Well go to
third over running the ball is capling right. It rolls to the warning track.
Quan is going to score the goal ahead run. Ramirez is into third
with a little league triple and the Guardians have a nine to eight lead.
Josh Bell was next trying to get Ramirez home from third. Bell sends a
little bloop in the air to left. It's not deep near the line.
Brown running catch, he'll throw to the plate. Here comes Ramirez throw slide
safe for the head first slide. Ramirez eluded the tag of Langoliers on a
shallow fly to left near the line that Brown made a running, charging catch
on and throw of the plate. But the best base runner in baseball,
Jose Ramirez scores from third on a head first slide. Why would you do
it with the type of night where Oakland just wouldn't go away. They tied
the game in the bottom of the ninth inning a two run home run by
Seth Brown, and once again the ballgame went to extra innings. In the
tenth Stephen Kwan was the runner starting at second base. I'm at Rosario singled,
and then Jose Ramirez came through again. Now the right hander fires,
runner goes pitch swung on line towards second base, hit right field. That'll
score Kwan. Rosario hesitated. Now he'll go to third and Jose Ramirez with
his third straight hit tonight his second RBI in this game. And the Guardians
still have runners at the quarters. And now we're back on top of eleven
to ten. And then the Guardians got a little help from A's reliever Trevor
May. The pitch down in the dirt kicks away from Langoliers. He doesn't
know where it is coming home to scores Forsario as the ball trickled behind him
about fifteen feet. Langeliers lost where the ball was and it'll be a wild
pitch and a huge insurance run as Cleveland now leads at twelve to ten.
That proved to be a huge run, as once again, Oakland would not
go away bottom half of the tenth inning. Eli Morgan was now on to
try and pick up the save as Emmanuel Classe suffered a blown save in the
bottom half of the ninth inning, so his night was done. Morgan came
on. He got the first two outs, but then a double drove in
a run to make it a one run ball game at twelve eleven, and
the pressure was on as Morgan faced Tony Kemp trying to nail down the save.
Here's the pitch, swung on fly ball left feet near the line.
Kwan Is there makes the catch. Ball game Now that was a breeze,
wasn't it. In ten innings, Cleveland is able to survive Oakland by a
final score of twelve to eleven. What a wild game early in the season.
Twelve eleven, the Guardians win it, and they continued their hot stretch.
They had won four straight heading into Tuesday's game, another one run game
in Oakland. This time the Athletics went it four to three, walking it
off in the bottom half of the ninth inning. So the road trip concluded
on Wednesday afternoon, April fifth, in Oakland, Guardians trying to go five
and two on the trip. You knew it wouldn't be easy and it wasn't
good pitching on both sides in this game. It was scoreless until the sixth
with Hunter Gaddis getting to start and he had it all working in this one.
He deals and the pitch head in the air third base side foul Arius
has played of room. What an inning for Hunter Gaddis. He had an
eight pitch inning, and then in the sixth inning the Guardians finally got the
scoring started with a couple of men on for catcher Cam Gallagher. Domingo as
Savedo in the pitch to catch a Cam Gallagher and he swings and drives the
first pitch deep left field on the runners brown track wall and it's off the
top of the wall that'll score him and his straw round third will score.
Had a two out, two run double off the fifteen foot wall and left
and left center off the man of Cam Gallagher and the Guardians have a two
nothing lead. Gallagher jumped on the first pitch from Domingo as Savedo and blasted
it high off that fifteen foot wall and the Guardians get the desperate hit with
two down that they have been lacking and give cam Gallagher his first hit and
rbies as a guardian. And in the seventh, two men on, it
was Jimenez getting it done at the plate. Bases loaded, two down,
four, Jimenez the pitch and he rips one in the right center. That'll
be a base hit, that'll score Ramirezan. Gonzalez on his way to third
base to throw the slide to tag Arius is out at third, but the
run scores, so give Andre Simenez a huge two out and a two run
single to right center and Cleveland now leads Oakland Ford to nothing stretch time in
the Bay Area, But in the eighth inning, two home runs and four
runs for Oakland tied the game at four, and it's stay tied through nine.
And once again it was on the extra innings, third time on the
road trip. In the top half of the tenth, a walk in a
wild pitch put runners at second and third for Will Brennan. Brennan awaiting the
payoff pitch from Za Jackson. Here it comes swung on grounded towards short that'll
score a run and get a runner over. Alan will throw it first and
he almost was late. Brennan made it close. He is out, but
Hemanta scores the go ahead run, and just as important, Miles Straw advances
to third. Heck of a job by Will Brennan and he almost beat it
out. And then Stephen Kuan added a huge insurance run. The next delivery
swung on line towards short over the head of Alan. That'll be a base
hit to left scoring Straw, and that's another critical hit for the top RBI
guy on the Guardians. Stephen Kwan, with his eighth RBI gives Cleveland a
six to four lead here in the tenth inning. And nobody has had this
kind of a start driving in runs for Cleveland as a leadoff hitter since Kenny
Lofton in nineteen ten ninety eight. And this time am annual Class A came
on in the bottom half of the tenth. They ain't trying to finish things
up, and he got the job done. Now he bats with two down
two on Cleveland up two in the tenth, the Pits line drived a deep
right field but right there's Gonzales ballgame and the Guardians, for the first time
in twenty one years, opened the season on the road and come away with
two series wins. Cleveland again in extra innings for the third time this year
has won as they beat Oakland six to four in ten innings. So what
a season opening road trip for the Guardians as they went five and two against
a very good Seattle team that had big time postseason aspirations and of course the
rebuilding Oakland Athletics. But you catch a young team like that early in the
season at home and it can always be a challenge, and the Guardians got
through it, taking two out of three from the Athletics. Look back at
some of the great games of twenty twenty three. When we come back,
will visit with a pair of rookie relief pitchers and sometimes a starter in the
case of Xavion Curry. That's coming your way shortly on the Cleveland Clinic Guardians
Radio Network score pass out of bounds. Those are sports words. Some people
hear any sports word and they can't help but listen. Like drive drive is
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Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Welcome back
to Guardians Weekly. Jim Rosen House back with you for our final segment of
this week week show, and we're going to talk pitching with Xaviyon. Curry
had made the ball club out of spring training sort of, we'll get to
that in a moment with him, but he ended up being on the ball
club coming out of camp and provided a big boost for the Guardians in terms
of long relief. His first appearance came on that wild twelve eleven victory at
Oakland on the first Monday of the season, in which he worked five innings
when the team was desperate for length from their bullpen and they got it from
Exavion. Curry was just terrific and that really set the tone for what turned
out to be a tremendous season. Most of it was in that long relief
role, but when some pitching injuries cropped up midway through, Curry was thrust
into the starting rotation and he held his own there as well. We caught
up with him at the end of the season, but had him look back
at the start of the year when leyden spring training it looked like he would
open in the minor leagues, and he talked about what those days of not
knowing what his future would hold, at least the immediate future, what those
were like for him, and then finally getting the news that he had made
the ball club. Oh yeah, you know that, You know that that
couple of days, you know, towards the end of the spring training,
just going back over to the minor league side for a couple of days,
and then getting a call that you know, I could possibly be departing with
the team once the season starts. You know, just you know, I
do think about that, and like I just kind of look back at and
just say how blessed I am to even still be here in September. You
know, It's been a whole season now, and you know, the kind
of the way I say is, somehow, some way, I've still been
a part of this team the whole time, and that's just that's just a
blessing. Guy has a plan for me. We saw you a little bit
last year. You made your debut. Most of your season in the minor
leagues, but your stuff has been good up here this season. Are you
that much better of a picture you think from from this time a year ago?
You know, honestly, I would say no. Me personally, I
probably feel like, you know, maybe even last year, I was probably
just as far as the minus, like a little better. Like I,
you know, might've had a little better stuff. But I would say I
feel like here, you know, just and even through spring training, like
obviously just stand in the weight room, staying in contact with the pitching staff,
and the off season just trying to work on things to improve. And
then I think a big help was getting here, and like like you said
before, just playing here, like having an opportunity to just pitch in that
long relief role. You know, it allowed me to how I say,
it allowed me to get reps and at the major league level, allowed me
to go out there and to test my stuff, like to be able to
say, Okay, I've been working on this on execute my slider like this
in the bullpins with the pitching staff, so let's see how that plays when
I go into games. And just honestly, just even talking to the other
guys on the pitching staff, picking their brains and just trying to figure out
like, okay, like you know, how do you pitch this guy?
How what is your understanding of the zone, like when you're trying to throw
a curveball where you're trying to start it. And just like like I said,
I would say, I think I just learned more about pitching at the
major league level and just you know, and for the most part of the
season, just honestly even being able to just watch, you know, our
guys go out there and pitch and just you know, kind of model my
my game plans after theirs and just watching how they had how they had success.
So just being able to just be up here and play here and and
watch here and just just learn and just kind of soak up everything that I
felt like I needed to soak up to make myself better, you know,
kind of like the like the Kobe Bryant effect. You know, he said
something in the video that I saw, but just basically he used the world
to help him become better at basketball. You know, everything was kind of
catered towards you know, how can this help me in basketball? And that's
kind of the approach that I take. You know, just soaking up everything
that I can to to be able to, you know, use it to
make myself a better person at a better baseball player. Xavier, and thanks
a lot for coming back. Appreciate it, no problem. Thank you for
having me Atlantic. Xavion Curry one of the good guys in the game and
certainly had a fine rookie season for the Guardians. Oh, we hope you
enjoy that look back at the twenty twenty three season. We'll do that throughout
the off season. Here. That's going to do it for this week's edition
of Guardian's Weekly. As always, thanks to Brian Motze for all of his
help on our show each week. We'll join you again next week from right
here in downtown Cleveland. Until then, this is Jim Rosenhouse reminding you that
you've been listening to Guardians Weekly on the Cleveland Clinic Guardians Radio Network. Guardians
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