Speaker 1: Welcome to Guardians Weekly on the Cleveland Guardians Radio Network.
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Speaker 2: Hi everyone, Welcome to Guardian's Weekly. Jim Rosenhause joining you
Speaker 2: still in Northeast Ohio, the frozen tundra of Cleveland and
Speaker 2: areas beyond as it's our final show from Northeast Ohio
Speaker 2: before we head to spring training. Our show next week
Speaker 2: we'll em and eight from the Guardian Spring training complex
Speaker 2: in Goodyear, Arizona, on the morning of the first Cactus
Speaker 2: League game for the Guardians. So some great stuff coming up.
Speaker 2: The pitchers and catchers have reported officially workouts are underway.
Speaker 2: Basically the entire team is there, even though position players
Speaker 2: don't have to report until Monday. So some great stuff
Speaker 2: going on and finally some hard baseball talk to get
Speaker 2: with you about, and that'll start next week. This week's show,
Speaker 2: good show lined up for you. We're going to meet
Speaker 2: the new Vice president of player Development for the Guardians.
Speaker 2: His name is Stephen Oasterer. They used to call it
Speaker 2: the Farm Director. And we'll hear from Stephen in our
Speaker 2: next segment. The second half of our show reason it's
Speaker 2: important though, what a lineage of farm directors that Cleveland
Speaker 2: has had over the years, and player development is such
Speaker 2: a vital part of everything they do to keep them
Speaker 2: relevant and successful. And we will visit with the latest
Speaker 2: man who's going to take over that position and oversee
Speaker 2: the minor league department, which is such a key to
Speaker 2: everything the Guardians do. So that's the second half of
Speaker 2: our show today. When we take a break here and
Speaker 2: come back from the break, we'll continue with our look
Speaker 2: around the American League Central Division. Yes, there are heavy
Speaker 2: contenders like the Tigers, the Royals, and maybe the Twins
Speaker 2: to knock off the Guardians and overtake them after Cleveland
Speaker 2: won the division a year ago. One team that really
Speaker 2: struggled historically, so the Chicago White Sox, who set a
Speaker 2: new Major League record for losses in a single season
Speaker 2: with one hundred and twenty one a year ago. Where
Speaker 2: do they go from there? We'll find out when we
Speaker 2: visit with Lenn Casper, the radio voice for the Chicago
Speaker 2: White Sox, when we come back after this time out.
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Speaker 1: Socks down to their last strength clause as ready, here's
Speaker 1: the two pitch a slang.
Speaker 5: In a miss ball game. He got him on a
Speaker 5: wicked slider. Any manual class where there's forty fourth, Say
Speaker 5: Cleveland pitching strikes out eighteen White Sox today and they
Speaker 5: get the sweep six to four. Welcome back to Guardians
Speaker 5: Weekly and we continue our look around the American League
Speaker 5: Central Division Guardians rivals for the season to come. And
Speaker 5: this week we're joined by the fine broadcaster for the
Speaker 5: Chicago White Sox, Len Casper. As we talked White Sox
Speaker 5: baseball and Len, let's get out of the way. Obviously,
Speaker 5: just a tough, tough season a year ago, a record
Speaker 5: breaking season for the wrong reasons for the White Sox.
Speaker 5: And you know we were talking earlier. When you're in it,
Speaker 5: it probably doesn't seem quite as bad as maybe it
Speaker 5: seems from the outside. But just how tough was that
Speaker 5: for everybody involved with a ball club that's trying to
Speaker 5: win games.
Speaker 6: Well, first of all, happy new year, Rosie. Good to
Speaker 6: hear your voice and looking forward to seeing you coming
Speaker 6: up in spring training. But yeah, twenty four was not
Speaker 6: a ton of fun. Losing is never fun, and when
Speaker 6: you finish eighty games under five hundred, it's tough on everybody.
Speaker 6: It cost a good manager and a good man, Pedro
Speaker 6: Griffol's job in August after a twenty one game losing streak.
Speaker 6: But you know, if you kind of dig under the
Speaker 6: hood a little bit, the White Sox actually were pretty competitive,
Speaker 6: and it felt like you could count the games that
Speaker 6: were blowouts and over early. Probably on one hand, it
Speaker 6: felt like a lot of the games ended up getting
Speaker 6: out of hand, maybe late when you're not using your
Speaker 6: you know, your eight bullpen guys.
Speaker 4: So if they would be down three to.
Speaker 6: Two in the seventh, all of a sudden, they give
Speaker 6: up three and they're down six to two. And you know,
Speaker 6: maybe a couple more in the eighth and it's not
Speaker 6: you know, eight to two, and it looks like a blowout,
Speaker 6: but the game felt pretty close. Certainly, as broadcasters, our
Speaker 6: jobs to inform and entertain, and we just took it
Speaker 6: one day at a time, one game at a time,
Speaker 6: to use the old cliche, and I thought Darren Jackson
Speaker 6: was terrific, and you know, we did what we could
Speaker 6: to keep the listeners entertained. But I think when the
Speaker 6: season ended, everybody was happy to look forward to twenty five.
Speaker 6: And I know we'll get into kind of the bigger
Speaker 6: picture stuff here in a second, but there's a lot
Speaker 6: of turnover and a lot of new faces, and a
Speaker 6: lot of the guys who were part of this windows
Speaker 6: so to speak, for the last few years have moved on.
Speaker 6: So you're going to see a lot of new people.
Speaker 6: I think with the Whites when the Guardians play.
Speaker 2: Them, to your point about sometimes it maybe the record
Speaker 2: is worse than what it actually should be or could be.
Speaker 2: Don't tell the Guardians that the White Sox were a pushover,
Speaker 2: because that season series was extremely competitive, and certainly Chicago
Speaker 2: gave Cleveland all it could handle. Most of the season,
Speaker 2: and I thought a really neat thing toward the end
Speaker 2: of the year. Grady Sizemore took over and managed the
Speaker 2: ball club toward the end, and we talked about a
Speaker 2: little bit during those games. Of all the people who
Speaker 2: have come through here as a player, I don't think
Speaker 2: Grady would be near the top of the list for
Speaker 2: someone you thought would be a major league manager. But
Speaker 2: visiting with him, it sounded like he enjoyed the heck
Speaker 2: out of it. And what were your impressions of the
Speaker 2: job that Grady Sizemore did in a limited role? Yeah,
Speaker 2: I agree, I agree, And again the record wasn't great,
Speaker 2: but the White Sox won five of six to end
Speaker 2: the season, and I thought Grady did a terrific job.
Speaker 2: As you know, he's pretty quiet and reserved and has
Speaker 2: always been a gamer, but he realized when he became
Speaker 2: a manager that he would have to open up a
Speaker 2: little bit. And I know he joked that his wife
Speaker 2: told him, like, where's this guy been all those years?
Speaker 2: You know at the ballpark?
Speaker 6: But there's a lot of passion inside, and you know,
Speaker 6: he didn't get the full time managerial job, but I
Speaker 6: think he'll manage again at some point.
Speaker 4: And when Will Vennable, who.
Speaker 6: Did get the job, talked to Chris Getz, it was
Speaker 6: imperative that Grady is part of this thing. So I'm
Speaker 6: really happy that he's still on the coaching staff and
Speaker 6: that experience he got in the last six weeks or
Speaker 6: so of last season.
Speaker 4: I think we're very.
Speaker 6: Valuable for him and his reputation in the organization and
Speaker 6: in that clubhouse. Is Sterling White Sox broadcaster Len Casper
Speaker 6: joining us as we continue our previews of American League
Speaker 6: Central Division rivals for the Guardians with spring training close
Speaker 6: at hand. You mentioned Will Vennable the manager. What have
Speaker 6: you learned about him in a short period of time
Speaker 6: before spring training begins as he takes over a major
Speaker 6: rebuilding job. Well, I was fortunate to be with Will
Speaker 6: on the other side of Chicago. He was on Joe
Speaker 6: Madden's staff for a couple of years, and I was
Speaker 6: immediately impressed with Will. He kind of got out of
Speaker 6: the playing mode and went into the front office situation
Speaker 6: and then wanted to be back in uniform. So he's
Speaker 6: kind of a lifer. His dad, Max, was an outfielder
Speaker 6: in the Big League, so he grew up around the game.
Speaker 6: He was a two sports star in high school and
Speaker 6: actually wanted to play basketball, and he was really good
Speaker 6: basketball player at Princeton. And you know, he and Chris Young,
Speaker 6: who's now running the baseball operations in Texas, those two
Speaker 6: guys paths were very similar. They both were at Princeton,
Speaker 6: they both played basketball, they both played baseball, So really
Speaker 6: smart guys. And Will had a nice major league career
Speaker 6: as a player. And you think about the managers he's
Speaker 6: been around as a coach, Madden, Cora, and.
Speaker 4: Bochie, that's not bad.
Speaker 6: He was right next to Bruce Bochie in twenty three
Speaker 6: when they won the World Series. So not only did
Speaker 6: he play for some really good managers, but he has
Speaker 6: been on the staffs of some really good ones as well.
Speaker 6: And as I said, he's just incredibly bright. I think
Speaker 6: he understands coming in that patients will be required. But again,
Speaker 6: a really competitive guy who I'm sure we'll want to
Speaker 6: win sooner than later, for sure.
Speaker 2: It seems like the challenge for any team that's trying
Speaker 2: to get back to relevance, how young do you go,
Speaker 2: how many established veterans do you keep around? And I
Speaker 2: know the White Sox have made some moves in the
Speaker 2: off season. How young will this team be and how
Speaker 2: much of a concern is that.
Speaker 6: I think pitching wise, it'll be really young. Martin Perez
Speaker 6: will likely be the de facto number one, the veteran
Speaker 6: left hander who actually was a teammate of Will Venables
Speaker 6: at one point in Texas. But pitching is kind of
Speaker 6: the thing right now, and some teams, you know, go
Speaker 6: the position player route, right They graft a lot of
Speaker 6: position players they trade for pitching. The White Sox have
Speaker 6: kind of turned course a little bit and have decided
Speaker 6: they're going to go with power arms, particularly left These
Speaker 6: the names Noah Schultz, Hagen Smith. Keep those in mind
Speaker 6: as we move forward. I don't know if you'll see
Speaker 6: either of those guys. Probably not Schultz. Smith's, you know,
Speaker 6: it was a first round pick last year out of college.
Speaker 6: I think he could be on the pretty fast track.
Speaker 6: I don't know, And that's a good question for Chris
Speaker 6: Getz and Will in the front office in terms of
Speaker 6: how much they want to push or how hard they
Speaker 6: want to push that young pitching. I think position player wise,
Speaker 6: the key guy is going to be Colson Montgomery, who
Speaker 6: had been their top prospect, had a tough year triple
Speaker 6: A last year, but I would anticipate that he'll be
Speaker 6: the White Sox shortstop at some point this season. There's
Speaker 6: another Montgomery, Braydon Montgomery, an outfielder they got from Boston
Speaker 6: and the Garrett Crochet trade. So, as I said before,
Speaker 6: you're gonna hear a lot of names that maybe aren't
Speaker 6: too familiar. But Luis Robert Jr. Still here the center fielder.
Speaker 6: There have been there's been a lot of talk that
Speaker 6: he could be on the trading block at some point,
Speaker 6: and it wouldn't surprise me if that happens. But you know, uh,
Speaker 6: that's a tough guy to give up if if in
Speaker 6: fact that ever came to pass, because he's got superstar potential.
Speaker 6: He's shown flashes of it coming off a down year
Speaker 6: last year. I would anticipate he'll be really good this year.
Speaker 2: And you mentioned his name and he was part of that. Gosh,
Speaker 2: it doesn't seem like that long ago that it was
Speaker 2: a good young core of some really athletic players who
Speaker 2: were kind of scratching the surface. And is there a
Speaker 2: feeling sometimes that it had never quite hit the way
Speaker 2: they maybe they thought it would.
Speaker 4: For sure.
Speaker 6: Twenty one was my first year with the White Sox
Speaker 6: that was the ninety three win team that got bounced
Speaker 6: by Houston in the postseason. But that team was loaded,
Speaker 6: and you know, you think of Joann Mancata, Tim Anderson.
Speaker 6: Obviously Jose Abray was older but was kind of the
Speaker 6: leader of the bunch, and then on the pitching side,
Speaker 6: Lucas Giolito, and they signed Liam Hendrix, and they had
Speaker 6: Kendall Graveman and at one point Joe Kelly and I
Speaker 6: mentioned Crochet and Michael Kopek. You know, they've all moved on.
Speaker 6: They've all moved on, and it kind of makes your
Speaker 6: head spin at times to realize that it wasn't that
Speaker 6: long ago that they had arguably the most talented team,
Speaker 6: certainly in the division, if not the American League. But
Speaker 6: things change quickly, and I think I go back to
Speaker 6: the old adage, when you're really good, you never kind
Speaker 6: of contemplate that you'll have a downswing. And when you're
Speaker 6: struggling like the Socks have the last two years, it's
Speaker 6: hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Speaker 6: But I do think that there's a chance that the
Speaker 6: White Sox can be really competitive sooner than later, and
Speaker 6: it's going to be a very young looking team. I
Speaker 6: guess the cop would be the Royals, right. I think
Speaker 6: that's kind of what the White Sox are trying to
Speaker 6: do if you had to make another comparison in the division.
Speaker 6: And I think that every team in this division always
Speaker 6: looks up to the Guardians in terms of the way
Speaker 6: they play the game, especially defensively. That's been a problem
Speaker 6: for the White Sox, and I think they want to
Speaker 6: get better defensively, want to have a little more team speed,
Speaker 6: and that's where the youth comes.
Speaker 2: In Lenn Gasper joining US broadcaster for the White Sox,
Speaker 2: and Len it the fan dynamic and you touched on
Speaker 2: it before we get started about their and fan fest.
Speaker 2: And here it's a one team town. It's the Cleveland
Speaker 2: Guardians during baseball season, but obviously in Chicago it's a
Speaker 2: two team city and it always seems like an uphill battle.
Speaker 2: Anyway for the White Sox. How are they doing trying
Speaker 2: to build that relationship with their fans again and and
Speaker 2: get them excited about a team that that had a
Speaker 2: tough year a year ago.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you know, I've found here. You know, the fans
Speaker 6: are really smart, They're incredibly passionate, they're they're they're not
Speaker 6: afraid to boo, as you've experienced here, and yet they'll cheer, uh,
Speaker 6: you know, the next breath if you do something really well.
Speaker 6: So I was impressed that the fans continue to come
Speaker 6: back last year when it was obvious that this season
Speaker 6: was headed south pretty pretty fast. We just had a
Speaker 6: socks fest in Bridgeport, a few blocks from the ballpark
Speaker 6: a couple of weeks ago, and the turnout was great
Speaker 6: and the fans were really into it. And yeah, of
Speaker 6: course everybody's ticked off at how things have gone here,
Speaker 6: and it's a little bit of a stop talking. Let's
Speaker 6: go play and let's show people that we've changed and that,
Speaker 6: you know, the future is very bright. So I have
Speaker 6: no doubt that there are some fans who tuned out
Speaker 6: this team last year. But you know, when you get
Speaker 6: young and you start feeling like you're looking towards something
Speaker 6: as opposed to looking in your rear view mirror of
Speaker 6: what might have been, that that is really exciting. And
Speaker 6: even though this team, you know, went through this six
Speaker 6: or seven years ago, this is the state of the
Speaker 6: game right now. And instead of you know, trying to
Speaker 6: band aid this thing organizationally they have really dug in
Speaker 6: on resupplying the system with as many top prospects as possible.
Speaker 6: And you know, the one thing you don't ever really
Speaker 6: want to hang your hat on as well, we have
Speaker 6: the third best farm system in baseball like that. At
Speaker 6: the end of the day, it matters, I guess to
Speaker 6: a degree, but it's all about what are you doing
Speaker 6: at the big league level. But having said that, I
Speaker 6: think the idea is to graduate these prospects and get
Speaker 6: them to the big league sooner than later, and you know,
Speaker 6: get them helping this team win games.
Speaker 2: Yeah, sometimes you feel like you'll have a good farm
Speaker 2: system because you haven't had success at the major league level,
Speaker 2: so it leads to some good draft picks and there
Speaker 2: you go. But it'll be exciting and I know we're
Speaker 2: looking forward to We train not too far from the
Speaker 2: White Sox out in the Phoenix area, so we'll have
Speaker 2: a chance to see you and the team a couple
Speaker 2: of times in spring training and that always good to
Speaker 2: catch up. Thank you for coming.
Speaker 6: By, absolutely, Rosie. And for the second straight year, the
Speaker 6: White Sox will be The Guardian's opponent for the home
Speaker 6: opener in Cleveland. I don't believe there's an eclipse this year.
Speaker 6: I have to tell you, especially when you have a
Speaker 6: forty one and one twenty one season, that was one
Speaker 6: of the big highlights for me. That was really an
Speaker 6: incredible day and I know you and I were standing
Speaker 6: near each other when when it all happened.
Speaker 2: That's Lenn Casper, radio voice for the Chicago White Sox,
Speaker 2: and thanks so much for him and his time. Today.
Speaker 2: We'll take a break. While we come back, we'll talk
Speaker 2: farm system for the Guardians. Their new vice president of
Speaker 2: player Development, Stephen Oaster, joins us next. Welcome back to
Speaker 2: Guardians Weekly. Jim Rosenhouse back with you in northeast Ohio.
Speaker 2: Our last show here before we head out to Goodyear,
Speaker 2: Arizona and Guardian Spring training. That's where our shows will
Speaker 2: be for the next month and a half before the
Speaker 2: regular season begins. Also part of spring training. The minor
Speaker 2: league system such a big key for the Guardians over
Speaker 2: the years. And the new vice president of player development
Speaker 2: is Stephen Oaster. The farm director and over the years
Speaker 2: Man oh Man has Cleveland had some tremendous farm directors.
Speaker 2: You can go back to the days of Mark Shapiro
Speaker 2: back in the early nineties, John Farrell, who became a
Speaker 2: major league manager after his time as farm director. He
Speaker 2: has moved on to some great things and had a
Speaker 2: fine career. He was a farm director at one point
Speaker 2: in time. Neil Huntington, farm director in Cleveland, eventually a
Speaker 2: major league general manager with Pittsburgh, and the list goes
Speaker 2: on and on. Ross Atkins, who's now the GM in Toronto.
Speaker 2: He was a farm director here in Cleveland. More recently anyway,
Speaker 2: James Harris, who is now an assistant general manager for
Speaker 2: the Guardians, and Rob sorfolio the most recent and Rob
Speaker 2: took a position, a high level position with the Saint
Speaker 2: Louis Cardinals this offseason, opening the door for Steven Osterer,
Speaker 2: who is absolutely excited for the opportunity. This will be
Speaker 2: his sixth season in the organization, as he has been
Speaker 2: on that pitching side, starting as the pitching Resource coordinator
Speaker 2: and then the director of pitching Development the last three seasons.
Speaker 2: Now he oversees the entire minor league department. He knows
Speaker 2: the history of the position he's in and he's excited
Speaker 2: to get started.
Speaker 7: Yeah, thanks, Jim.
Speaker 8: Certainly exciting to step into the role, but also acknowledge
Speaker 8: that there's some pretty heavy hitters, you know, leading up
Speaker 8: to me taking it on. So yeah, just trying to
Speaker 8: trying to continue on with a lot of the great
Speaker 8: process and culture that you know, we're said and have
Speaker 8: been set by the organization, uh, you know before doing this,
Speaker 8: and you know, again like leaning on a lot of
Speaker 8: the people that are also still here and have served
Speaker 8: in this role that you have already been really helpful
Speaker 8: in the transitions. So excited overall, you know about the job,
Speaker 8: Excited about the state of the farm system and the
Speaker 8: organization and you know what twenty twenty five as for us.
Speaker 2: And certainly you have a great background in the organization
Speaker 2: in terms of player development, and explain where you've been
Speaker 2: in such a key area that has been really the
Speaker 2: backbone of Cleveland and that's pitching.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 8: Yeah, So I came into the organization in twenty twenty
Speaker 8: in that pandemic year as a pitching resource coordinator or
Speaker 8: effectively effectively trying to just support process and you know,
Speaker 8: support some of the things that we were already doing
Speaker 8: at a really high level. And you know, I think
Speaker 8: at that time we were trying to integrate a little
Speaker 8: bit more of the biomechanical information and set process and
Speaker 8: you know, try to move forward with everything that comes,
Speaker 8: you know from that. Vein So started there, served in
Speaker 8: that role for a couple of years and then transitioned
Speaker 8: into the director of Pitching role ahead of the twenty
Speaker 8: two story season.
Speaker 7: Yeah, and I've been doing that since.
Speaker 8: Effectively helping lead the process, culture and people in that
Speaker 8: department and you know, supporting proader domains to you effectively
Speaker 8: continue to carry on this tradition of the pitching development
Speaker 8: that you know obviously has been a huge role, you know,
Speaker 8: and piece of pride I think for the organization for
Speaker 8: a long time.
Speaker 2: It's interesting you mentioned processes and technologies in there too,
Speaker 2: and and all the things that are different than maybe
Speaker 2: ten years ago when when developing pitchers in How much
Speaker 2: do you find players want that now and really embrace
Speaker 2: it and almost feel if they don't have it they're
Speaker 2: falling behind.
Speaker 8: Yeah, the amount of information has exploded, you know, and
Speaker 8: I think the players obviously, uh, you know, understand that
Speaker 8: that that that has happened.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 8: I think our organization does an incredible job of you know,
Speaker 8: partnering with the player to you know, not just tell
Speaker 8: them what to do, but be an active participant.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 7: You know, with them in their journey and support them.
Speaker 8: So you know, the players are you know, being fed
Speaker 8: information not just internally with the organization, and uh, you know,
Speaker 8: there's a lot of the public sphere that again like
Speaker 8: they are pumping out information, pumping out you know a
Speaker 8: lot of content around some of the things that are
Speaker 8: becoming more online in the pitching world, and I think
Speaker 8: there there's a huge appetite for players to to use that.
Speaker 8: And you know, our goal as an organization is to
Speaker 8: be able to understand as much as we possibly can
Speaker 8: to support them and use that information to our advantage.
Speaker 8: So you know, we've built out a lot of our
Speaker 8: structure internally and our processes to kind of match that,
Speaker 8: and you know a lot of that again is being
Speaker 8: by the questions that the players are asking. So you know,
Speaker 8: it's been a very interesting last five years I think,
Speaker 8: or six years specifically, Uh, you know, along this path
Speaker 8: here and I think you know, broadly across baseball you're
Speaker 8: starting to see a lot of that become more public too.
Speaker 2: So I'm sure it's going to be different five years
Speaker 2: from now. How do you find that the next thing
Speaker 2: that that's going to help pitchers or or hitters in
Speaker 2: your current role that that could be helpful for them.
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's a great question, you know.
Speaker 8: I think again it's it's usually driven by by questions
Speaker 8: and you know, curiosities, and yeah, I think there's uh,
Speaker 8: you know, there's a lot of conversation at times around
Speaker 8: like old school versus new school and and how people
Speaker 8: think about the game.
Speaker 7: And I think it's all kind of the same thing.
Speaker 7: You know.
Speaker 8: The people who have the experience in baseball have a
Speaker 8: ton of ideas and questions that we can now access
Speaker 8: information to to test out and and you know see
Speaker 8: if we can learn any thing from that. But you know,
Speaker 8: another strength to I think how we approach things too,
Speaker 8: is just you know, being tightly integrated across you know,
Speaker 8: hitting and pitching and strength conditioning and our scouting department.
Speaker 8: You know, everyone is kind of you know, integrated really
Speaker 8: well in these conversations about baseball. Typically great questions that
Speaker 8: we can then deploy the rest of the organization's resources
Speaker 8: to try to understand better, you know, and you know,
Speaker 8: build off of off of, you know, a lot of
Speaker 8: the knowledge I think we already have and to test it.
Speaker 2: Steve Oster joining us. He's the new farm director for
Speaker 2: the Cleveland Guardians heading into the twenty twenty five season. Uh,
Speaker 2: as you look towards spring training, there'll be some some
Speaker 2: young players who we haven't seen in major league camp before.
Speaker 2: Can you give us maybe one or two that might
Speaker 2: be fun to keep an eye on, especially on that
Speaker 2: pitching side, that that would bear watching in spring training,
Speaker 2: even if they might not be on the radar quite yet.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 7: Great, Uh, that's a great question.
Speaker 8: I mean, I think there's a lot of interesting storylines,
Speaker 8: you know, and you know pieces on the pitching side,
Speaker 8: both on the major league level and then the minor
Speaker 8: league level. I think there's you know, maybe not a
Speaker 8: name that is unknown but got a taste of it
Speaker 8: last year that I think everyone is excited to see
Speaker 8: Joey Cantillo you know approach this year.
Speaker 7: You know, we've obviously.
Speaker 8: Been tracking him for a long time on the minor
Speaker 8: league side. You know, he got an opportunity last year
Speaker 8: to to you know, showcase the things that we were
Speaker 8: so excited about. You some inconsistency and some growing pains
Speaker 8: that are to be expected when you make your major
Speaker 8: league debut and you you know, carry out some innings
Speaker 8: at the beginning, but really excited to see him, uh,
Speaker 8: you know, coming to spring training and where he is
Speaker 8: and try to build off of some of the things
Speaker 8: that he was showing last year. On top of that,
Speaker 8: we have some forty man editions you know that may
Speaker 8: or may not get the opportunity this year.
Speaker 7: To make their major league debut.
Speaker 8: But you know Doug mccasey, uh, being one of them,
Speaker 8: you know, left handed starting.
Speaker 7: You're in the minor league side that you know.
Speaker 8: We acquired in the twenty twenty one draft to uh,
Speaker 8: you know, put up some really good numbers last year
Speaker 8: in Triple A. You know, diligent worker and a guy
Speaker 8: that we know is going to show up ready to
Speaker 8: compete and ready to showcase some of the things that
Speaker 8: you know, he's shown us on the minor league side
Speaker 8: for the last few years. On top of that, another
Speaker 8: name that will be interesting the track, you know, throughout
Speaker 8: the year and potentially in spring trading and and you
Speaker 8: know how he shows up is Franco Alamann. You know,
Speaker 8: he's put up some pretty hilariously impressive numbers in the minor.
Speaker 7: League side as a reliever for the last couple of years.
Speaker 8: Uh, you know, has battled a little bit of you
Speaker 8: know optimal health. Yeah, for for you know, the bulk
Speaker 8: of twenty twenty four and you know, it feels really
Speaker 8: good now and coming into Campbell hopefully showcase again some
Speaker 8: of the things that you know, he were on display
Speaker 8: for us in the last couple of years of the
Speaker 8: minor league side. So you know, those are just two
Speaker 8: examples or sorry, three examples of guys that were excited
Speaker 8: to kind of at and see how they're coming. But
Speaker 8: there are a lot of a lot of different names
Speaker 8: and guys that have put in a ton of work.
Speaker 8: You know, it would be interesting to see, you know,
Speaker 8: them compete and show up in a short few weeks.
Speaker 2: And when you mentioned those three and the many others
Speaker 2: who will be a part of spring training and at
Speaker 2: various levels of the minor league system, patience seems to
Speaker 2: be the biggest key in player development. And how important
Speaker 2: is it just to be patient and let players have
Speaker 2: those moments where it doesn't go as well as they
Speaker 2: had hoped and then learned from that.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I think you just said that extremely well.
Speaker 8: Uh, you know, patience is incredibly important. You know, I
Speaker 8: think everyone obviously wants to be in the big leagues,
Speaker 8: and you know, it's really hard to battle at times,
Speaker 8: the fact that you're in the minor leagues and potentially
Speaker 8: even particularly at the level that you're at. But yeah,
Speaker 8: I think our viewpoint of it is, you know, we
Speaker 8: want our players to be prepared to not only you know,
Speaker 8: get to the major league level, but stick.
Speaker 7: When they get there, you know, and and there are.
Speaker 8: Lots of experiences that come with playing baseball that you
Speaker 8: prepare you best to handle some of the failures and
Speaker 8: you know, maybe getting punched in the mouth a little
Speaker 8: bit that you know, I think at the minor league level, uh.
Speaker 7: You know, or or good testing grounds to kind of
Speaker 7: work through that and.
Speaker 8: To continue to refine, you know, not just your skill set,
Speaker 8: but you know, how you approach the day to day
Speaker 8: to allow you to hopefully be a successful impact major
Speaker 8: league player that contributes not just for a short period
Speaker 8: of time, but for the length of a career. So,
Speaker 8: you know, as much as as players you know, eye
Speaker 8: that major league level, and you know, at times it's
Speaker 8: it can be difficult to be where your feet are,
Speaker 8: you know, I think our orders perspective is to to
Speaker 8: try to highlight some of those positives and things that
Speaker 8: there's always things you can work on whether you're in
Speaker 8: you're in Lynchburg, you know they're low affiliate, or you're
Speaker 8: in the big leagues. It's it's just a continuous process
Speaker 8: of trying to get better and you know, being patient
Speaker 8: with it. The game will teach you and give you
Speaker 8: opportunities to get better regardless of where you are.
Speaker 7: So I think you hit the nail on the head
Speaker 7: on that.
Speaker 8: It's patients is really important at times, and it's something
Speaker 8: that we try to, you know, instill in our players
Speaker 8: as we kind of you know, go through that journey
Speaker 8: with them from starting out with our organization to impacting
Speaker 8: the big club.
Speaker 2: Steve Oster joining us. He's the new farm director for
Speaker 2: the Cleveland Guardians. And just in closing, Steve Cleveland seems
Speaker 2: to do a tremendous job of finding coaching talent and
Speaker 2: development talent in different places. And you mentioned you moved
Speaker 2: here back during the COVID year of twenty twenty and
Speaker 2: you came from a baseball development group in the Toronto area.
Speaker 1: How did you.
Speaker 2: What was the connection with Cleveland and then how did
Speaker 2: they find you?
Speaker 8: Yeah, so I think the connection point started when I
Speaker 8: presented at a pitching special of a conference a few
Speaker 8: years prior to coming on board. Uh, you met a
Speaker 8: few of of the pitching uh you know, I guess
Speaker 8: the pitching leadership group with with the guardians you know,
Speaker 8: who are now some of them are here with us,
Speaker 8: another a couple of the other ones are gone. Like
Speaker 8: you said, we're developed and or with other organizations in
Speaker 8: major league capacity jobs. But you started started just a
Speaker 8: relationship there, you know, and and continue to stay in
Speaker 8: contact and gauge opportunities you have an interview for different
Speaker 8: positions as.
Speaker 7: They kind of came up. But yeah, I think that
Speaker 7: one of.
Speaker 8: The things that, like you said, we we do a
Speaker 8: really good job of is trying to you know, find
Speaker 8: talent and not just find yeah, you know now talent,
Speaker 8: but try to develop it over time. So you know,
Speaker 8: having people at conferences and having a network and always
Speaker 8: on the look for people that fill fit our culture
Speaker 8: and we project along long term impact from a coaching
Speaker 8: lens or just a broad organizational lens is something at
Speaker 8: the forefront of how we think about player development. You know,
Speaker 8: it's developing staff on top of players. So yeah, thankfully
Speaker 8: I you know, as a benefactor of that back in
Speaker 8: twenty twenty and now it is something that you know,
Speaker 8: we're consistently and constantly Actually just kind of got through
Speaker 8: this a little bit too with you know a number
Speaker 8: of promotions and people getting opportunities outside of the organization
Speaker 8: the last couple of months. So always top of mind
Speaker 8: with the organ Uh. Yeah, again, like very thankful to
Speaker 8: be here and you know, was a benefactor of the
Speaker 8: organizational values in that sense.
Speaker 2: There are very few downtimes in the baseball calendar year anymore.
Speaker 2: What's late January like for a farm director in Big
Speaker 2: League Baseball? What are you working on?
Speaker 7: Yeah, a lot of things.
Speaker 8: So, I mean, we've we've got a pretty significant camp
Speaker 8: underway in Arizona, and you know, this is something that
Speaker 8: we put a lot of time and priority into, you know,
Speaker 8: over the last well since I've been here, and it's
Speaker 8: continued to grow and grow. So we've got about almost
Speaker 8: one hundred players down in our Arizona complex, uh, you know,
Speaker 8: working on their goals and getting prepared for this season.
Speaker 8: So it's a huge chunk of you know, ensuring that
Speaker 8: we're we're doing the things that we need to do
Speaker 8: and and supporting the group on the ground as much
Speaker 8: as we can.
Speaker 7: That's definitely a big part of it.
Speaker 8: And then as you can imagine, planning for spring training
Speaker 8: and everything that.
Speaker 7: Goes into it takes up you know, a good chunk
Speaker 7: of the day.
Speaker 8: There's a lot of conversations around you know, how are
Speaker 8: we preparing our players? You know, how are we going
Speaker 8: to set up our game schedule, how are we out
Speaker 8: you know, working through the day to day of the
Speaker 8: logistics and the things that need to happen, you know,
Speaker 8: on top of things that we do organizationally as a
Speaker 8: priority like staff development and you know, getting our group together.
Speaker 8: So there's a lot, there's a lot going on. You know,
Speaker 8: there's there's a lot of excitement around what twenty twenty
Speaker 8: five can bring. Right now, I'm just trying to make
Speaker 8: sure I got my head on straight and just support
Speaker 8: the great things that I've already been put in place
Speaker 8: before my time coming to this. So again like super
Speaker 8: excited abou where we are super excited about, you know,
Speaker 8: the talent level and coming off of you know, a
Speaker 8: lot of the success.
Speaker 7: Of the major league and minor league level from.
Speaker 8: Last year, so we are full steam ahead into trying
Speaker 8: to prepare our players and our staff for having another
Speaker 8: successful year in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2: It has been a development machine the Guardian's farm system,
Speaker 2: for sure, and congratulations on the promotion and enjoy it.
Speaker 2: It's certainly a fun place to be at this particular time,
Speaker 2: for sure.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I appreciate that.
Speaker 2: That is Steve Oster, the new farm director for the
Speaker 2: Cleveland Guardians. Stay tuned a lot more to come after this.
Speaker 9: We are somebody still with a sucks it with no yeh,
Speaker 9: this don't don't love We believe in this city.
Speaker 7: We love you.
Speaker 9: We don't have the tea.
Speaker 3: A progressive Home and Auto bundle can protect you around
Speaker 3: the clock, but we can't protect you from those painful
Speaker 3: moments in sports. Why would we trade our best player? Well,
Speaker 3: at least you got to watch him in person when
Speaker 3: he was here. I named my only son after him,
Speaker 3: so you'll always remember his name. Yeah, but what do
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Speaker 3: great return policy. I warrant for six seasons at least
Speaker 3: your Hollanada or protected with a bundle from Progressive Progressive
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Speaker 4: Welcome back.
Speaker 2: It's our final segment here on Guardians Weekly, and our
Speaker 2: location will change where we conduct the show from. As
Speaker 2: we're done in Ohio for a while, we're going to
Speaker 2: head the Goodyear Arizona over the weekend and bring you
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