Speaker 1: Welcome to Guardians Weekly on the Cleveland Guardians Radio Network.
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Speaker 2: Hi everyone, Welcome to Guardians Weekly. Jim Rose and als
Speaker 2: along with you this weekend as we join you for
Speaker 2: the first official Hot Stove Show of the offseason. As
Speaker 2: baseball is complete, If you want to find some now,
Speaker 2: you have to search in Latin America on the Winter
Speaker 2: Ball Circuit or in the Arizona Fall League to find
Speaker 2: competitive baseball between now and spring training. As the World
Speaker 2: Series is complete. The Los Angeles Dodgers are your World
Speaker 2: Series champions for twenty twenty four, and we'll check in
Speaker 2: with Anthony Castrobins from MLB dot Com as he was
Speaker 2: covering the World Series for that website, and we'll get
Speaker 2: his thoughts on the series as well as what lies
Speaker 2: ahead for the Guardians in twenty twenty five after a
Speaker 2: nice run into the American League Championship Series this past season.
Speaker 2: He will also visit with pitching coach Carl Willis an
Speaker 2: outstanding interview on his career in baseball, and it is lengthy.
Speaker 2: It started as a player back in the early nineteen
Speaker 2: eighties and continued through this as the pitching coach for
Speaker 2: the Guardians, and he certainly has made an impact on
Speaker 2: this organization and continues to do so as the Guardian's
Speaker 2: pitching continues to be the backbone of everything they do.
Speaker 2: So stay with us while we can back well here
Speaker 2: from Anthony cashter Vin's talk World series and what lies
Speaker 2: ahead for the Guardians That's next as Guardians Weekly continues
Speaker 2: on the Cleveland Clinic Guardians Radio Network. Don't go away, folks,
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Speaker 2: Welcome back to Guardians Weekly, and we are joined by
Speaker 2: a good friend of the program, longtime writer and a
Speaker 2: columnist for MLB dot com. Used to be the Indians
Speaker 2: dot com reporter back in the day, but now covering
Speaker 2: on the national beat for MLB dot com, Anthony Caster Vince,
Speaker 2: who is hot off a world series that went five games,
Speaker 2: went to the Los Angeles Dodgers, and Anthony, let's start
Speaker 2: right there, so much build up for this world series
Speaker 2: once the teams advanced and it was Yankees Dodgers, and
Speaker 2: you almost felt the only way it could live up
Speaker 2: to the hype would have been a seven game series
Speaker 2: that might might have gone extra innings for game seven,
Speaker 2: but for a five game series, very entertaining and a
Speaker 2: lot of twists and turns, And what was your takeaway
Speaker 2: when it was all said and done and you had
Speaker 2: a chance to look back on it, Yeah, I.
Speaker 4: Compare it to the Alcs in that it was only
Speaker 4: five games, but you know, five very compelling games just
Speaker 4: the way it played out, and very easily could have
Speaker 4: been a seven game series, very easily could have been three.
Speaker 5: Two Yankees.
Speaker 4: Going back to l Ah that was that was very
Speaker 4: much in the cards. That they not, you know, coughed
Speaker 4: it up in Game one and had a couple other
Speaker 4: things go against them, you know, later in the series.
Speaker 4: But I think what you saw ultimately was, yeah, these
Speaker 4: were two like blockbuster ball clubs, you know, big payrolls,
Speaker 4: lots of stars, et cetera. But at the end of
Speaker 4: the day, the Dodgers were the better baseball team, like
Speaker 4: pure baseball team. They caught the ball better, they run
Speaker 4: the bases better, they had a deeper line up, they
Speaker 4: had more bench options.
Speaker 5: So that's that's what it came down to, is the
Speaker 5: Yankees were just kind of thin. They had there.
Speaker 4: Their their stars are stars, but you know, Aaron Judge
Speaker 4: had a rough series until the last game and then
Speaker 4: made a big error in the last game, and that
Speaker 4: was just kind of who the Yankees were. They just
Speaker 4: don't catch the ball particularly well, and it really came
Speaker 4: back to bite them.
Speaker 2: And when you look at it through that lens and
Speaker 2: a guardian's lens, so to speak, I think we saw
Speaker 2: some of that in the Alcs. So so was it
Speaker 2: much of a surprise maybe among the folks that you
Speaker 2: were around in New York who followed that team on
Speaker 2: a daily basis.
Speaker 4: No, I know there was some internal frustration with their
Speaker 4: defensive play this season, and yeah, we definitely saw in
Speaker 4: that Guardian series, right, I mean they you know, they
Speaker 4: went up to two oh on the Guards and then
Speaker 4: you know, nearly cought it up in that series with
Speaker 4: some of their foibles in the field. And that's what
Speaker 4: made it so frustrating that, you know, the Guardians didn't
Speaker 4: play their best brand of baseball in the Bronx because
Speaker 4: you know, that's another series that very easily could have
Speaker 4: been flipped on its head had they you know, a
Speaker 4: couple of defensive plays that went away.
Speaker 5: For them that was very characteristic for Cleveland. So that's
Speaker 5: just the postseason.
Speaker 4: Man, every moment matters, and it's fascinating when you're dig
Speaker 4: into these games and the wild swings that can happen
Speaker 4: from one play.
Speaker 5: You know, you can rewrite your entire trajectory, you know,
Speaker 5: with one play. So but I did. I thought it
Speaker 5: was a really fun, interesting world series. I know, like
Speaker 5: in a market like Cleveland, you know, there's frustration to
Speaker 5: see these big payroll clubs and that tends to happen.
Speaker 4: But it had been a long time since, you know,
Speaker 4: two of the top three payrolls actually made it to
Speaker 4: the series at the same time, and it's become very
Speaker 4: rare for the two number one seeds to advance the
Speaker 4: World Series the way the Dodgers and Yankees did. And
Speaker 4: you know, when you get right down to it, I mean,
Speaker 4: there's so much talent on that field.
Speaker 5: It was really cool to watch.
Speaker 4: You got Juan Soto, Aaron Judge, you know, John Carlos
Speaker 4: Stanton with the run that he was on this October,
Speaker 4: and then on the other side, of course, Shoho Toadi
Speaker 4: and Mookie Bets and then Freddie Freeman just had a
Speaker 4: World series for the Ages and.
Speaker 2: You mentioned some of those stars. Otani obviously compromised by
Speaker 2: by an injury but didn't impact the series much Aaron Judge,
Speaker 2: same thing. And from that again that Guardians Lens I
Speaker 2: thought Jose Ramirez a he didn't have the impact that
Speaker 2: that you may be t would have. And what do
Speaker 2: you think some of the challenges are for superstars to
Speaker 2: perform on that stage and what allows someone like a
Speaker 2: Freddie Freeman to do just that if you can narrow
Speaker 2: it down a little bit, Yeah.
Speaker 4: That's why you got to really appreciate when a star
Speaker 4: performs up to his capabilities in October.
Speaker 5: Like I'm always wowed.
Speaker 4: By Derek Jeter's career postseason line is pretty much right
Speaker 4: in line with his career numbers, and that's really hard
Speaker 4: to do. I mean, it shows that he played the
Speaker 4: equivalent of a full season in October and his numbers
Speaker 4: were basically like a normal career year for Derek Jeter.
Speaker 4: That's tough to do because of the heightened focus in October,
Speaker 4: and that works both ways.
Speaker 5: You know, the hitters are more focused and the pictures
Speaker 5: are more focused.
Speaker 4: But I think the pictures have an advantage, you know
Speaker 4: when it comes to scouting reports and really keying in
Speaker 4: on those key players.
Speaker 5: And I think that's what happens is you know, you
Speaker 5: get through that.
Speaker 4: I've heard John Smoltz talk about this where this guy
Speaker 4: who's pitching the postseason many times and had a Hall
Speaker 4: of Fame career, but he said that you know you're
Speaker 4: going you're just grinding through the regular season. Uh, you know,
Speaker 4: it's it's a long year. It's physically taxing, it's mentally draining,
Speaker 4: et cetera. You get to October and yeah, you have
Speaker 4: the weight of all you've gone through all year physically
Speaker 4: and mentally, but it's what you play for and there's
Speaker 4: just there is just a heightened ability to really hone
Speaker 4: in on every pitch. It's another Nick Cassianos is another
Speaker 4: great example, you know, outfielder for the Phillies. He's made
Speaker 4: a bunch of great defensive plays in October in the
Speaker 4: last few years. He's not a good defense in the
Speaker 4: regular season. He said, I just just focus is better
Speaker 4: in the postseason. So for whatever reason, you know that
Speaker 4: that's what happens, and you know, I do think it
Speaker 4: makes it difficult for a player like Jose Ramirez, where you.
Speaker 5: Know, he had better support in the lineup this year,
Speaker 5: but not a great deal.
Speaker 4: Of support, certainly not as much as uh, you know,
Speaker 4: Freddy Freeman and that Dodgers lineup that's so deep, so
Speaker 4: they can really key it on him and make it
Speaker 4: make his life miserable. And he still was able to
Speaker 4: come through with some big knocks, you know, in the
Speaker 4: Guardian's run. But yeah, ultimately wasn't able to have that
Speaker 4: transcendent series.
Speaker 2: MLB dot COM's Anthony Castervince joining us talking world series
Speaker 2: and we'll get to some Guardians in a moment. But
Speaker 2: the Dodgers, they're the World champs. They spent a billion
Speaker 2: dollars last offseason. Look, payroll was not an issue. And
Speaker 2: maybe I'm not speaking for fans out there, but for
Speaker 2: all of that, it seemed like they were a likable
Speaker 2: bunch that wins the World Series. And you know, some
Speaker 2: people say, O, well, underdog because of the injuries. I'm
Speaker 2: not buying that. They're not an underdogs. But for a
Speaker 2: team that spent a lot of money, there are a
Speaker 2: lot of teams like that that you're just like, oh gosh,
Speaker 2: you know, well, the big deal they won the World Series.
Speaker 2: But you know, I think for the Dodgers it seemed
Speaker 2: different and did it to you at all?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 6: It did.
Speaker 4: I mean you got Freddy Freeman's a great story of
Speaker 4: That's a guy that is very well respected to baseball,
Speaker 4: has been for a long time, and went through a
Speaker 4: lot this year with his son, you know, having a
Speaker 4: rare autoimmune disorder, and you know, he missed time from
Speaker 4: the team while dealing with that, and the son's doing
Speaker 4: better now, but you know, hanging over his head, and
Speaker 4: then the injury.
Speaker 5: You know, he.
Speaker 4: Severely sprained his ankle just before the end of the
Speaker 4: regular season, and so he's very little expected of him offensively,
Speaker 4: given what we'd seen in the first couple of rounds.
Speaker 4: And then he goes out and you know, hits the
Speaker 4: first walk off Grand Slam in World Series history and
Speaker 4: drives in twelve runs, ties a record for the World Series.
Speaker 5: He does it in only five games. So it was crazy,
Speaker 5: crazy performance.
Speaker 4: So you know that, I think Mookie Betts is super
Speaker 4: likable Otani personality wise, you know, we don't know much
Speaker 4: about him, but he is obviously just an eye catching talent.
Speaker 5: He's an incredible talent, so you know, you just kind
Speaker 5: of mesmerized by what he can do.
Speaker 4: And yeah, they did have a nice just a general
Speaker 4: blend of you know, they had a good ballplayer team
Speaker 4: mentality where they pick each other up and like I said,
Speaker 4: they catch the ball, they protect the ball. So yeah,
Speaker 4: they had a you have to think, like, man, if
Speaker 4: they had their rotation at full strength, so they lose
Speaker 4: a game, and you know with what they were able
Speaker 4: to do with a very diminished rotation. And Walker Buehler,
Speaker 4: I want to mention him as well, because this guy's
Speaker 4: been a great postseason performer for a long time and
Speaker 4: he was, you know, coming off Tommy John this year
Speaker 4: at a five something e er did not have you know,
Speaker 4: anywhere near his best year, but he stepped up on
Speaker 4: the postseason stage and you know, starts Game three and
Speaker 4: pitches well and then comes back out in Game five
Speaker 4: and closes it out with the first save.
Speaker 5: Of his career. So that probably helped his free agent value.
Speaker 2: Anthony Castervinz from MLB dot Com joining us the postseason
Speaker 2: in general, and he had a nice piece on yesterday's
Speaker 2: website about this. The two series of Guardians were involved
Speaker 2: in highly entertaining and maybe maybe I cast a bias
Speaker 2: lens on it, but it seemed like the postseason in
Speaker 2: general was filled with memorable moments this year, more so
Speaker 2: than maybe in some recent years.
Speaker 4: I think so, And I tried to look at it
Speaker 4: objectively instead of subjectively and just pick out the top
Speaker 4: ten moments based on win probability added. So that's a
Speaker 4: single play. How did that play impact the team's chances
Speaker 4: of winning that particular game? And you know, like Freddie
Speaker 4: Freeman's Grand Slam was seventy something percent, It changed the
Speaker 4: Dodgers odds of winning that game from like twenty seven
Speaker 4: percent to one hundred percent.
Speaker 5: And we had a bunch of.
Speaker 4: Those this postseason and including here in Cleveland where you
Speaker 4: know David Fry's big home run. You have to pick
Speaker 4: one because it's the one in Detroit was actually the
Speaker 4: higher win probability added than the walk off because you
Speaker 4: know the walk off the game was tied against the Yankees,
Speaker 4: but you know his his home run that that changed
Speaker 4: that game in Detroit and kept the Guardian season alive
Speaker 4: and brought it back to Game five here in Cleveland.
Speaker 5: That was a huge one.
Speaker 4: And then the other one that rated very high on
Speaker 4: the list, that rated third was Big Christmas.
Speaker 5: Man John Kenzie. No.
Speaker 4: Well, with that game tying home run off play homes
Speaker 4: in Game three of the ALCS, that increased the Guardian's
Speaker 4: odds of winning that game by forty nine percent with
Speaker 4: that one swing. So he was sending there to pinch hit.
Speaker 4: We were all thinking the same thing, like, Okay, he's
Speaker 4: he's there to do one job.
Speaker 5: Let's see if he can do it. And he did
Speaker 5: it immediately, just that rocket out to left. I can
Speaker 5: still see it when I closed my eyes.
Speaker 4: So that was I got Teyer Rosie, Like I've been
Speaker 4: covering baseball for twenty years, and I mean three of
Speaker 4: the best games I've ever seen in my life in
Speaker 4: person were this past month. You know that that game
Speaker 4: I just referenced to, you know, ALCS game three, I
Speaker 4: think ALDS Game five here in Cleveland, where you know,
Speaker 4: where the Guardians scratched together against Terry Scoble and Lane
Speaker 4: Thomas broke it open with the grand slam. And then
Speaker 4: that Game one of the World Series, you know, with
Speaker 4: the Freddie Freeman walk off grand slamming. That's just like
Speaker 4: an iconic moment. Instantly you know you're you're you're witnessing
Speaker 4: something special. So those those are three great ballgames.
Speaker 2: Definitely a memory. Postseason, it is now complete, so I
Speaker 2: guess officially we're in the hot stove season. As the
Speaker 2: next baseball we'll see, we'll be in spring training and
Speaker 2: Anthony look back at the Guardian season. I think it
Speaker 2: went further than so many people would have predicted back
Speaker 2: in spring training. Where do they go from here and
Speaker 2: what were some of the things that you saw this
Speaker 2: year that they can build on with the idea that
Speaker 2: there are some things that they need to add as well.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, you just build on the strides that the
Speaker 4: lineup made first and foremost, you know, in my mind,
Speaker 4: goes to the bullpen.
Speaker 5: I don't know if you can build on that.
Speaker 4: I think you have to build around that, because that
Speaker 4: was the key to the year, was the bullpen coming
Speaker 4: together the way it did.
Speaker 5: But the danger of that, especially when you go on
Speaker 5: a deep run like.
Speaker 4: They did, is is you know, the long term effects
Speaker 4: and so next year they'll probably take a step back,
Speaker 4: because that's just what history tells us. So hopefully, though,
Speaker 4: you know, I know it's weird to say they should
Speaker 4: all met their greatest strength, but you know, sometimes that's
Speaker 4: what you have to do just to you know, steal
Speaker 4: yourself for what's coming.
Speaker 5: You know, some of those guys might get hurt or
Speaker 5: just regress, and then obviously they haven't even the starting
Speaker 5: pitching department. I think that's very clear.
Speaker 4: So you know, hopefully, going on the run that they
Speaker 4: did in October, you know the revenues that come with that,
Speaker 4: Hopefully it's parlayed into a nice offseason.
Speaker 5: I know there's other stuff in.
Speaker 4: The air with the TV contract and whatnot, but yeah,
Speaker 4: I mean their time is now clearly have a core,
Speaker 4: a championship caliber corp. Because we saw the first signs
Speaker 4: of it in twenty twenty two. And then you know,
Speaker 4: you go through some learning learning period and growth pains
Speaker 4: what have you last year, and then you take another
Speaker 4: huge step forward this year. So it's hard to maintain
Speaker 4: those steps forward. And again they're going to probably run
Speaker 4: in some trouble with the bullpen. Not that it'll be
Speaker 4: a bad bullpen. I'm just saying they're probably going to
Speaker 4: run in some performance regression in some regard, So you
Speaker 4: have to prepare for that.
Speaker 2: All right, Fans of the show know that we always
Speaker 2: talk about Bruce Springsteen on this show. You are as
Speaker 2: heavy a fan as there is. Hopefully it's not his
Speaker 2: final tour, but I suppose anytime he's out there now
Speaker 2: it could be. What have you seen review wise from
Speaker 2: what you've seen on this tour that just continues to
Speaker 2: make him one of the most entertaining shows that you
Speaker 2: can see.
Speaker 4: Well, I've seen enough shows this year to do my
Speaker 4: own reviews where I can tell you that, like last year,
Speaker 4: twenty twenty three was you know, the return from COVID
Speaker 4: and and the band was playing great, but the shows
Speaker 4: were very static. You know, all twenty twenty three was
Speaker 4: essentially the same set list and you wondered, well, that's.
Speaker 5: Not the Bruce Springsteen we know. Then you come to
Speaker 5: find that that he was dealing with some physical stuff
Speaker 5: peptic ulcer syndrome. So he's playing through pain, Rosie, much
Speaker 5: like Freddie Freeman.
Speaker 2: So so he can't make the club in the tub.
Speaker 5: Postponemus. They went away for a few months.
Speaker 4: They came back this year in twenty twenty four, and
Speaker 4: my goodness, it's been incredible. You still have the core setlist,
Speaker 4: but a lot of changes, you know, near the top
Speaker 4: of the set there, and a lot of good changes
Speaker 4: and night to night looseness that wasn't there last year.
Speaker 5: They're just playing.
Speaker 4: I mean I went to the show in Asbury Park,
Speaker 4: New Jersey, on the beach on the shore, and it
Speaker 4: was my sixtieth show Rosie.
Speaker 5: And it was the best one I've ever seen.
Speaker 4: So that goes to show you where he and the
Speaker 4: band are at at this stage, this late stage of
Speaker 4: their career.
Speaker 5: They can still get it done at a really epic,
Speaker 5: entertaining level. So that's awesome.
Speaker 2: Bands don't have home games, but that's a home game
Speaker 2: for the boss, isn't it.
Speaker 5: That was a home game, no doubt, no doubt. Forty
Speaker 5: thousand people in sand times.
Speaker 2: I don't know what's better that or the World Series
Speaker 2: for you, but either one is I imagined pretty good.
Speaker 2: A memorable year as well, but Anthony has always thanks
Speaker 2: so much for coming by. Enjoyed the off season what
Speaker 2: there is of it for you as you follow some
Speaker 2: of the moves and activity in Major League Baseball, and
Speaker 2: we always appreciate you coming by.
Speaker 5: Always fun coming on, Rosie, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2: It's Anthony Kastervinz from MLB dot Com. Stay with us
Speaker 2: when we come back. We'll hear from Guardians pitching coach
Speaker 2: Carl Willis. That's next on the Cleveland Clinic Guardians Radio Network.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to Guardians Weekly. Jim Rosenhouse along with you
Speaker 2: from the home studio as we join you offsite. Not
Speaker 2: at progressive feel this offseason, as year two of the
Speaker 2: renovations are well underway and the crews there working hard
Speaker 2: to try and complete that project as close to opening
Speaker 2: day as possible. Coming up shortly, we will be joined
Speaker 2: by pitching coach Carl Willis, who just completed his seventh
Speaker 2: season this go round on the Cleveland staff, fourteenth season
Speaker 2: overall as a Guardian's pitching coach, and the twenty first
Speaker 2: at the major league level, and we caught up with
Speaker 2: Carl just as the postseason run was beginning for Cleveland
Speaker 2: to talk to him not only about this year's team,
Speaker 2: but also about his career, and I think you'll find
Speaker 2: there's some pretty good indicators of what makes him tick
Speaker 2: and what has made him one of the best pitching
Speaker 2: coaches in the game for a long, long time. Five
Speaker 2: cy Young Award winners under Willis's watch, starting with c. C.
Speaker 2: Sabathia with the Indians back in two thousand and seven,
Speaker 2: then Cliff Lee in two thousand and eight. Then he
Speaker 2: moved to Seattle along with manager Eric Wedge for Felix
Speaker 2: Hernandez his cy Young season in twenty ten. He was
Speaker 2: in Boston when Rick Parcello won the cy Young in
Speaker 2: twenty sixteen, and of course was Cleveland's pitching coach when
Speaker 2: Shane Bieber won the award in twenty fi This year,
Speaker 2: the Guardians did it a little bit differently from what
Speaker 2: we've been accustomed to. As the starting rotation, they had
Speaker 2: to piece that together at various points in times due
Speaker 2: to injuries and some ineffectiveness for others, and the bullpen
Speaker 2: came to the forefront and man, was that a key
Speaker 2: for this ball club throughout the regular season. And when
Speaker 2: we caught up with Carl, we talked to him about
Speaker 2: the different way this year's team went about it on
Speaker 2: the pitching front.
Speaker 6: I think we've dealt with something here this year that
Speaker 6: we really haven't dealt with a lot in the past.
Speaker 6: You could go back maybe to twenty nineteen when we
Speaker 6: had some injuries and you know, we had Zach Pleazak
Speaker 6: and Aaron Savali and you know, some guys step in
Speaker 6: and just you know, were phenomenal in filling in as starters.
Speaker 6: This year, losing Shane Bieber was obviously, you know, there's
Speaker 6: no replacing Shane Bieber. And then with you know some
Speaker 6: of the struggles, if you will, with Tristan and Logan,
Speaker 6: you know, we've kind of had to piece together a
Speaker 6: bit of our rotation. I think Ben Lively, you know,
Speaker 6: I was talking to him yesterday. I mean, you know,
Speaker 6: thirteen wins, I mean, he saved us and he did,
Speaker 6: you know, the job he did. You can't put a
Speaker 6: price on it. You can't put a value on it
Speaker 6: because of how important he was. But we have had
Speaker 6: really strong bullpens here in past years. I think for
Speaker 6: the most part. Maybe those strong bullpens were bullpens that
Speaker 6: you know, we needed to get to the seventh or
Speaker 6: certainly get to the sixth. Whereas now, you know, with
Speaker 6: a number of guys we have out there who have
Speaker 6: the stuff and have performed, you know, really the entirety
Speaker 6: of however long any of them have been here, some
Speaker 6: from day one. Some sure it's a short look, but
Speaker 6: in the past month, six weeks. It allows us to
Speaker 6: go to the bullpen a little sooner and and not
Speaker 6: not lose anything. I mean, you know, sometimes when you
Speaker 6: know a great deal of clubs, when you have to
Speaker 6: go to the bullpen too early, and maybe you're not
Speaker 6: going to a guy that's you know, a lockdown guy.
Speaker 6: I feel like, you know, our guys, you know, we
Speaker 6: can bring guys in in the fourth or fifth inning
Speaker 6: that we could easily pitch into eighth inning. So yeah,
Speaker 6: they've carried our pitching staff, you know, Brad Goldberg and
Speaker 6: the bullpen has done a tremendous job and preparing those
Speaker 6: guys and keeping those guys together, and and they themselves,
Speaker 6: they're the true heroes. I mean, they have done it,
Speaker 6: and you know we're we've ridden them and we will
Speaker 6: continue to do so, I believe.
Speaker 2: And when you look at at your job compared to
Speaker 2: when you first started here back in the early two
Speaker 2: thousands at the major league level, Joe Torre is your
Speaker 2: assistant pitching, you're both pend coach Brad Goldberg, it seems
Speaker 2: like it it's a great benefit for you to have them.
Speaker 2: And what is that dynamic, like, how has that taken
Speaker 2: this pitching staff to another level in terms of what
Speaker 2: you can do for them?
Speaker 6: Well, I think, first of all, there's no words that
Speaker 6: I can use to describe how good those two guys
Speaker 6: are and how hard they work and how much they care.
Speaker 6: And I think people can lose sight of the fact
Speaker 6: of how much they care because they're in this for
Speaker 6: the right reasons. You know, this game is about the
Speaker 6: players and the three of us and I think our
Speaker 6: entire staff for that matter. But we work to help
Speaker 6: the players be the best it can be. And then
Speaker 6: voting and myself with the pitching, you know, we work
Speaker 6: hard to put each guy in situations where they can succeed,
Speaker 6: because if they succeed, the teams succeeds. And with Brad
Speaker 6: and Joe, you know, they loved this organization. They love
Speaker 6: our players and and they're here to win, and they're
Speaker 6: here to help these guys and and for me, uh,
Speaker 6: there's so much information now as you mentioned that back
Speaker 6: in two thousand and three, did just it did not exist.
Speaker 6: If it did, it existed in a lab somewhere that
Speaker 6: it wasn't being shared with us yet. And you know,
Speaker 6: some of this stuff I have, I have worked to
Speaker 6: learn and to get up to speed with. But these
Speaker 6: guys having been exposed to it maybe a little earlier
Speaker 6: than I was, because some of these things, in Brad's
Speaker 6: case working at Ohio State as an assistant pitching coach,
Speaker 6: you know some of these some of these things came
Speaker 6: through the collegiate level. Uh, and you know these facilities
Speaker 6: prior to it's almost like it was being and you know,
Speaker 6: does it work? So he and Joe because in the
Speaker 6: minor leagues as well, some things or you know, let's
Speaker 6: utilize this and see how it works and see what
Speaker 6: place it has. And you do it in the minor
Speaker 6: leagues and then you know, things at work come to
Speaker 6: the major league level. Things that don't maybe they get
Speaker 6: set aside. And so these guys really fill a void
Speaker 6: for me because they're you know more, in tune with it,
Speaker 6: understand it a little better, and when I need help
Speaker 6: with it, they can put it in my language. And
Speaker 6: that that's really really important. But you can't put a
Speaker 6: value on what those two guys do and how much Listen,
Speaker 6: I'll say how much they help me, but how much
Speaker 6: they help the pictures and how they go about it
Speaker 6: and they're caring and what they're in it for separates them.
Speaker 2: You mentioned that minor League. Part of the equation is
Speaker 2: that why so many young pictures at the in particular
Speaker 2: rookies who have come up and not missed a beat
Speaker 2: up here. Is there a certain familiarity when they get
Speaker 2: here that they already know what's going on from that
Speaker 2: technology standpoint that they've been exposed to already.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think so, because that doesn't change the technology.
Speaker 6: You know, when we look at track Man, when we
Speaker 6: look at raps out, when we look at the different
Speaker 6: applications where we can look at pitch profiles and ballflight
Speaker 6: and what's happening, those things don't change when you come here.
Speaker 6: What changes is basically the hitters in the box are better,
Speaker 6: and so basically then here it's a matter of putting
Speaker 6: all the pieces together and learning. Okay, here's my stuff,
Speaker 6: here's what I have. It's major league caliber. How do
Speaker 6: I use it? How do I sequence it to get
Speaker 6: major league hitters out? But the other aspects, in terms
Speaker 6: of how we prepare and how we get them to
Speaker 6: the best version of themselves, they're already familiar with.
Speaker 2: Carl Willis joining us one, I have a little fun
Speaker 2: with you. More than forty years in the game now,
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty three, I believe Bristol, Tennessee was the first
Speaker 2: professional clubhouse you walked into.
Speaker 7: Do you remember much.
Speaker 2: About the early days there of your pro career as
Speaker 2: a pitcher?
Speaker 6: Yeah, I remember, you know, I was drafted and I
Speaker 6: was able to drive to Bristol. It was four hours
Speaker 6: from where I grew up, so I drove there, and
Speaker 6: Bristol was a little town that you know, depending upon
Speaker 6: what side of the main street you were on, you
Speaker 6: could be in Tennessee or you could be in Virginia.
Speaker 6: But I think for me, the one thing I remember
Speaker 6: more than anything else, and I've never forgotten this. I
Speaker 6: came from a small school UNC Wilmington, a mid major
Speaker 6: that is one of the best mid majors in the
Speaker 6: country today. But there were plays there from Texas and
Speaker 6: Arizona State and Michigan and you know, bigger schools, and
Speaker 6: obviously we guys drafted higher than I was. And I
Speaker 6: think the one thing I learned there, and you know,
Speaker 6: I watched guys throw and throw their bullpens, and i'm
Speaker 6: you know, I can do that. Maybe I didn't do
Speaker 6: it on as big as stage as they did, but
Speaker 6: I can do that, and I feel like it it
Speaker 6: instilled in me. Everyone matters. It can be a high
Speaker 6: round pick. You can be a guy that's bounced around,
Speaker 6: you can be a guy that's had you know, a
Speaker 6: couple of surgeries. But if you have the uniform on,
Speaker 6: then you deserve the attention from the coaching staff to
Speaker 6: help you become the best you can be, not just
Speaker 6: the guy who was the first pick of the draft
Speaker 6: or the first round pick. And so that's that's something
Speaker 6: I feel like I learned as a player. I had
Speaker 6: no idea was that were going to get into coaching
Speaker 6: at that time. I just was trying to work to
Speaker 6: stay in the game, you know, in the in the
Speaker 6: minor leagues. But I remember the bus rides. I remember,
Speaker 6: you know, the ballparks and the clubhouses, and certainly everywhere
Speaker 6: did a great job. But it's nothing like being in
Speaker 6: the major leagues, not even like being in Buffalo. But
Speaker 6: you know, it's a journey and and everyone matters.
Speaker 2: I found a roster. Do you know you were the
Speaker 2: only pitcher on that roster that year that made it
Speaker 2: to the major leagues.
Speaker 6: I did not know that.
Speaker 3: I know.
Speaker 6: I remember we had a shortstop, Jim well Wander, who
Speaker 6: played the major leagues. We had to catcher Ray Pelasio's
Speaker 6: whose nephew Richie actually played with us. But but Ray
Speaker 6: made it the major leagues. I believe with Kansas.
Speaker 2: City, you three were the only ones, the only three.
Speaker 6: Okay, well, I'm good because I was afraid I was
Speaker 6: gonna forget something. You got them, so yeah that you know,
Speaker 6: that's something.
Speaker 2: But I mean, you know, it shows the odds though,
Speaker 2: how hard it is.
Speaker 6: Well it does, I mean, it truthfully does. And it
Speaker 6: shows how difficult it is.
Speaker 5: And and.
Speaker 6: Again I'm thankful to the coaches that I had along
Speaker 6: the way, who again was a twenty third round draft
Speaker 6: pick who got one thousand dollars to play professional baseball.
Speaker 6: You know, if I didn't make it, no one was
Speaker 6: going to get in trouble. But yet those guys took
Speaker 6: the time to work with each and every you know,
Speaker 6: person on the roster, and I'm thankful for that.
Speaker 2: And transitioning post playing career, How did you get the
Speaker 2: coaching bug and who gave you that first opportunity?
Speaker 6: Well, you know that that story is a tad bit lengthy.
Speaker 6: I you know, in nineteen ninety I was fitting Triple
Speaker 6: A actually with the Cleveland Indians in Colorado Springs, and
Speaker 6: I felt like my career was basically at the end.
Speaker 6: I wanted to stay in the game, and I started
Speaker 6: asking questions and asking, you know, coaches if they thought
Speaker 6: I could be a pitching coach or you know, stay
Speaker 6: in the game in some aspect, and they were like, sure, yeah,
Speaker 6: but you know you're still playing whatever. You know, As
Speaker 6: fate would have it, it was God's plan, I believe,
Speaker 6: you know. The following year, I signed with the Twins,
Speaker 6: and I can't explain to you everything or exactly what happened,
Speaker 6: but I ended up, you know, pitching in a World
Speaker 6: Series and playing there for a little over four years.
Speaker 6: And when my career did come to an end, because
Speaker 6: I was absolutely horrible, I wanted to stay in the game.
Speaker 6: But I also knew that I had asked an awful
Speaker 6: lot of my wife. We had started our family, and
Speaker 6: you know, getting back into this game means, you know,
Speaker 6: if you send out resumes, yeah, you may get a job.
Speaker 6: I live in North Carolina. I may be asked to
Speaker 6: go to Eugene, Oregon, or Vancouver, British Columbia, somewhere as
Speaker 6: far away home, and I wasn't sure I really wanted
Speaker 6: to do that. The only club that I really talked
Speaker 6: to about potentially doing anything was the Twins because that
Speaker 6: was the organization I had played the bulk of my
Speaker 6: career with and had some success and ended my career there.
Speaker 6: But on the plane rides in Minnesota with the Twins,
Speaker 6: I sat with the radio announcer John Gordon. We played
Speaker 6: Jim Rummy not for money, because I didn't want to
Speaker 6: lose money in poker games. And a year after I'd
Speaker 6: been out of baseball, Greg Booker was the pitching coach
Speaker 6: in Burlington and he left to become the bullpen coach
Speaker 6: in San Diego in the Major Leagues. So Cleveland was
Speaker 6: looking for a league pitching coach and John Gordon's son,
Speaker 6: Gordy Goatowski was Mark Shapiro's administrative assistant. Here. He was
Speaker 6: talking to his dad and John told Gordy, hey, you
Speaker 6: should call Carl Willis. He lives thirty minutes from Burlington,
Speaker 6: you know, see if he would be interested. So he
Speaker 6: passed that along to Mark Shapiro. Mark made a couple
Speaker 6: of calls to some folks he knew with the twins
Speaker 6: who knew me, and one thing led to another. He
Speaker 6: called me and he wanted me to fly up and
Speaker 6: talk about a minor league pitching coach job. And I
Speaker 6: told him I needed to speak more with my wife,
Speaker 6: and she said, listen, if they offer you a job,
Speaker 6: you need to take it because you're miserable without baseball.
Speaker 6: So I flew up. It was not the greatest tis
Speaker 6: my father was going through lung cancer at the time.
Speaker 6: I flew up and sat down with Mark and Mike Brown,
Speaker 6: who was the pitching coordinator at the time. We had
Speaker 6: a really good conversation and I ended up being hired.
Speaker 6: Mark told me I couldn't go to Burlington because he
Speaker 6: had promised another pitching coach, Dave Miller, that position for
Speaker 6: the following year. I would need to go to Watertown,
Speaker 6: New York. The first year, and then he could have
Speaker 6: me in Burlington the following year, and I just thought,
Speaker 6: you know, I really respected the fact that he would
Speaker 6: hold true to his word to Dave Miller, and it
Speaker 6: kind of gave me an insight of how this organization
Speaker 6: works and how honest they are, and they don't go
Speaker 6: back on their word, and they treat people, you know,
Speaker 6: the way people should be treated. So that was the beginning,
Speaker 6: and I couldn't have asked for a better place to grow,
Speaker 6: not only as a coach, but as a person because
Speaker 6: I've learned continually continuing to learn each and every day
Speaker 6: here from Chris Antonetti, from Mike Turnoff, from Paul Dolan,
Speaker 6: the people that are here now and the people that
Speaker 6: were here in the past. You know, I can talk
Speaker 6: about again Mark Shapiro, and you know, I could certainly
Speaker 6: talk about, you know, guys that I work with along
Speaker 6: the way, Eric Wedge, And again I mentioned Dave Miller.
Speaker 6: He was tremendous in helping me grow. They just help
Speaker 6: you grow as a person as well. And I think
Speaker 6: you can't lose the personal side of the relationships when
Speaker 6: you're trying to help these guys and coach these guys
Speaker 6: and I'm so appreciative of this organization forgiving me that
Speaker 6: opportunity and helping me.
Speaker 2: No one tells a better story than pitching coach Carl
Speaker 2: Willis of the Cleveland Guardians. Stay with us. We'll have
Speaker 2: some final thoughts after this on the Cleveland Clinic Guardians
Speaker 2: Radio Network.
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Speaker 2: Welcome back to Guardian's Weekly Jim Rosenhouse back with you
Speaker 2: for our final segment of this week's show. Just a reminder,
Speaker 2: from now until the weekend before Thanksgiving, which would be
Speaker 2: November the twenty third, that's when our last show before
Speaker 2: our break will be. Our show airs on WTAM in
Speaker 2: Cleveland at seven am on Saturday mornings. Check your local list.
Speaker 2: If your local Guardians Radio Network affiliate carries our show,
Speaker 2: you can hear it each weekend on the radio and
Speaker 2: also in podcast form shortly after it airs live on
Speaker 2: our flagship station in downtown Cleveland. So that's how you
Speaker 2: can pick up our show each week. A couple of
Speaker 2: news and notes from the week gone by. Congratulations to
Speaker 2: Guardians manager Steven Vote named the Sporting News Manager of
Speaker 2: the Year in the American League. So congratulations to Steven Vote.
Speaker 2: What a rookie season of managing it was for him.
Speaker 2: And the Fielding Bible Awards are out. A lot of
Speaker 2: different fielding awards, including the Gold Gloves. Those will come
Speaker 2: later on during the off season, but the Fielding Bible
Speaker 2: Awards are out, and as you would probably figure and expect,
Speaker 2: second baseman Andre Cimenez the Fielding Bible Award winner for
Speaker 2: all of baseball at second base, and pitcher Tanner Biby
Speaker 2: won a Fielding Bible Award as well for his work
Speaker 2: on the mound defensively. So congratulations to them. Will keep
Speaker 2: you hosted on all the different award winners as the
Speaker 2: off season rolls on. That's going to do it for
Speaker 2: our show this week. Thanks as always to Brian Motsee
Speaker 2: for helping to put together our show each and every
Speaker 2: week until next week. This is Jim Rosenhouse reminding you
Speaker 2: that you've been listening to Guardians Weekly on the Cleveland
Speaker 2: Clinic Guardians Radio Network.
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