Speaker 1: Welcome to Guardians Weekly on the Cleveland Guardians Radio network.
Speaker 1: Guardians Weekly is brought to you by Progressive helping Guardians
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Speaker 2: Hi, everyone, welcome to Guardian's Weekly. Jim Rosen House along
Speaker 2: with you from Progressive Field in downtown Cleveland, where the
Speaker 2: Guardians are taking on the Saint Louis Cardinals this weekend.
Speaker 2: A four to ten start on Saturday and a noon
Speaker 2: start on Sunday afternoons, so be sure to make a
Speaker 2: note of that if you're planning on coming down Sunday.
Speaker 2: Actually a twelve oh five first pitch for you on
Speaker 2: Sunday to close out the home stand. Good show line
Speaker 2: up for you. Today we will hear from Joe Torres,
Speaker 2: the Guardian's assistant pitching coach, on a variety of topics.
Speaker 2: Also a fun at the ballpark with Senior Vice President
Speaker 2: Bob di Biassio and Rick Sutcliffe. You don't want to
Speaker 2: miss this one. Logan Allen Slade, Seconi and Ernie Clement
Speaker 2: will also stop by. Two of the guardians starting pitchers
Speaker 2: and a former Cleveland player who's now enjoying a fine
Speaker 2: season with the Blue Jays. Ernie Clement. But first our
Speaker 2: weekend review and it hasn't been an easy week for
Speaker 2: the Guardians. Tuesday at ten to six loss to the
Speaker 2: Blue Jays to open that series, and then on Wednesday,
Speaker 2: a thriller in Day on Town Cleveland. The Guardians jumped
Speaker 2: in front in the first inning, a lead off walk
Speaker 2: to Stephen Kuan. He stole second and Jose Ramirez delivered
Speaker 2: down the.
Speaker 3: Pinch, ripped into right. That's a mason near the line
Speaker 3: that'll score Kwan.
Speaker 2: Big turn.
Speaker 3: Jose holds throwback to first, skips away from Guerrero, goes
Speaker 3: to the Blue Jay dugout. Ramirez after diving in, gets up,
Speaker 3: goes to second. One nothing, Cleveland, and that'll be an
Speaker 3: RBI single for Jose Ramirez and he'll go to second
Speaker 3: on what will be a throwing air by Andre Simenez.
Speaker 3: Toronto tied the game with a solo home run in
Speaker 3: the top half of the fourth from vlad Guerrero Junior.
Speaker 3: But in the bottom of the inning, two men on,
Speaker 3: Gabrielarius came to the plate. Here's the pitch swung on
Speaker 3: and that's drilled right center field and.
Speaker 1: It splits the gap. One hop pup against the wall
Speaker 1: and right center. One run is in that steam and
Speaker 1: Jones motoring home. Here's the relay.
Speaker 2: He slides, He's safe. Close play at the plate, Jones
Speaker 2: made it.
Speaker 1: It's a two run double from Godrie Larius and the Guardians.
Speaker 2: They're back in front. It's now three to one. The
Speaker 2: Blue Jays answered with three runs in the top half
Speaker 2: of the sixth to take their first lead on the
Speaker 2: day for three Blue Jays, but the Guardians again responded
Speaker 2: in the bottom of the inning with Lane Thomas leading
Speaker 2: things off.
Speaker 1: Lane Thomas won for two of the single, awaits the
Speaker 1: two to zero and he drives.
Speaker 3: Into deep left down the line, go on to the porch.
Speaker 3: Second night, Naro, Lane Thomas finds the home run porch
Speaker 3: in left and we're back to even at four oh
Speaker 3: on a sight in back to back games to see
Speaker 3: Lane Thomas have back to back home runs, have four
Speaker 3: hints and four army eyes.
Speaker 2: It stayed tied at four through the ninth and onto
Speaker 2: extra innings. The game went. In the top half of
Speaker 2: the tenth, Nick Enright, out of the bullpen, tried to
Speaker 2: keep the J's off the scoreboard.
Speaker 1: En Right fires swung on ground into third. Ramirez clubs
Speaker 1: y'all have to hurry.
Speaker 3: The thrown by a whisker.
Speaker 1: We may have a challenge. It was bang bang. What
Speaker 1: will the Blue Jays do? They do not challenge it. Wow,
Speaker 1: was that close. We go to the bottom of the
Speaker 1: tenth still tied at.
Speaker 2: Four by great work by en Right. Then in the
Speaker 2: bottom of the tenth Bownailor was the runner starting at
Speaker 2: second base. Stephen Kuan was walked intentionally. David Fry singled
Speaker 2: a bunt basit that loaded the bases with nobody out
Speaker 2: for Jose Ramirez. The pinch and.
Speaker 3: Ramirez swings and lines of tent hesht ball game.
Speaker 2: Jose Ramirez laces.
Speaker 3: One down the left field line, scoring on the hil
Speaker 3: Martinez with a game winner, and Toronto had no choice.
Speaker 3: They had to pinch to Ramirez when the bases loaded.
Speaker 3: They get their walk off win number four and they
Speaker 3: knocked off the Jays five to four in tenanties and.
Speaker 2: That was the high point for the Guardians. They have
Speaker 2: not scored since as they were shut out six nothing
Speaker 2: by the Blue Jays Thursday afternoon and five nothing Friday
Speaker 2: night by the Cardinals. And Sonny Gray. Stay with us,
Speaker 2: we'll have more to come up. Guardians Weekly from downtown
Speaker 2: Cleveland after this time out on the Cleveland Clinic Guardians Radio.
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Speaker 2: Welcome back to Guardians Weekly. Jim rosenhouse along with you
Speaker 2: this weekend as we join you from Progressive Field in
Speaker 2: downtown Cleveland. The starting rotation has been a real bright
Speaker 2: spot for the Guardians, including Logan Allen. He has strung
Speaker 2: together some really good starts of late, and recently we
Speaker 2: caught up with him and he talked about some of
Speaker 2: the keys to pitching deeper into games. As we have
Speaker 2: seen during this recent stretch is.
Speaker 6: You know, having a good game plan going into the
Speaker 6: games with the with the catchers being on the same page,
Speaker 6: and then you know, trusting my stuff, trusting the defense,
Speaker 6: just trying to go out there and attack guys. You know,
Speaker 6: like I always trying to say, it's hard to hit.
Speaker 6: Remember that it's hard to hit, and just go right
Speaker 6: after you guys, let the defense work.
Speaker 2: And you had a unique situation where you did have
Speaker 2: to go to the bullpen for I think the first
Speaker 2: time in your major league career.
Speaker 7: And.
Speaker 2: It went well from the standpoint of you got to win.
Speaker 2: You had a one two, three inning. What was that
Speaker 2: like for you to experience in the pen maybe even
Speaker 2: before you came into the game.
Speaker 8: It was different.
Speaker 6: This was kind of cool getting to see, like what
Speaker 6: that environment is like down there. I feel like the
Speaker 6: bullpen's kind of its own little team within the team,
Speaker 6: So it was cool to kind of, you know, see
Speaker 6: how those guys operate on a day to day basis
Speaker 6: a little bit different, you know, not really knowing when
Speaker 6: the warm up and all that kind of stuff. But
Speaker 6: you know, they they accepted the open arms. They helped
Speaker 6: me out, you know, getting ready and kind of walk
Speaker 6: me through it.
Speaker 8: So they're awesome. So it was a lot of fun.
Speaker 2: You say they accepted you with open arms, did they
Speaker 2: really make it part of the group.
Speaker 6: Feel like I was kind of part of the group
Speaker 6: for a little bit. I got a little bit of
Speaker 6: craft today, So maybe not not as much as I think,
Speaker 6: but I feel like a little bit.
Speaker 2: And you get a win only getting three outs? Was
Speaker 2: that kind of nice because I know as a starter
Speaker 2: sometimes you can throw it really well for a long
Speaker 2: time and then not gonna.
Speaker 6: Win wins get a lot of flack and today's game,
Speaker 6: but I feel like, you know, they're hard to come by,
Speaker 6: so I'll take them anyway you can get them. Yeah,
Speaker 6: probably the at least amount of pitches I'll ever throw
Speaker 6: in my career to get a win. Hopefully, so we'll
Speaker 6: see Logan Allen's joining us. And I'm not sure how
Speaker 6: many people know, but you were a really good hitter
Speaker 6: position player in college in addition to it to being
Speaker 6: a obviously a top shelf pitcher to get drafted, but
Speaker 6: maybe that came into play in San Francisco. You fielded
Speaker 6: a pop up off to the side.
Speaker 2: Of the mound. Pictures don't do that very often, and
Speaker 2: how did you play that and why were you the
Speaker 2: only option to make that play.
Speaker 6: I think I just got lucky with the way that
Speaker 6: he hit it. That he hit it, you know, low
Speaker 6: enough for me to catch it. I think for the
Speaker 6: most part, once it gets up above a certain height,
Speaker 6: it gets a little tough for us, you know, especially
Speaker 6: a lot of times it'll drift back on you. But yeah,
Speaker 6: I mean I always like to feel confident. I mean,
Speaker 6: we come out here in Shagby p every day. I
Speaker 6: feel pretty confident in catching a fly ball if I
Speaker 6: need to. So yeah, it felt nice to get one.
Speaker 6: And yeah, at like I said, we don't really get
Speaker 6: a lot of those. I think it's probably the first
Speaker 6: one I got in my pro career and the five
Speaker 6: six years I've played.
Speaker 8: So it was pretty cool.
Speaker 2: And I feel like anyone on this team wants to
Speaker 2: be like Jose Ramirez, and you did a Jose Ramirez
Speaker 2: replica after that would explain what happened there and what's
Speaker 2: going on.
Speaker 6: Yeah, every time was the catch the fly ball, he
Speaker 6: gets a little two hands up celebrations, So I thought
Speaker 6: it was fitting that I caught myself one and I
Speaker 6: do it. He ran by me and he kind of
Speaker 6: gave me the two little celebrations, so I was like, oh, okay,
Speaker 6: it's a good time to do it.
Speaker 2: Your last start. It came in San Francisco, a road
Speaker 2: game in a National League park, which used to mean
Speaker 2: pitchers hit, but no more. Were you disappointed?
Speaker 6: Well, they took that away. I guess I knew it
Speaker 6: wasn't good, but yeah, it was pretty cool.
Speaker 2: I think I've always had.
Speaker 6: That in the back of my head that I'd have
Speaker 6: that opportunity, you know, if I ever got to the
Speaker 6: big least quick enough. But unfortunately change the rules before
Speaker 6: I had that opportunity. But yes, I would have been
Speaker 6: really cool to hit, especially hit off justin Berlander. That
Speaker 6: would have been a cool couple of bets to get right.
Speaker 6: But no, I guess it's right for the best. So
Speaker 6: we got a lot of good guys, like in the
Speaker 6: DH spot that kind of kind of slug for us.
Speaker 6: That's probably better off that I'm right in there.
Speaker 2: Look it up, folks. He had some good numbers in college.
Speaker 2: Logan Allen thanks Loft for coming by. I think thank you,
Speaker 2: Rosie appreciate it. AT's guardian starting pitcher. Logan Allen also
Speaker 2: performing very well in that starting rotation is Slate Seconi.
Speaker 2: He'll face the Cardinals on Saturday, the four to ten game,
Speaker 2: and he's coming off a great start against the Athletics
Speaker 2: and has been more and more consistent with each passing start.
Speaker 2: He talked about that consistency and says he likes the
Speaker 2: direction his game is going as we get deeper into
Speaker 2: the season.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 9: I think consistency is one of the biggest keys in pitching,
Speaker 9: not just in results, but in consistency in your process,
Speaker 9: the way you work, the way you go about your business.
Speaker 9: If you do things over and over again the same way,
Speaker 9: it's going to be much easier when you take them
Speaker 9: ound to replicate it.
Speaker 2: I know when you were at the diamond or some
Speaker 2: stints in the bullpen as well as starting, has it
Speaker 2: made a difference knowing that you're a starting pitcher here
Speaker 2: and that that's your role and you can prepare properly
Speaker 2: for that.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I think that helps.
Speaker 9: Being able to be on the same five or six
Speaker 9: day schedule every week, knowing you're going to take the
Speaker 9: ball and get somewhere between eighty and you know, eighty
Speaker 9: plus pitches. For my situation, eighty plus pitches every fifth
Speaker 9: or sixth day gives you clarity on every day what
Speaker 9: you're doing to get ready for that.
Speaker 2: Are you doing anything much differently from your first two
Speaker 2: years in the major leagues or is it just that
Speaker 2: you've got some experience under your belt and you're a
Speaker 2: year older and so things should smooth out a little bit.
Speaker 9: Yes and yes, yes to both those answers. Yes, the
Speaker 9: coming of age and having more experience definitely plays a
Speaker 9: factor in slowing the game down a little bit, allowing you.
Speaker 8: To be a little bit more comfortable out there.
Speaker 9: But we have done a lot of work on implementing
Speaker 9: the sinker, the cutter, more curveball usage into the repertoire
Speaker 9: to keep hitters off of just my four team slider mix,
Speaker 9: because those are obviously the two pitches that I previously
Speaker 9: had leaned on far and away the most, and I
Speaker 9: still want to be able to lean on those two pitches,
Speaker 9: but using some of the other pitches that compliment them
Speaker 9: to open up space to use him has been a
Speaker 9: big factor in the success this year. It's gonna sound
Speaker 9: like a beating on a same drum every time, but
Speaker 9: consistency of doing the same thing every week in terms
Speaker 9: of the work and the process because if you find
Speaker 9: out what works for you and you can just continue
Speaker 9: to replicate it over and over again, it's going to
Speaker 9: be a lot easier out there to be in the
Speaker 9: right head space and do your job.
Speaker 2: He had a chance to watch Shane Bieber, so you
Speaker 2: can give us a bird's eye view an update on
Speaker 2: how he's doing there. He went through a bullpen as
Speaker 2: he continues to make his way back. How did he look.
Speaker 9: I don't know if he missed a spot. He threw
Speaker 9: twenty something pitches. I saw him throw one curveball a
Speaker 9: little bit in front of where he wanted to. But man,
Speaker 9: it's it's fun to watch a guy who's that consistent
Speaker 9: in that precise with what he does do his thing.
Speaker 9: It gives you something to really strive for because every
Speaker 9: time you think you know you may have something figured out,
Speaker 9: or you might feel pretty good about yourself, you watch
Speaker 9: you watch somebody that's better than you realize you still
Speaker 9: got a lot of work to do to get to
Speaker 9: where you want to go.
Speaker 2: Oh, he surely is one of the best. Hey, well,
Speaker 2: change gears for our last question. You're new to town. Yes,
Speaker 2: you are a kindoiseur. I'm guessing Italian restaurants and tell
Speaker 2: us about the food scene in Cleveland. This have been
Speaker 2: impressive for you.
Speaker 9: It has so, I've I've made my way over to
Speaker 9: Little Italy a few times. I've enjoyed a lot of
Speaker 9: the restaurants that I've been over there. I would say
Speaker 9: my favorite so far that I've been to I've been
Speaker 9: to twice now is Vlarios really really good traditional Italian food.
Speaker 7: Love it.
Speaker 2: I was surprised to you who maybe based on what
Speaker 2: you thought Cleveland was a little bit.
Speaker 9: I would say the weather has been a little bit
Speaker 9: different than I had heard that, you know, a little
Speaker 9: gloomy sometimes, but there have been a lot of really
Speaker 9: nice days suns out, feels like I'm back in Florida
Speaker 9: with the humidity, which feels like home to me.
Speaker 8: I love it. It's good pitching weather.
Speaker 9: You don't have to throw as much to get loose,
Speaker 9: so I'm really enjoying it.
Speaker 2: Awesome play. Thanks a lot for coming by. I appreciate
Speaker 2: it absolutely. That's Lade Seconi, the starting pitcher for the
Speaker 2: Guardians in Saturday's game against the Cardinals. Earlier this week,
Speaker 2: the Blue Jays were in town, and that meant a
Speaker 2: visit from Ernie Clement, the former Cleveland Indian and Guardian.
Speaker 2: Clement has been in the top ten in the American
Speaker 2: League in batting for a good portion of this season,
Speaker 2: with that average well up over three hundred most of
Speaker 2: the year. And we'll get to his Cleveland days in
Speaker 2: a moment, but first he talked about what's led to
Speaker 2: his success now hitting in the middle of a dangerous
Speaker 2: Blue Jay's light up.
Speaker 10: Yeah, I think when you get normal at bats, you
Speaker 10: can kind of get into a groove, and you know,
Speaker 10: I'm fortunate enough to be getting a really good opportunity
Speaker 10: over here, like I said, so I'm just kind of
Speaker 10: trying to run with it.
Speaker 2: You look at the Blue Jays and it seems like
Speaker 2: a team that could take off at any moment. They've
Speaker 2: had some good stretches and and what do you see
Speaker 2: here that's exciting as you get deeper into the season.
Speaker 10: Yeah, I mean we have we have really strong pitching.
Speaker 10: I think anytime you have really good starting pitching, you're
Speaker 10: going to be in a lot of a lot of
Speaker 10: baseball games and you're gonna have a chance to win. So,
Speaker 10: you know, our offense is really really starting to click,
Speaker 10: and we're starting to put some runs up, So I
Speaker 10: think that's going to really compliment each other. And I
Speaker 10: really do think we're a dangerous team.
Speaker 2: Good mix of veterans and young guys.
Speaker 10: Yeah, yeah, and I think that's really important too. We
Speaker 10: have we have great leadership with the veterans and then
Speaker 10: we have some some hungry young guys who are who
Speaker 10: are you know, really really talented and you know, I
Speaker 10: kind of I kind of fall right in the middle
Speaker 10: of that.
Speaker 8: So I'm excited.
Speaker 2: And a lot of familiar names and faces for Cleveland fans.
Speaker 2: And what's it like being on the same team, either
Speaker 2: again or for the first time with guys like Miles
Speaker 2: Straw and Racily Mentz and others.
Speaker 10: Yeah, I mean, these guys are awesome, and you know,
Speaker 10: it was so fun playing with them the first time around,
Speaker 10: and then as soon as we got them this offseason,
Speaker 10: it was it was really exciting. And uh, you know,
Speaker 10: they're they're they're playing good ball, man, They're they're helping
Speaker 10: us win, and uh, you know, it's it's it's cool
Speaker 10: to be back in Cleveland, for sure.
Speaker 2: Former Cleveland Indian Ernie Clement is joining us. And memories
Speaker 2: of your time growing up in this organization, what stands
Speaker 2: out to you.
Speaker 10: Just the people that are here in the organization have
Speaker 10: all positive things to say.
Speaker 8: I absolutely love my time here.
Speaker 10: You know, obviously I wish I could have could have
Speaker 10: helped the team and played a little better, but you know,
Speaker 10: I just I have no regrets. And I absolutely loved
Speaker 10: everybody I played with and and got to play for.
Speaker 10: And you know, staff and players were all just awesome.
Speaker 10: So it's it's always cool coming back, and uh, it
Speaker 10: holds a special place in my heart for sure.
Speaker 2: And when you look at your path, you had a
Speaker 2: couple of situations where you had to impress a new
Speaker 2: team and how did that make you a stronger player?
Speaker 2: You think down the road.
Speaker 10: Yeah, you really learn, you know, every stop you make
Speaker 10: you learn something new. And my time in Cleveland was
Speaker 10: was really special. And then you know, I got an opportunity,
Speaker 10: a brief opportunity in Oakland, and then you know I
Speaker 10: found my way here. So uh, you know, like I said,
Speaker 10: you learned something new along the way at each stop.
Speaker 10: But you know, I'm fortunate to have gotten another opportunity.
Speaker 2: Brief time in Oakland. And you had a moment with
Speaker 2: current Cleveland manager Steven Vote tell us about that on
Speaker 2: one of the big days for his career.
Speaker 10: Yeah, it's one of the coolest baseball moments I've seen,
Speaker 10: and I'm lucky I got to be there in person
Speaker 10: to watch it. He hit a home run and his
Speaker 10: his final career at bad and in the exact same
Speaker 10: spot where he hit his his first.
Speaker 8: Career home run.
Speaker 10: So I was on deck and I didn't really you know,
Speaker 10: I'd only been with those guys for a little while,
Speaker 10: so you know, I didn't really know him too well.
Speaker 10: But you know, I couldn't help but just give him
Speaker 10: a big hug when he when he crossed the home
Speaker 10: play because I just knew it was. It was such
Speaker 10: a cool moment for him, and you know, the brief
Speaker 10: time I got to spend with him, he's a special
Speaker 10: person and he's he's really good for the game at baseball.
Speaker 2: Are any great stuff? Great to see it again, Thank.
Speaker 8: You, yes, sir, good to see it.
Speaker 2: Always fun to catch up with Ernie Clement, one of
Speaker 2: the good guys in the game, and nice to see
Speaker 2: him having some big time success with the Blue Jays.
Speaker 2: Stay with us when we come back. We'll hear from
Speaker 2: Joe Torres, the Guardian's assistant pitching coach, that's next on
Speaker 2: the Cleveland Clinic Guardians Radio Network. Jim Rosanown's back with
Speaker 2: you from Progressive Field in downtown Cleveland where the Guardians
Speaker 2: are taking on the Cardinals this weekend. Wrapping up the
Speaker 2: homestand Joe Torres is one of the guardians assistant pitching
Speaker 2: coaches along with Brad Goldberg. They both do a great
Speaker 2: job supporting Carl Willis, the Guardians pitching coach, and the
Speaker 2: starting rotation has been really impressive for some time now
Speaker 2: getting better as the season goes along, and Torres talked
Speaker 2: about some of the keys just stringing together quality starts.
Speaker 11: You're right, things have gotten better, you know as a
Speaker 11: season gotte along here. But you know a lot of
Speaker 11: it's credits to the players and just the processes and
Speaker 11: behind the scenes work that they're doing. You know, where's
Speaker 11: a lot of communication going on, you know, post meetings,
Speaker 11: reviewing the games, going with purposes and intent into the
Speaker 11: bullpens and then translating that into the games. And we're
Speaker 11: seeing that happen more and more often. Guys are just
Speaker 11: working really, really hard. But you know we also have
Speaker 11: to remember, like these guys, a lot of them, it's
Speaker 11: like really their first full season as a starter with
Speaker 11: that's Ortiz.
Speaker 8: And Gavin Slade.
Speaker 11: So you know, these guys are really just learning the
Speaker 11: demands of like a turn you know, every five days,
Speaker 11: every six days, what they need to do to prepare themselves.
Speaker 8: And it seems like they're getting a better routine doing that.
Speaker 2: You mentioned that that post start meeting, it usually comes
Speaker 2: to the next day or or if there's an off day,
Speaker 2: a couple of days later. And so for instance, the
Speaker 2: slate Saconio had a really good one on Sunday. What
Speaker 2: are some of the things you touch on with him
Speaker 2: after a really good start.
Speaker 8: Like that, Well, I mean we use that meeting.
Speaker 11: It's a good opportunit for the player to kind of
Speaker 11: flush and bring out, you know, any thoughts and feelings
Speaker 11: they had from the game, good, bad and different, right,
Speaker 11: so they can go ahead and just you know, go
Speaker 11: ahead and share with us, like what they were thinking,
Speaker 11: what they were feeling, and then it gives us an
Speaker 11: opportunity also be able to you know, offer some feedback
Speaker 11: throughout the game. So you know, for a slave, for instance,
Speaker 11: I mean very efficient, getting a chance to use all
Speaker 11: his pitches. He's he's added a few pitches this year
Speaker 11: and little by little we're starting to see that mix
Speaker 11: go into the games. But really just he was really
Speaker 11: happy about the way pitch with the lead right, which
Speaker 11: can be different right when you're pitching with the lead
Speaker 11: or you're pitching behind. And and he did such a
Speaker 11: great job and worked well with Hegy, and you know,
Speaker 11: we just take those those opportunities to talk about, you know, sequences, delivery,
Speaker 11: anything we can to pull out the game.
Speaker 8: That we can use to go into the next bullpen.
Speaker 2: Used to be a starting pitcher, and there's a guy
Speaker 2: floating around here on the home stands mainly Corey Klueber.
Speaker 2: You could count on two hundred plus innings. That was important.
Speaker 2: It's probably still important, but it seems like the game
Speaker 2: is changing a little bit. And how do you manage
Speaker 2: as we get deeper into it now past the halfway
Speaker 2: point workload? And and is that two hundred inning mark
Speaker 2: Is that all that important anymore? Is it more maybe
Speaker 2: how you're getting to a certain level of innings.
Speaker 11: Yeah, it's it's hard to say like importance. If you
Speaker 11: ask me, it's important. I'm sure players feel like it's important,
Speaker 11: but we probably see that that number more around one
Speaker 11: eighty now across the league, especially, like you know, the
Speaker 11: way way things are seeing with the third time through
Speaker 11: tend to get some relievers in there. The games has
Speaker 11: changed a little bit, and that's fine because you know,
Speaker 11: look at our bullpen right, Like, who wouldn't want those
Speaker 11: guys in the game, right And I feel like a
Speaker 11: lot of teams probably feel similar. So you know, really
Speaker 11: about these guys just going out there and just getting
Speaker 11: us as deep as they can.
Speaker 8: They've done a tremendous job.
Speaker 11: I mean, our pitch counts, you know, up there with
Speaker 11: the league leaders in terms of our starters, you know,
Speaker 11: going deep into games.
Speaker 8: So it's it's been great. But you know, you got
Speaker 8: you gotta give a lot of.
Speaker 11: Credit to SNC and medical, to the routines that they're
Speaker 11: putting on these guys to help them, you know, work
Speaker 11: through the five days in between, the four days in
Speaker 11: between to prepare their bodies.
Speaker 2: Joined by Joe Torres, the Guardian's assistant pitching coach, switching
Speaker 2: to the bullpen. It's a group that had an unbelievable
Speaker 2: year a year ago, and I thought it was interesting
Speaker 2: we're talking earlier just about how no matter what, the
Speaker 2: personnel is going to change from year to year. But
Speaker 2: you do have four guys who are backing up a
Speaker 2: really good season a year ago with more of the
Speaker 2: same this year. And what are you seeing from those
Speaker 2: pitchers who work the seventy plus appearances a year ago
Speaker 2: in terms of how they're handling that from a year
Speaker 2: ago into this season.
Speaker 8: Truly have been very, very impressed by them.
Speaker 11: I mean, to handle seventy games in a season, I
Speaker 11: mean it takes a toll in the body, especially someone
Speaker 11: maybe like for kid who jumped from you know, thirty
Speaker 11: five forty appearances a year before in the minor leagues, right,
Speaker 11: and you see them coming back around again. Give credits
Speaker 11: s and c medical helping these guys, you know, with
Speaker 11: their bodies and their recovery.
Speaker 8: But you know they're they're learning, right, they're learning.
Speaker 11: How to how to back off their workloads and catch
Speaker 11: play a little bit more, you know, touch them out.
Speaker 8: A little bit less.
Speaker 11: You know, their their routines before the outing, let you know,
Speaker 11: bringing those pitch counts down a little bit in the bullpen.
Speaker 8: All those things matter.
Speaker 11: Every throw matters for these guys, and they're doing a
Speaker 11: tremendous job with that right now.
Speaker 2: And most of them you've worked with for several years
Speaker 2: a couple of new pitchers. Just as an example, Matt
Speaker 2: Fester joined the team after the season began. Kobe Allard
Speaker 2: was in spring training but new to the organization. How
Speaker 2: impressed have you been with what they've been able to
Speaker 2: do in a short period of time to get acclimated
Speaker 2: to what Cleveland likes to do with their pitching.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean that's a good point.
Speaker 11: I mean them coming into a new situation, especially Festa
Speaker 11: kind of jumped in middle season here as we claim
Speaker 11: them from uh, you know, from the minor leagues.
Speaker 8: We had it out there. They've been tremendous. I mean
Speaker 8: they've come in.
Speaker 11: What's been great about them is they've come in they've
Speaker 11: been themselves and we've tried to support that as much
Speaker 11: as possible. You know, don't come in here and try
Speaker 11: to be more than who you are. And then little
Speaker 11: by little we can, you know, help them grow in
Speaker 11: any way that they feel like they need to or
Speaker 11: if we see fit. But uh, you know, they've been great,
Speaker 11: and the number one thing they've done is they thrown shrikes.
Speaker 11: They've come in right away thrown shrikes and that's helped
Speaker 11: a lot when at times where we need maybe some
Speaker 11: length from Colby or a situation where you know, Matt
Speaker 11: comes in and punch his guy out in three or
Speaker 11: four pitches.
Speaker 8: Like, it's been pretty impressive and it's been great to have.
Speaker 2: Him and the guy at the end of games. A
Speaker 2: manual class A a year for the ages a year ago. Uh,
Speaker 2: what are you seeing from him this year? As the
Speaker 2: numbers look a little bit different, but maybe the numbers
Speaker 2: that we don't see that that say, hey, he's still
Speaker 2: as dominant as they come.
Speaker 11: Oh yeah, absolutely, I mean still you can look up
Speaker 11: every night it's still nine to nine to one hundred, right.
Speaker 11: So you know, early in the season and he was
Speaker 11: dealing with a little bit of shoulder, you know, fatigue,
Speaker 11: and then and he was able to kind of get
Speaker 11: through that and and once we got to April, kind
Speaker 11: of look at the month of May and I'm not
Speaker 11: sure if you get up a run. He might have
Speaker 11: given up one run in May and been pretty solid.
Speaker 11: So it's like, you know, to expect what do you had?
Speaker 11: What you saw last year from anybody would be kind
Speaker 11: of crazy, but it's on amost like we come to
Speaker 11: expect that from him because he's almost superhuman.
Speaker 8: In some ways from the year to year.
Speaker 11: The amount of appearances that he's put out there and
Speaker 11: the numbers he's put out there, he's super impressive. And
Speaker 11: once again, like you know, he's going to continue to
Speaker 11: work and find ways to get better, and that's what
Speaker 11: he's doing this year.
Speaker 2: Joe as always thanks for the time.
Speaker 8: Appreciate it. Yeah, sure things, appreciate it.
Speaker 2: That's Joe Torres, the Guardian's assistant pitching coach, and always
Speaker 2: thank him for his time. Some good thoughts on what's
Speaker 2: been happening, both in the starting rotation and the bullpen.
Speaker 2: Stay with us. We'll have our final segment of Guardians
Speaker 2: Weekly after this time out the Cleveland Clinic Guardians Radio Network.
Speaker 12: As a fan, you know all the important sports cliches.
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Speaker 2: Welcome back to Guardians Weekly, Jim rosen House along with
Speaker 2: you from Progressive Field in downtown Cleveland, and every now
Speaker 2: and again we like to catch up with Guardian's Senior
Speaker 2: Vice President Bob D Biassio and see who he has
Speaker 2: caught up with in another edition of At the Ballpark
Speaker 2: with Bobby D. This time around it's Cy Young Award
Speaker 2: winner Rick Suckcliffe.
Speaker 1: The perfectly manicured field, the unmistakable aroma of a ballpark
Speaker 1: hot dog, and the electricity celebrating another victory.
Speaker 2: This is at the Ballpark with Bobby D.
Speaker 13: Thank you, Hammy, Well them to at the Ballpark, where
Speaker 13: we hope you enjoy our conversations with those involved in
Speaker 13: the great game of baseball. Those who may have been
Speaker 13: behind the scenes are the colorful personalities who have provided
Speaker 13: so many exciting moments and memories. Today we are joined
Speaker 13: by one of my all time favorites, a former number
Speaker 13: one draft pick.
Speaker 14: With the Los Angeles Dodgers, a.
Speaker 13: Three time All Star Cy Young Award winner and a
Speaker 13: Roberto Clemente Award winner.
Speaker 14: Mister Rick Sudcliffe sut thank you for taking the time
Speaker 14: to be with.
Speaker 7: Us, Bobby. There's not enough time in today for me
Speaker 7: to catch up with you on all the great things.
Speaker 7: And I mean seriously, just hearing your voice it takes
Speaker 7: me back to how much we love Cleveland. What a
Speaker 7: beautiful city it was. Our daughter was born when I
Speaker 7: was playing for the Indians. Bobby, when when I hear
Speaker 7: your voice, I literally think of Jimmy Warfield. I think
Speaker 7: of Dave Garcia, I think of Mike Cargo. We'b Blilevi
Speaker 7: and Andre Thornton. Right now I'm thanking to Joe Charbonneau
Speaker 7: and how crazy he was. That clubhouse in nineteen eighty
Speaker 7: two was a lot like the clubhouse in the movie
Speaker 7: Major League. And Bobby, you know it well.
Speaker 13: Yes and day you're too kind and we've stayed friends
Speaker 13: all this time, and you were in Cleveland just two
Speaker 13: years and a half. Some memorable moments and we'll get
Speaker 13: to that in a little bit, but we might as
Speaker 13: well start at the beginning. You're a number one draft pick,
Speaker 13: of the Dodgers in nineteen seventy four, twenty first overall
Speaker 13: out of high school and Independence, Missouri. Share that experience
Speaker 13: with us.
Speaker 7: You know, the story that comes to mind, Bobby is
Speaker 7: I thought the worst day of my life. I'm eleven
Speaker 7: years old and my dad leaves our family. My dad
Speaker 7: did not like sports, so we didn't play. And it
Speaker 7: turns out that we were put up for adoption. My
Speaker 7: brother and sister and I and my grandpa on my
Speaker 7: mind said no, that's not going to happen. He took
Speaker 7: us in. He came out of retirement, he went back
Speaker 7: to work. He loved sports. He had my mom and
Speaker 7: my aunt. You know, he didn't have a boy to raise,
Speaker 7: so all of a sudden, now he's got two of them.
Speaker 7: And he told me one rule, he said, the one thing.
Speaker 7: You can play all the sports you want, but you
Speaker 7: got to get good grades. Well, Bobby, you talk about
Speaker 7: me being the number one pick. My freshman year in
Speaker 7: high school, came home with a bad report card. My
Speaker 7: grandpa didn't let me play in the championship game and
Speaker 7: we lost. And there's not a doubt in my mind
Speaker 7: we would have won if I could have played. But
Speaker 7: he taught me a lesson. So fast forward to as
Speaker 7: you mentioned, I was the number one pick by the Dodgers, Bobby.
Speaker 7: They come to our house, you know, they offered me
Speaker 7: a bonus, and they offered me my education and my
Speaker 7: brother's education and sell that. And I asked him, I said,
Speaker 7: to everybody in the country, why was I your number
Speaker 7: one pick? And they go, that's a great question, Rick.
Speaker 7: The reason you scouted out like a lot of other people.
Speaker 7: But the reason you stood out was because of your
Speaker 7: grade point average. And I'm like, well, why does that matter?
Speaker 7: And I said, what if I if I love baseball
Speaker 7: but I hate math. They go, we don't know, Bobby.
Speaker 7: The only scenario they had to compare me as a
Speaker 7: player getting better by listening to a coach was me
Speaker 7: as a student. And whether I listened to my teacher
Speaker 7: or not. Go back to the day my grandpa made
Speaker 7: me miss that football game. It wouldn't have happened without
Speaker 7: him being firm about it. And I ended up with
Speaker 7: a great, great point average, and I wasn't going to
Speaker 7: play baseball in college. I wanted to play football, and
Speaker 7: that great point average kind of took me away from
Speaker 7: my dream of playing football, and end of the career
Speaker 7: that I should have been in all along.
Speaker 13: Well, you're a six seven, six eight two fifteen to twenty five.
Speaker 14: What position did you play in football?
Speaker 7: Well, you know, like everybody else back in the day,
Speaker 7: I never left the field. I was a quarterback. That's
Speaker 7: what I got recruited at. I was able, mentioned All
Speaker 7: American blah blah blah, got recruited all around the country. Oh,
Speaker 7: I could throw it, but hey, we weren't going to
Speaker 7: run the wishbone.
Speaker 14: You know that, I love it.
Speaker 13: You're drafted in junea seventy four, and quickly you're in
Speaker 13: the big leagues in nineteen seventy six, and you pitch
Speaker 13: one game in a September or five innings only what
Speaker 13: two hits, no runs allowed?
Speaker 7: Bobby. The funny part about that story was I get
Speaker 7: called up in September from Double A. I go from
Speaker 7: you know, maybe two hundred people on a Friday night
Speaker 7: in Waterbury, Connecticut, to Dodger Stadium and Walter Austin retired
Speaker 7: with four games to go in the season nineteen seventy six.
Speaker 7: He told Tommy, you're running the team. But the only
Speaker 7: thing I'm telling you is I want the kid to
Speaker 7: be the starting pitcher. So Bobby, I'm the starting pitcher.
Speaker 7: I had probably ten complete games in Double A. I mean,
Speaker 7: that's what we did. Sandy Kofax taught me that a
Speaker 7: quality start was at the end of the game, when
Speaker 7: you shoot the catcher's hand. I mean, that's what it's
Speaker 7: all about. Well, here we are, you said, I only
Speaker 7: went five inning, nothing and nothing. Bottom of the fifth
Speaker 7: man on third, one out, I walked the home plate
Speaker 7: to hit. All of a sudden, I hear the crowd
Speaker 7: yelling everything. The youmpire says, hey, your manager wants you.
Speaker 7: I turned around. Losorda is waving me back, and he goes,
Speaker 7: we're gonna pitch it for you, Bobby. I looked at him.
Speaker 7: I said, you gotta be me. I had just seart
Speaker 7: twenty years old. I spent the next oh. I spent
Speaker 7: the next hour after the game in Lasorda's office, just
Speaker 7: getting aired out about it. But that's the reason I
Speaker 7: only went five innings that night.
Speaker 14: Oh my, I.
Speaker 13: Love it so Oddly, you don't get called back up
Speaker 13: to the Biggs in seventy seven, and you only pitch
Speaker 13: one and two thirds innings or so in seventy eight,
Speaker 13: so you're not in the big leagues. In seventy seven,
Speaker 13: you pitch it an inning in two thirds and seventy eight,
Speaker 13: and then you go in seventy nine and you pitch
Speaker 13: two hundred forty three innings. About that big league it's
Speaker 13: like when you look at those kinds the numbers, and
Speaker 13: think you go from one and two thirds at as
Speaker 13: to two hundred and forty three at as.
Speaker 14: You win Rookie of the Year, you have thirty nine games,
Speaker 14: thirty starts. It's amazing.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I tell you I got hurt opening Day in
Speaker 7: nineteen seventy seven in Triple A. About a week later
Speaker 7: they sent me to see Frank Job and he told
Speaker 7: me I had a torn rotator cut. I was gonna
Speaker 7: have surgery the next day. My longtime agent and great friend,
Speaker 7: you know, you knew very action rod Well. We lost
Speaker 7: him a year ago. He was there representing another kid
Speaker 7: and as we came out, he says, how are you
Speaker 7: getting back to the hotel? I said, I'm waiting on
Speaker 7: a cab. He goes, I'll drive you back. He worked
Speaker 7: in the athletic department at UCLA. He said, nobody's ever
Speaker 7: come back from that surgery. He says, I've did some
Speaker 7: research on it. He goes, you can probably go back
Speaker 7: and play college football or basketball. I go, what do
Speaker 7: you tell me? He goes, If I were you, I
Speaker 7: wouldn't have that surgery.
Speaker 14: Wow.
Speaker 7: The other kid that he was there representing had the
Speaker 7: surgery never played again. I didn't get it done. The
Speaker 7: Dodgers were livid. They were mad at me. I barely
Speaker 7: pitched it all. In seventy seven, I get the spring training.
Speaker 7: I got to pitch well to make the Triple A staff,
Speaker 7: but we end up winning the championship that year. I
Speaker 7: got called up, as you said, for an inning or
Speaker 7: so at the end of it. I had to make
Speaker 7: the club out of spring training. In nineteen seventy nine,
Speaker 7: I do that. I'm in the bullpen. It's middle of May.
Speaker 7: We're facing the Phillies on a Monday night, and Steve Carlton,
Speaker 7: I'm not gonna mention his name, but one of our
Speaker 7: veteran pitchers called in and he had the twenty four
Speaker 7: hour flu. He wasn't able to face lefty, but he
Speaker 7: was good to go the next night against Dick Ruthman. Okay,
Speaker 7: so I get a start. Now, you would think with
Speaker 7: only like four or five innings that you know they would,
Speaker 7: I'd have a pitch count right, No, you can look.
Speaker 7: I went nine innings. Of course I gave up a
Speaker 7: home run to Mike Schmid, but after beating the Phillies
Speaker 7: and Lefty, all of a sudden Losorda had to put
Speaker 7: me back out there again. And our pitching coach, Read Adams,
Speaker 7: who I owed the world to, when he handed me
Speaker 7: the baseball, he goes, don't let him take it away
Speaker 7: from you, And as you know, eighteen years later, I
Speaker 7: was still holding it.
Speaker 14: Unbelievable.
Speaker 13: Yeah, your career you started at twenty ended up thirty
Speaker 13: eight years old when you hung up the spikes real
Speaker 13: quickly on your twenty three nineteen seventy nine. You have
Speaker 13: all these great accolades, Rookie of the Year, but you
Speaker 13: had Don Sutton's what thirty nine, Bert Houghton and Jerry
Speaker 13: Royce are thirty year a twenty three year old kid
Speaker 13: joining that team of Steve Garvey and Davy Lows and
Speaker 13: Roby and Dusty Baker some household.
Speaker 7: Now, real quickly, you know they weren't as good to
Speaker 7: me as Burt Blevin and Mike Hargrove and Andre Thornton
Speaker 7: were those guys all kind of hunger theirselves other than
Speaker 7: one person, and that was Dusty Baker. And Dusty Baker
Speaker 7: was a game changer. He would tell me when a
Speaker 7: hitter was too comfortable. I mean, he just guided me
Speaker 7: through that Rookie year, and you know those three years
Speaker 7: in LA We went to Rookie of the Year in
Speaker 7: seventy nine. I tell you the funny story. We win
Speaker 7: the World Series in eighty one, but I didn't pitch
Speaker 7: in the World Series because I had rearranged Tommy Lasorda's
Speaker 7: office with him in it. Long story short.
Speaker 14: Well, the play the spaghetti is the story City. Oh yes, right.
Speaker 7: I can't remember the day, but I know exactly the scenario. Bobby.
Speaker 7: I live in Kansas City. We don't have a garage
Speaker 7: or snow on the ground. I walk out to the
Speaker 7: mailbox and I open it and there's a World Series
Speaker 7: ring with a full share World Series check like fifty
Speaker 7: five thousand dollars. I figured, after what I did to Lasoria,
Speaker 7: I wasn't gonna get anything. We got everything. You know
Speaker 7: what happened the next day, Bobby, I got a call
Speaker 7: from Dave Garcia telling me that I had been traded
Speaker 7: to the Cleveland Indian. It happened in twenty four hours.
Speaker 7: I literally I'm talking to Dave and I'm like, okay,
Speaker 7: great man. He goes, hey, but I noticed something. Your
Speaker 7: rookie year, you weighed two hundred and fifteen. I had
Speaker 7: just weighed myself that morning. I was like two thirty five.
Speaker 7: He goes, when you come to camp, I expect you
Speaker 7: to be at two fifteen. Oh, well, you know what,
Speaker 7: I started running. I started running two three times a day.
Speaker 7: I showed up at two hundred and ten pounds, and
Speaker 7: as you know, things worked out pretty well once I
Speaker 7: put on that Indian uniform.
Speaker 14: Absolutely wasn't Dave Garcia the most beautiful.
Speaker 7: Man, nicest human being I ever met?
Speaker 13: Yeah, unfortunately we've run a time, but stay tuned for
Speaker 13: part two of our conversation with rig Sudcliffe and his.
Speaker 14: Time in Cleveland. I'm at the ballpark. I'm the Cleveland
Speaker 14: Guardians Radio Network.
Speaker 2: That's Bobby d at the ballpark, and that's going to
Speaker 2: do it for this week's edition of Guardians Weekly. Thanks
Speaker 2: so much for tuning in. As always, we'll catch you
Speaker 2: next week when the team is right back here at
Speaker 2: home taking on the Detroit Tigers. In a huge July
Speaker 2: fourth weekend series. Until then for Brian Maze who always
Speaker 2: helps putting together our show each and every week. This
Speaker 2: is Jim Rosenhouse reminding you that you've been listening to
Speaker 2: Guardians Weekly on the Cleveland Clinic Guardians Radio Network.
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