Rookie Nick Kurtz on A’s trades, Game of his LIFE, Journey to Bigs

00:00:03
Speaker 1: Hey, we're excited to have A's rookie Nick Kurtz joining the show right now. Nick, great to have you on here. Congrats on a great year so far. Still work to do. First off, want to say hello, and do you feel like a rookie because you don't look like a rookie, dude, but do you feel like a rookie in the bigs?

00:00:19
Speaker 2: Yeah?

00:00:19
Speaker 3: I still think there's a little bit more time for me to feel this way, but not for too much longer.

00:00:24
Speaker 2: I hope.

00:00:26
Speaker 1: Okay, good, good, Well, I want to start here just because it's fresh. How was the trade deadline? You're someone that comes in as a rookie, obviously you don't have to be worried about being traded, but how is it just to be amongst you know, players over the last few days, are people checking their phones just to see what's going on because every team makes a trade at the deadline, so somebody in the clubhouse is going to be hugging their teammates goodbye.

00:00:49
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was weird.

00:00:50
Speaker 3: You know, this is the first time I've kind of experienced the trade deadline at all, and then let alone in the big leagues, So seeing that kind of go down, seeing the moves made and then you know, seeing Mason JP and Meggi goh, it hurts to see. But at the end of the day, we know it's a business, so we all understand it. But there's a great guys and you know we wish them the best.

00:01:11
Speaker 5: Nick How does it feel? I have two questions for you.

00:01:13
Speaker 6: First one, how does it feel to be the second most amish guy on a show?

00:01:18
Speaker 5: Okay from Lancaster.

00:01:20
Speaker 6: Right, you have the nickname big Amish, but the guy with his hat on backwards, the other guy in his hat on backwards, is actually amish. So how does it feel even though your nickname is big Amish, Crats is actually the one that has done the churning of the butter and building the barn with his bare hands and all that stuff.

00:01:39
Speaker 2: So this might be the.

00:01:39
Speaker 6: First time in your life you're the second most amish person on anything you've ever done.

00:01:45
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's that's definitely a new one. I haven't really met anyone else since I've left Lancaster who kind of knows about it or has been around it for a little bit. So it's cool at the same time.

00:01:55
Speaker 2: Nice nice. We always try to We always try to get the we always try to get the facts right. Where did you grow up in Lancaster?

00:02:03
Speaker 3: So it was right in Leancster County, it was. I was like five minutes from Littitz and then in Lancster County went to manhatt township in school district area.

00:02:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, so you went to Mannheim. First of all, I'm not Amish. Second of all, AJ looks more homish than both of us. Thirdly, we know AJ is turning tons of butter and Mannheim is not amish. So there's that. That's not how it churned butter.

00:02:34
Speaker 6: Now that we got the facts straight, now I have to ask him the real question. How does it feel as a rookie to have the greatest game You're going to have your career six for six almost five homers. Missed it by a foot, like this was one of the greatest. I said, it was the greatest game I've ever seen by a hitter. So you in your rookie year had I mean, if you can top this game, I will salute you for the rest of my life. But you six for six, four homers, like six runs RBIs everything.

00:02:59
Speaker 5: The greatest game of all time was in your rookie year.

00:03:01
Speaker 4: Congratulations, Yeah, thank you.

00:03:04
Speaker 3: It's God, it's still when people say that, it doesn't really still feel real.

00:03:08
Speaker 4: That kind of actually did it.

00:03:08
Speaker 3: It was a weird feeling throughout the whole game that you know, it just kind of kept happening, kept getting hits. You know, I feel like a lot of luck has to go into a game like that, and you know, it all kind of came together.

00:03:20
Speaker 4: But thank you, Yeah, luck, what luck?

00:03:24
Speaker 2: There ain't no luck, dude. You got six sits.

00:03:26
Speaker 5: And four homers in this ball right here.

00:03:29
Speaker 2: You missed the other one.

00:03:30
Speaker 6: You missed by like a foot where You're like, dude, if you would have got five homers, think about you'd be going to cooperstowne right, your hat, your helmet, your bat, your spikes.

00:03:38
Speaker 7: I think it already did some of this stuff.

00:03:40
Speaker 8: I'm sure it probably did. But like, dude, that's not luck. That's like the greatest game I've ever seen. If I could have got six sits.

00:03:46
Speaker 6: In a game ship for hopea kits, it for crats, that's a month's worth of hits.

00:03:51
Speaker 8: I mean, six hits in a game, I'd barely got six and bats in the game.

00:03:56
Speaker 3: Yeah, I guess maybe in a little bit LESSU but they still got throw it where you look, and you said, I got to make good swings on it. But when things are going good, you know they're going good. So that's kind of the way baseball works in my opinion. The ups and down, seeps and flows and all kind of I don't just happened in one game.

00:04:13
Speaker 2: Yeah I don't. I don't get six hits in VP. But the real questions, now, okay, we got to ask the really tough questions. What's tougher the big leagues or the ACC?

00:04:25
Speaker 4: The big leagues for sure?

00:04:27
Speaker 2: Yeah you sure? Are you sure? Because I mean we're kind of seeing like we kind of asked this question with Paul Skins, like the SEC his era was worse in the SEC than it was than it is in the big leagues. You were just in college. You didn't play in the minor leagues, and you talk like you came on and you were talking about You're like, yeah, you know, it's just it's luck. Some of this is all this stuff was the ACC. Was the schedule you played in college and the development you had in college able to put you in this situation or you just the freak from Lancaster.

00:05:06
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I think the coaching staff and kind of the adjustments I've made in college kind of helped me get to you know, the high draft pick and stuff like that.

00:05:14
Speaker 5: What was it like playing for Tom Walter?

00:05:15
Speaker 2: I know him.

00:05:16
Speaker 6: He's a great guy. So he's he's he's awesome, He's developed a great program. So what is he like playing for Tom Walter at Wake Forest.

00:05:24
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's awesome. You know, like you said, great guy. He's done so much stuff in the past.

00:05:28
Speaker 3: You know, donated you know when I first committed there, right after he donated the kidney to the to the player, and after seeing that's kind of the kind of person he is. He cares about you more of a human being than just a baseball player. So that was really what brought me to Wake and then playing for him for three years was you know, he kind of showed that every single day, so it was awesome.

00:05:50
Speaker 1: So your last season in college ball, I think, did you have.

00:05:58
Speaker 7: Did you have an injury early in the season.

00:06:01
Speaker 4: Yeah, I struggled early and then got hurt for like two weeks, was out and then.

00:06:06
Speaker 1: Came back okay, and then you raked. I mean you were like, I think, yeah, I'm looking at some of the numbers insane. So the point is when you got drafted fourth overall, are you one of those guys it's like, great, I'm going to the d a as I'm happy. Or did you look back, like to the first three teams? Are you sure? Are you sure?

00:06:25
Speaker 5: You know?

00:06:25
Speaker 1: Like there's even some guys I think Bregman right whears number two because he wasn't number one overall? Did you have that mentality at all in your brain? Like, hey, I felt like I was the best hitter in college baseball and three other teams didn't feel that way.

00:06:38
Speaker 3: Apparently not really, you know, I did feel like I was the best bat to come out of that class, but I didn't really show it. My junior year started off really struggled really early on, and kind of like at that point, I kind of told myself, this is, you know, the days where we're supposed to go. Everything's met for a reason. Maybe I would be up in the big leagues for lentil one, two or three year, whatever happened. So I kind of just put on perspective and this.

00:07:03
Speaker 4: Is what it was meant to be.

00:07:05
Speaker 5: Dude, you had a twelve hundred ops your junior year, almost.

00:07:08
Speaker 7: Thirteen twenty two homers.

00:07:11
Speaker 6: I mean, it wasn't that big of a struggle bus you were on. I mean, jeez, I mean you only hit three zh six Sorry, but your slug was seven sixty three.

00:07:19
Speaker 5: Like what kind of struggle bus were you on? Like you have unreal expectations if that's what you're looking for.

00:07:24
Speaker 7: And he led the he led NTAA and walks too.

00:07:26
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, this is we're talking Barry bondstep.

00:07:29
Speaker 3: So when I got back from the injury, then I was really good and so but before that, that's kind of when I went on a real, real heater. And after I got back and I hit like fourteen homers in ten games and something like that. So fourteen of twenty two homers were in ten games.

00:07:43
Speaker 4: That's kind of what I mean, a little bit of a struggle.

00:07:47
Speaker 7: That's a heater, for real, that is a real heater.

00:07:49
Speaker 2: You're so you're sitting there, you're sitting there right now, and you're essentially taking Jacob's Rookie of the Year award away from here. Have you mentioned it when you get on the front of the bus when the two of you have to sing a duo.

00:08:07
Speaker 3: No, we have not. We haven't talked about much. A lot of people ask. You know, he's going through some stuff. He's got a little injury right now, so he's on the aisle. But I know when he gets back, he'll make another run for it, kind of like I did. So it'll be fun battling out for the rest of the year. I mean, whoever gets it gets it's it's a great reward. It'll most likely be an a which is really cool.

00:08:27
Speaker 2: What have you seen in the big leagues in the sense that everyone says, well, anybody can get hot in the big leagues, and I'm not going to say you're hot. I'm gonna say you're just good and you can really hit. What have you seen them making adjustments that you've now had to make adjustments because I know Jacob went through a little bit of a slump here because of the trying to play through the fractured forearm. But what adjustments have you seen the league make against you that you've been like, I'll counter that and make this adjustment.

00:08:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's been a few. When I first got up, it was, you know, a lot of soft splitter change up away. Then I kind of make an adjustment towards that, and then they threw a little bit more heaters and then I had to make adjustment to that, and then they kind of went all the way and then they kind of make adjustment at that and the kind of they're coming in now and trying to go up and get me to chase and chase in. So it's kind of the you know, I think it's a game throughout the entire time. You got to figure out what they're trying to do to you that weekend or that series, and then you got to come with the game plan to you know, not steer away from what you do best, but kind of combat what they do.

00:09:34
Speaker 1: How does that process work for you in the big leagues because obviously you're new to everything. You're a rookie this season. You know, are you getting information from the coaching staff? Is it from the front office, like what's your process? Who comes up to you and says, hey, I mean obviously you see it in the game too, but hey, this is what this is how everyone's attacking right now, This is what you should do?

00:09:54
Speaker 7: Or is it most of what you're just observing yourself in your.

00:09:57
Speaker 4: Abs a little bit?

00:10:00
Speaker 3: Both are hitting our hitting coach Darren Bush, you know, we kind of come up with a plane before the game, and then we kind of use the first set bat and they kind of use that as a baseline what we think they're going to do, how to go, what do they get you with? And then just what's been working against me recently. Kind of bringing all that together kind of comes with a good game plan of what they're going to try to do, and then we just use our pre game stuff and pre work to kind of combat that.

00:10:24
Speaker 4: You know, what they're gonna do.

00:10:27
Speaker 2: All right, Well, we can see that baseball is easy for you. So what do you do off the field? What's your thing? Are you a gamer? You a hunter? Some of the guys wanted to ask if you were a butter churner or not, but I don't. I don't want to hit that.

00:10:44
Speaker 5: So cow milker milk, I don't know.

00:10:48
Speaker 2: Hey, aj aj milk chickens. So there's that.

00:10:53
Speaker 7: I have.

00:10:58
Speaker 4: A big gamer.

00:10:59
Speaker 3: That's what I spend most of my time doing off the field, and they all season I'll venture out to a little bit more stuff. But while I'm outside on the field on my legs a lot during the season, there's a lot of gaming going on.

00:11:11
Speaker 2: All right, What are you into? What you what's on the stad?

00:11:15
Speaker 3: Mostly Call of Duty? That's kind of the game I play. I've been playing a.

00:11:18
Speaker 4: New game recently. It's called Ready or Not, which has been fun.

00:11:21
Speaker 3: It's like you and your friends like are on a swat team and you got to go to like dude missions and stuff like that, which has been fun.

00:11:28
Speaker 4: But mostly those two.

00:11:31
Speaker 6: All right, So you're playing Call of Duty and Ready or Not? Like I played Call of Duty back when it was like so calm Navy Seals Call of Duty, like way back like twenty plus years ago.

00:11:40
Speaker 5: What number are they on now?

00:11:41
Speaker 6: Because this was like the first one was and it was the coolest thing ever because you know, you played as a team. You had your head set on there's a twelve year old and you're like, I'm Nick Kurtz. I had six it to the game. You can't kill me a little little kid, right, you're talking trash to them.

00:11:55
Speaker 5: So like, what number are they on now?

00:11:58
Speaker 3: So Black Op seven is coming out in a couple of months, So that's that's a lot.

00:12:03
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's not like the older games for sure. It's gotten way different.

00:12:09
Speaker 5: Like what are to explain to us old us, old folk?

00:12:12
Speaker 3: So no, I think like The biggest part of the game is like you know, the Battle Riale, which is like the's called war Zone, so it's kind of they kind of used like the Fortnite what they did and then put it made it called Duty version out of it. And it also came out around twenty twenty COVID, so that's when it got really big as well.

00:12:31
Speaker 2: You get noticed when you go out in Sacramento. Do you get noticed? Are they like, dang that guy played on the Kings?

00:12:42
Speaker 3: Not really, honestly, not really and Tahoe over all Star Break we got noticed by a few guys, a few people, but no, we just got back. We were on the road all after all Star Breaking. That's when the kind of took off. So maybe a little bit more here in the future, but not so much now. I like that like it that way for sure.

00:13:03
Speaker 7: Yeah, a little profile. You can do your thing, live your life.

00:13:06
Speaker 1: But on the celeb side, you know, AJ and sometimes Kratz really love name dropping. Kratz actually said he was texting with the GM this morning. A had some famous friends, So what do you have for us? After the huge performance the for Homer six hit game, who was the most famous person that reached out to you.

00:13:27
Speaker 3: I think the most famous was Barstool Big Kent reached out and then I've known. I've talked to Paul Goldsmith a few and the you know a few years in the past when a guarding agencies and heard from him as well.

00:13:44
Speaker 6: All right, Nick, I have to tell you a story. So Big Cat he's in Chicago. He's based in Chicago. Okay, we did the NASCAR race in Chicago last year. Big Cat was next to me. White Sox Dave is a barstool guy, right, So White Dave's taking me around, introduced me to all those people, and everybody wanted to make sure with Big Cat. I had and I literally looked at White Sox Dave and I said, who the hell is this guy? And They're like, you don't know Big Cat. And I'm like, oh, I've heard of him.

00:14:08
Speaker 5: They're like, there, come meet him. He was great, But I had no I had no idea.

00:14:12
Speaker 6: I know Portnoy obviously, and I knew White Sox Dave and Meghan and all the other people they have, but Big Cat, I.

00:14:18
Speaker 5: Had no idea who he was.

00:14:19
Speaker 7: I could not identify.

00:14:20
Speaker 6: I could have never So that's cool that he reached out to did he want you on his podcast or anything.

00:14:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, we might do something in the future, but it was more just yeah, exchanging phone numbers, saying what's.

00:14:30
Speaker 5: Up, how do you get your number? How do you get your number?

00:14:33
Speaker 3: Something with my agency, they have a contact with him and they kind of connected us.

00:14:39
Speaker 2: Got it.

00:14:39
Speaker 4: Be sure how that went down? Just kinda happen.

00:14:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right. I'm always I'm always looking for I'm always looking for unique things to do with the home run derby, do you think they should have a rookie who whatever rookie is leading leading the league in home runs? Or would you do it next year if they asked you.

00:15:01
Speaker 3: I probably would, just because it's in Philly and that's kind of closest to home so that's that'd.

00:15:07
Speaker 4: Be pretty cool. And I mean, after watching rook too and talking to Ruck about it, he said it was so much fun. So I'd enjoyed doing that. I think. Yeah.

00:15:18
Speaker 5: Nice.

00:15:18
Speaker 6: All right, last one before we go, I asked him, I asked your manager. I played with your manager. Okay, so I've known your manager for a really long time, Mark Kott say, and I asked him in spring training why he takes his hat. I'm not gonna do it to my hat. I'm gonna try and find another hat that I can ruin. I'm gonna take this one off. And why does he have his hat? Why does he take his hat and he bend it like this? If you ever asked Mark Cott say why he bends his hat so much? Because I asked him in spring training and he said, I didn't realize i'd do it. But instead of the flat brimmer like all your young kids, like, he's got the old school. Remember the Japan team that would always come to the Little League World Series and every hat would be like this.

00:15:52
Speaker 5: That's Mark Kotsay host.

00:15:56
Speaker 3: He never really mentioned it until you said that, and it's like all I can see now I'll have to ask him today.

00:16:04
Speaker 4: Well he doesn't. This is very true.

00:16:05
Speaker 6: Yeah, Remember I asked him in spring training.

00:16:10
Speaker 5: He didn't really have an answer.

00:16:11
Speaker 7: It's just it's almost like a you know, fidget spinner. It's like something you do. You just keep doing this right?

00:16:18
Speaker 2: Yeah?

00:16:19
Speaker 7: Interesting? Well, Nick, this was awesome man, Hope you had fun. Great to have you on. Keep crushing it really fun watching you play this year.

00:16:26
Speaker 4: Awesome, Thank you guys,