Marlins RP Pete Fairbanks joins FT + Gary DiSarcina discusses Anthony Rendon on Halo Territory

00:00:07
Speaker 1: Oh, here we go.

00:00:08
Speaker 2: Pete Fairbanks joining us right now, heading into the big opening weekend for the Marlins. They'll face the Rockies.

00:00:14
Speaker 3: Pete.

00:00:14
Speaker 2: Great to have you on, dude. What's the excitement level and the weirdness level for you to be doing this with a different team.

00:00:21
Speaker 3: It's a little it's a little different.

00:00:22
Speaker 4: You know, you spend what six opening days in Navy blue and now it's changed a little bit.

00:00:28
Speaker 3: But you know, the vibes are high.

00:00:30
Speaker 4: Everybody's seeming to have a great time, and my personal excitement level it's through the roof.

00:00:36
Speaker 3: After hearing AJ's HelloFresh ad read, I'm just.

00:00:40
Speaker 4: Blown away by his ability to convey emotion through those words.

00:00:46
Speaker 1: That makes you hungry?

00:00:48
Speaker 5: Yeah, I was gonna say. It definitely makes you want to go home and make a meal, doesn't it.

00:00:53
Speaker 3: Nothing says try a new recipe like that? Like that read? It was unbelievable.

00:01:00
Speaker 5: All right, So what is most exciting about your opening day with this team? Is it the fact that you know how to say Sandy's last name? Or is it the fact that you are out there in a bullpen, sitting there going I'm.

00:01:13
Speaker 1: Gonna get in this game.

00:01:15
Speaker 5: I want to kind of see I want to kind of see Phillips getting this game and punch himself in the face.

00:01:23
Speaker 4: Oh man, you know, I try to divert my eyes whenever he starts inflicting self harm.

00:01:31
Speaker 3: But you know, people got to do what they gotta do. I suppose.

00:01:34
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm excited. Really, you know, it's the over the over and like arcing, just the vibes of it. You know, you got a new season start, and thankfully somebody realized that if you have a dome, you don't have to play on Thursday and then have a Friday off day. So I think that that's just you know, propelling us with all these good decisions to an opening day.

00:01:56
Speaker 2: There you go, Hey, did you follow the Raised game yesterday? Like did you watch any of it? And then, of course, do you think during the year you'll keep track of the race based on your history with them and your friends?

00:02:10
Speaker 1: Like, how does that go?

00:02:12
Speaker 3: Yeah? I think in general you track where you're what your buddies are doing.

00:02:16
Speaker 4: If you play for guys for a while, you know you're don't want to see see how they're doing. Obviously, Rass made his first opening day start, so I felt like I was I was going to check into that one regardless. But yeah, like if Jay's throwing in out in San Diego, or you got guys throughout the league whenever, like spring starts, you know, stuff like that, You're always checking in maybe maybe watching it ining or two see how things are going.

00:02:39
Speaker 6: I know when I when I first played, I set goals aside and I would send a letter to my brothers. Is there anything goals wise that you're expecting out of yourself right now? Is there something that you do before the season starts that nobody would ever expect or is it just put my glove on, put my socks on the same way, and get out there and see what I can do.

00:02:59
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think, you know, you always have benchmarks that you want to hit, right in terms of you know, the obvious ones with the counting stats, right, you want to hit your counting stat goals.

00:03:11
Speaker 3: But I mean, honestly, at this point.

00:03:14
Speaker 4: You know, I think the people that I've been around in my career that have really got me into the process and focusing on the things that you because you can't control your counting stats, right if you're a hitter, you can't control if you're going to have six guys on for your three at bats that day, or if you're gonna have nobody on right and that's gonna that's gonna affect your state total throughout the year. So it's just to focus on the stuff that I can control, feeling, you know, in tune and being able to show up to the ballpark, be the same guy every day, and really focus on the work throughout. That's that's been my you know, my standard that I'm trying to hold myself to and it'll be no different this year.

00:03:52
Speaker 5: So as a bullpen, have you guys choreographed like your your stick? Have you guys choreographed You're gonna walk out.

00:03:59
Speaker 1: In a line.

00:04:00
Speaker 5: Bender is going to be first, Fauchet is going to be behind you, Phillips is gonna do cartwheels. Is that kind of stuff discussed or does it happen organically?

00:04:12
Speaker 4: You know, I have not been out in the first in quite a while, And obviously opening day throws a big wrinkle because you've got to put every single or organizational staff member out on the line say their name. So it's definitely definitely a little weirder on opening day. But you know, I'm planning on showing up after the bottom of the fourth just about every day, and on the ones, on the ones that don't have a backway to the bullpen, I'll go through the field and if it's got a back way, you will not see me on the field until I potentially pitch that night.

00:04:46
Speaker 2: Hey, now that it's here, how excited are you to actually be involved in real regular season games that have the ABS challenge system? And of course I would also like your take on something that went viral a few days ago, the amount of play who now have stat pages with one, two or even three inches off of their prior height.

00:05:09
Speaker 4: I think it'll be I think it'll be good, and mainly it will be good for the one that I saw to start off whatever spring training name that was of a absolute box five middle middle heater that got bald. So eliminate those I actually and the ones that I see. I didn't see a ton of challenges yesterday. Maybe it says I didn't watch enough baseball, but I think it'll be good. And it's it's nice too. Uh, it's nice to see the deflation.

00:05:36
Speaker 3: You know.

00:05:37
Speaker 4: On a personal level, I remember people you know that I've played basketball with that were like a clear five eleven and you looked at their roster and at their roster measurements and their six two, so you know, it's it's nice to see that it was no different at the big lead level than it was in the suburban south and Saint Louis, Missouri.

00:05:56
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00:06:16
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00:06:34
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00:06:34
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00:06:57
Speaker 5: I think that's I think that's true. What else do you base players lie about? Because I think it's trash if somebody lies about your height because you're you're just it's like, it's not something you need to lie about. You are what you are, Like, that's it, Like I can't lie that I have I'm bald, Okay, their height is your height.

00:07:14
Speaker 1: So what else do baseball players lie about?

00:07:16
Speaker 4: I think the biggest, by far, the biggest is when we get asked how we're feeling and we say good. Probably probably a little bit of fibbing going on there every day, especially amongst you know, pictures. We we tend to say that we're good when we are in fact far from it. But uh, I'd say that's probably that's probably the biggest is how you're feeling good and you're they watched your catch play and you're throwing it sixty four miles an hour to try and get it there at sixty feet and they're like, this guy's lying through his teeth.

00:07:52
Speaker 6: They listen, we all got a fib a little bit.

00:07:55
Speaker 3: I mean, who's gonna say that. They don't go good unless unless.

00:07:58
Speaker 6: You've got blood coming from your arm or you out of broken arm. But like, I'm all right, now, are you? Are you a nap guy before the game?

00:08:05
Speaker 2: Like?

00:08:05
Speaker 6: Is there anything you do before a game before you get out there? Not a nap guynutes?

00:08:12
Speaker 3: I don't know what it is. I've never been good at napping. I do usually read for thirty minutes pregame.

00:08:19
Speaker 4: That's my kind of my mental clarity time, get everything you know, sue the edges out and get everything nice and re last before I really start trying to lock it.

00:08:28
Speaker 3: In once the game gets going.

00:08:31
Speaker 1: What are you reading right now?

00:08:34
Speaker 3: I'm rereading Dune.

00:08:36
Speaker 4: I started Messiah again because obviously the big trailer for Dune Part three dropped, So I'm ripping through Massaia again and then I'll probably read some of the spin offs just depends on my level of locked into that. As as we hit the we hit the hype train for the upcoming movie.

00:08:53
Speaker 5: When you read, when you reread a book, because I am not a rereader of books, do you skip over parts you know are slow to get to the good parts?

00:09:04
Speaker 3: Not usually.

00:09:07
Speaker 4: I am a very fast reader, so there's always a chance that I missed something in my in my prior read of it. But I think it's it's definitely interesting to go back on a reread, regardless of what it is, and just to see what stands out a second time versus what you picked up on more so like the first time. So it's definitely interesting to see, you know, how that how that works. And then it's also like in for the Dunes series, it's interesting to go back six books where you're first introduced to a couple of characters and you kind of you know, get to see how that their their plot lines and their their storylines unfold.

00:09:48
Speaker 5: Let's make sure we point out your humble brag. Hmm, I'm a fast reader. Let's let's let's let's pump the brakes on that. Okay, so like are that there's no, yes, I'm a super slow reader.

00:10:00
Speaker 1: Terrible reader.

00:10:02
Speaker 2: There's a way to test that test.

00:10:05
Speaker 5: There's a stat cast. How fast are you? How fast can you read?

00:10:09
Speaker 2: We put both of you wet, both of you down in a vacuum, in the same kind of scenario, right at a table, and we say, hey, read three chapters. Let us know when you're done, and then we'll test you on it. And if you pass both path the test. And Pete got the three chapters done five minutes quicker than you, then he was quicker.

00:10:24
Speaker 1: Not gonna happen. It's not gonna happen.

00:10:27
Speaker 4: Do you read each individual word or do you read a sentence, or do you read a paragraph, or do you read a page?

00:10:32
Speaker 5: If the words aren't bouncing off the page, then I'll read each individual word. If they're bouncing off the page, I just got to skip to the next page, and I hope I catch up to what was happening.

00:10:45
Speaker 2: They're bouncing off the page, then I don't know.

00:10:47
Speaker 1: You might have used code foul.

00:10:48
Speaker 2: For something to get a little uh, you get a little extra life anyway. Sorry, krats infiltrating.

00:10:56
Speaker 1: No, No, you're good. You're good. All that to be said?

00:11:00
Speaker 5: Are you just about the Mande movie and a new Mando move Mandalorian movie coming out or is that kind of just on the back burner for you right now because it's opening day and you want to stay looked in.

00:11:11
Speaker 4: Honestly, I've been basically all of the New Star Wars stuff has not done it for me. I've just maybe it's you know, I'm older now, I'm not as locked in. The only thing that I do need to go I need to see Project Till Mary. Still it's a great book, hopefully. I've seen that. The movie was great and it did a pretty good job, though they missed a couple of important plot points. But other than that, that's about all that I'm locked into right now.

00:11:39
Speaker 2: Okay, there you go. We got a couple more questions for Pete. Wow, this timing worked out perfectly.

00:11:44
Speaker 3: Pete.

00:11:44
Speaker 2: We are on TV. You're seeing like the whole deal today we're on TV. By to the Marquee crowd. Have fun with the Nicol Hornet press conference, all right, and we continue here.

00:11:53
Speaker 3: That was that was good?

00:11:56
Speaker 2: Well, there's money flying right right now. Yeah, lots of extensions and there was a TV crowd that had to go do their thing. Okay, a couple more here at the finish line, Can you give us a glimpse of what to expect with the Marlins and what you've seen now for spring training in terms of some of the young talent that they've got, and also just in terms of some of the similarities and the differences from the Rays. The funny thing to me is they get like the very clear cut, Hey, Marlins have brought in some people from the Rays led by Peter Bendix. You're one of the few guys that now has gotten to see both shades here. So do you see it like do you see this next young, great raised team that you were a part of five years ago?

00:12:39
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean the similarities they're definitely there, you know. And I think that you know, with a you know, a budget constraint and how you have to build out the team and how you can't miss you know, I can definitely see you.

00:12:52
Speaker 3: Know, the shades of that.

00:12:54
Speaker 4: As far as what to expect, I think we got a lot of guys that are played with a lot of energy and a lot of you know, hopefully, I'm gonna drop it now that that we're going I don't know why that giant alert just popped up. I'm gonna put it out there. I'm gonna put my I'm throwing my hat early. I'm gonna give We're gonna go Connor Norby pump today. Right, We're gonna put it out in the world and if he lets me down, he'll never hear the end of it.

00:13:23
Speaker 5: You're throwing your hat in a ring first day because in the bullpen people might not know. You throw your hat out and you and you call your shot. Are you good at that? Are you good at that? Or are you just like Junior Camonaro and you just figure you'll be you'll be right, Like a third.

00:13:39
Speaker 3: Of the time we uh, we went through it. We used to have a little trophy.

00:13:44
Speaker 4: That we would we would give it to whoever had it had the most recent call. And there was a stretch in which I hit very early and then we did not successfully call a home run for like two and a half months. So you know, maybe we were just betting on the wrong horses. But you know, we've there seems to be people that are good out of it, good at it, like Edwin Ucetta, and there are people who are bad at it, like Garrett Clevenger. You know, it's all all it just depends on which horse you're back in that day.

00:14:18
Speaker 5: Okay, that's good. That's good. Last one from me, super Rando. You're in Miami. Did you go out and touch the sculpture the home run? Well it's not now the home it's just the Marlin sculpture.

00:14:33
Speaker 4: No, that thank you for reminding me, though. I got to go out there and see it one of these days. Maybe show up early. Take a selfie with the Marlin statue.

00:14:41
Speaker 5: Take a selfie and make sure a selfie is just with you in it, because some people call selfies with other people in it.

00:14:47
Speaker 1: That is not a selfie.

00:14:49
Speaker 3: It's a nussy. Yeah, it's an ussy. Yeah. Shout out to that posh kid. Shout out to that posh kid from ted Lasso.

00:14:58
Speaker 2: Hey, you're a jam. Great to got up with you before the big weekend. Have fun with him, dude, we'll be watching. We'll catch you soon.

00:15:04
Speaker 3: Appreciate it, guys, Thank you.

00:15:07
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00:15:14
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00:15:17
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00:15:23
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00:16:07
Speaker 1: That's what he said.

00:16:08
Speaker 2: That's what he said.

00:16:10
Speaker 1: That's what he said.

00:16:12
Speaker 2: That's what he said. We have so many shows and so many guests that joined those shows, so we'll try and keep serving them up to you throughout the season, and let's go to Halo Territory. Gary di Sarcina joined those guys and said.

00:16:29
Speaker 1: This.

00:16:31
Speaker 3: My time with the Mets. I got to coach third base.

00:16:33
Speaker 7: My last three years there, and I got to know Anthony and we played them, what sixteen seventeen times a year, and he never missed any games and he was always out there. Had a good relationship with him, talked to him about pretty much everything buck baseball. I'd ask him, you know, how can you rate Jacob deGrom? Nobody hits him? Well, how do you do it? And he wouldn't. He just kind of have the self deprecating humor, and he was just like I just always had this respect for as a person. I could tell like, I'm like, God, this guy's so successful, and I could see the reason he's successful is because he has other things going on in his life. And when he went to the Angels, at first I thought he was going to do really really well. It did fit well out there. I think he's from Texas, be close in her home. And then I got let go by the Mets and I went to the Nationals and I started asking around about Anthony. I started asking, like the people in our world who really matter at work, the trainers, the travel and secretary, the clubbies, the weight room guys, and I just started asking, like, you know, what the hell happened to Anthony? How come he he left here? I just couldn't. He's this quality, quality player. He was a World Series champion, and to a t, everyone, no matter who I asked at that level, was like, Anthony's a great guy. We all loved him, but we all knew baseball wasn't his top priority.

00:17:57
Speaker 1: He wanted to be with his family.

00:17:59
Speaker 7: And they would say to me, the Angels are going to regret it because that's not his thing. Man, He's good at baseball, but it's not his love. It's not his passion. His family and friends is his passion. So I just started wondering, like, did somebody with the Angels not do their homework? Did somebody do their homework and voice their opinion and get shut down?

00:18:26
Speaker 2: So very very candid Gary Di Sarcina on the nose, Yeah, crats. And we've talked about this topic a ton because there's been developing storylines when he's out and then there's the buyout or whatever it ends up being here he's not part of the team anymore. Two things that I take one is I have a hard time with the Oh he's more into his family. Everyone's into their family. I don't feel like that's a fair excuse. I think it's just more on the side of he doesn't love ball like most people do, and that's okay, But that's a guy where you should do your homework and make sure you're not throwing the bag at him. And I don't think the homework was done. Now, putting the positive spin on it, I think this is going to be a blessing for the Angels organization. It was awkward for the last few years. You have to answer the questions he was around the team at times, and it can drag you down, even if it's not a bad dude. Right, if there's one guy who's there who's just like, oh, fuck it, I don't want to be here, you tell me. I mean that would affect my high school basketball team. I'm sure it affects a major league team.

00:19:28
Speaker 5: Definitely affects a major league team. But I don't know if he was there that much. I mean, when you're hurt, if unless you say no, I want to go with the team like I want to be with the guys. I want to make sure I'm there with the what we're seeing he didn't want to do, like he's barely around. He's doing his work. Now, you know, if there's a dude that's like negative Nelly on the bench gives zero value, Like, that's not Those aren't the kind of guys you want around him. So if he wasn't around the guys, I don't I don't feel like it's a distraction.

00:20:00
Speaker 1: Nobody's like looking down the lineup and like, oh, man, I wish we had Rendon. He would really kill this guy here.

00:20:07
Speaker 5: No, I think I think they had given up on him as as teammates. You have to just move on. That's the that's the ugliness of baseball. No matter if you're done as a high school freshman and you don't play on a JV team anymore, they're still going to have games. Or if you're a big league All Star, future Hall of Famer, as soon as you're off the field, they're still having games.

00:20:29
Speaker 1: The game moves on. So I don't think it was as big of.

00:20:32
Speaker 5: A distraction as it was just an absolute crater of a contract that he could have given them ridiculous amounts of value.

00:20:42
Speaker 6: And here's the nature of the whole beast here. Major League baseball is what, it's a job. Some people treat it as a job. A lot of people don't don't get me wrong. They love the every part of the game. They want to play. Some will play for free, that's how much they love it. But there's others out there really treat it as a job. Oh I gotta go in, Okay, let me get this job done. When the game over, shower, grab something quick, leave. Not working out. There's guys like that, and you got to take them for what they are. And that's just the nature of the beast. And it's not everybody. It's a select few, and guess what, it's tough to change their minds. It's part of it. But some people treat the game like a job. I want to get paid. I want my nine to five or whatever it is. They come one to eleven, whatever it is, and they go home. Fine, they're happy to be home. Wake up, all right, I gotta go again. So some people do that. That's that's just the sucky part of it. But that's life.

00:21:40
Speaker 5: And for people who say, well, he got the contract and then he just gave up. No like this this feeling about baseball, whatever it is, if we're accusing him of this. To me, it was happening his entire career. It shows how freaking good he was because I didn't love baseball more than my family, my faith. But then they came in and I really really like baseball, like I love it, and I sucked, like I did not play very good in the big leagues. So for him to do what he did and to not have to put in, you know, the extra like, oh man, I'm so locked in to making the adjustments all that stuff, he was really good. That's why I think people forget is the fact that if a guy truly is and that's the narrative that he has led us paint because he hasn't he hasn't changed our opinion of it. If his if he truly was not really enamored with the game and just went out there and played because he can make some money doing it, like it shows he was really good. Because it takes a lot to focus. It's kind of like Todd. Todd was really really good and he's like, you know what, I don't know if I need to like look at the analytics stuff. And people could be like, oh, Todd, how could you not look at that. Todd's like, well, I'm gonna go out and hit. I'm gonna go out and hit, and I don't need that stuff like different guys levels of abilities are really like it shines through when you see different things like this come out about Rindom.

00:23:09
Speaker 2: Well said, and for more on that conversation, it's great interview. Halo Territory is the spot if you're watching right now, just like you did for us yesterday with Bluebird and just throw a little love, a little sub at Halo Territory wherever you get your podcasts and also on YouTube, go for it. Mike Di Giovanna and Mark Trumbo run the show. Yeah you can see they had Mike's Sosia on a prior episode