Joe Musgrove joins Friar Territory

00:00:02
Speaker 1: There we go. Look at this, that's Joe Musgrove. Hi, Joe, great to see you, Joe, Darren, Darren, Joe, it's been a you said, you sound great. You look great, the bright yellow and I love these colors. You're popping here.

00:00:16
Speaker 2: I found the right backdrop for you.

00:00:17
Speaker 1: You've found the great back Welcome to the debut show. My my new co host on Friar Territory on the Foul Territory Network, that is Darren Smith.

00:00:27
Speaker 2: So what's going on? Darren?

00:00:29
Speaker 3: Take it away, Joe, it's been too long.

00:00:31
Speaker 2: How you been. I'm doing well, man, doing well. Nice to be back in camp.

00:00:35
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's just like the radio show now, except you know, you can cuss and not get us in trouble. So that's all good.

00:00:40
Speaker 2: There we go. Love that.

00:00:41
Speaker 3: Like Marty said, you look good man, these spring training colors. I gotta say it like seriously, like they are popping.

00:00:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, they look good.

00:00:51
Speaker 3: Man, sure, absolutely, Actually chus it feel?

00:00:56
Speaker 4: How do I feel? I feel pretty good man. You know, I don't think I'm I'm back at one hundred percent. I don't think I'm done with this rehab or I don't consider myself done with the rehab yet I think this is going to kinda kind of be an ongoing thing for who knows how long. But you know, my perspective on a lot of things is like, in the end, I'm going to get where I want, and if I'm not where I want, it's not the end. I'll just kind of keep working until I feel like I'm in a spot where I don't have to think about this anymore. I don't have to put the same amount of time and hours into getting myself ready, and I can kind of just go out and perform. But I feel good right now, balls coming out of my hand good. I don't feel like I have, you know, many hesitations with a lot of my stuff. I feel like it's, you know, it's plain how I want it to play. I'm seeing the metrics and the movement that i want to see. So I feel like I'm in a good spot. For February eighteenth, Joe, you threw it about if I'm true, I'm for reason, dude, So I'm sorry if I'm chattering a little bit.

00:01:56
Speaker 1: Joe, you threw you threw in a backfield. I think on Monday, right, I think you and Michael King r on the same field when all this on the chaos was breaking at Padre's camp with Adripoler's extension. What were you able to do and what was it like just being back through on the mound again.

00:02:11
Speaker 4: Yeah, that was my first time facing hitters again in sixteen months, I think something like that. So yeah, a lot of excitement and I think, you know, for me, it was mentally preparing myself for the excitement and the adrenaline and making sure I kind of pulled the reins back on myself and cut myself under control and just use this as, if you know, an opportunity to get some hitters in the box and see some reactions, see some swings against my stuff, but not go out there and try to be a hero and impress people in my first time back, just mainly you know, check some boxes off and you know, kind of take that next step forward.

00:02:45
Speaker 3: John, I'd like to follow up on that. I mean, I think that we know physically, you know, how difficult it must be to go through what you just went through and to work your way back, and how rewarding it must feel to be back where you should belong. Can you talk to us a little bit about mental challenge though of what you had to go through, because I think the physical stuff, you know, we all sort of have a grasp of it, but mentally, like, what is that like to have to go through everything you went through, even just to get back to this point and then also to continue where you want to go?

00:03:17
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I feel like I handled it pretty well. I think the most important thing is, you know, the perspective going into the surgery. You know, I was fortunate to have like maybe a seven to ten day window between the injury and the surgery, uh where I got to kind of go through and experience all the emotions and you know, kind of feel sorry for myself for a minute, you know, and then pick myself back up and look at what I had ahead of me, and you know, start mentally preparing for that, knowing that's going to be challenging. There's going to be times where I don't feel great. There's going to be frustrating times where I can't figure out what I need to fix to get myself feeling better. But I think the preparation going into that allowed me to you know, have a consistent, you know, one track mindset of you know, just constantly progressing and being okay with having a bad day and not letting affect me mentally, I think was the most important thing. Like physically, the days were very unpredictable. You know, there was a good stretch of time where I just couldn't understand why I'd wake up feeling amazing some days and some days I couldn't grab the bill of my hat. I was in so much pain. So it was frustrating, it was difficult, But I think mentally I prepared myself for all those things, and that allowed me to kind of take it with a grain of salt and just keep moving forward and you know, not not get hung up too much on you know, the occasional bad days or the bad stretches. So I think one of the most difficult things is as the deadline for you know, the end of last year coming up and the possibility of maybe pitching in the postseason, you know, not feeling great in that last month and a half leading into that was starting to like wear on me a little bit because you know, I knew where I needed to get, and like as that date came closer and closer, it seemed, you know, further and further away a physically, like it just seemed unattainable, and you know, I would a little bit of love to see us go further into playoffs, but I think having us eliminated and not having the opportunity to pitch was probably best for me, because you know, if we make it to the CS and into the World Series, I could very well see myself forcing my way into those games and you know, maybe lying a little bit about how I felt just to be a part of it. So probably best.

00:05:24
Speaker 2: For me that I didn't pitch.

00:05:25
Speaker 4: But yeah, I was just wanting the results so bad and not getting them was like the very difficult, you know, frustrating part, especially with the work I was putting in. Man, I was I was working and working and working and like putting in doubles every day to make sure I had a chance to pitch in the postseason, and it just things weren't turning around how I wanted to, so frustrating.

00:05:46
Speaker 1: I'm sorry to interrupt you there, but you're like, you're the ultimate team guy. And when you knew that Michael King, we didn't we didn't know his status, but he was going to make it back for the postseason, and you, Darvis was bulding something. Did you try to put more pressure on yourself to come back because of what other guys in your rotation were going through.

00:06:06
Speaker 4: Not so much. Not so much for that reason. I mean maybe a little bit of it, maybe, like subconsciously, I felt like that was part of my job, was to, you know, step up and fill that role, and I think a lot of people were kind of counting on me. And it's hard because I guess, back to your last question, one of the hardest things is having people constantly ask you, you know, how you feeling, are you going to be back?

00:06:24
Speaker 2: Are you going to be ready?

00:06:26
Speaker 4: And trying to answer that honestly, it was very hard because if I was honest, I wasn't be like, hell, no, I feel like shit, you know, but maybe I won't feel like shit in a week. Maybe I will feel better in a month, but just kind of lying to people and be like, yeah, I feel good.

00:06:38
Speaker 2: You know, I'm in a good spot.

00:06:39
Speaker 4: You know, stuff's coming out, and my bullpens were good, but it was the recovery, Like I wasn't bouncing back from those feeling very good. So trying to be honest with people was very difficult. But yeah, towards the end of the stretch, it was more of a personal, a personal thing that was, you know, eating at me. It's like I'd set this goal out and I'd worked so hard and I had gotten so close, and then that last month and I took a left turn and wasn't feeling as good, and I felt like all these plans that I had and like this high spirit of like I'm gonna have a chance to pitch, we're starting to dwindle away. So I think it was more like the selfishness of wanting to get in there and wanting to be a part of it. That was the more the contributing factor to me pushing.

00:07:20
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00:07:47
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00:08:21
Speaker 3: And can I just ask a follow up on that, Joe, just generally speaking, not specific to the injury, but just like the mental side of the game, the mental side of dealing with what comes with being.

00:08:31
Speaker 2: A big leaguer.

00:08:32
Speaker 3: Right, we all hear the all the great benefits of travel and money and all that sort of stuff, and it sounds amazing, but there is another side of it, is that something over your career that you've worked on, like do you do you do anything you know, as much as you work physically to get yourself prepared for these games, are there things that you've learned over the span of your career that have helped prepare you mentally for the job that you have.

00:08:53
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:08:55
Speaker 4: I've worked with, you know, a number of different people over my career. But one of the things I started when when I was fourteen years old was a program called Hefling, and this was a it's a form of tempo karate that's less about the martial arts aspect and more about the mindset aspect. This guy, Gus has the short version of this is a guy named Gus Hefling, goes over to China, lives there for nine ten years and studies with the Sila Warriors, who were a group of warriors that protected the Chinese emperor. And they used to go through this training program every day that they would do for forty five minutes before they got into their martial arts and it was like a warm up program for them. So there is a very physical aspect to it, but the idea is that you're locking the mind in and you're focusing on each individual movement you know, as its own thing, and you know staying focused on the tasket hand and not letting the outside or inside interferences affect that tasket hand. And this is a program I started doing at fourteen years old, and back then, I think I saw it more as like a physical training thing.

00:10:01
Speaker 2: You know.

00:10:01
Speaker 4: I was just always pushing to, you know, to physically get myself in good shape and you know, be the best at it. And I didn't really understand what the purpose of the workout was as I got older, and I've continued to do this program, you know, since I was fourteen. Now I'm understanding what the purpose of it is and how you can challenge yourself mentally to stay focused during this entire workout and not let your mind wander, you know, not anticipate how long is this exercise going to last, or what exercises next, or maybe I can take a little break here because it's getting hard and I know there's more to come. So it's really like self awareness and finding out, you know, where you kind of set traps for yourself and how you'll convince yourself out of doing certain things. And it's ultimately like that your mind will give up on yourself before your body will give up. So that's kind of the basis of everything that I do and the foundation of me as an athlete. And then since then, I've worked with a number of different breath coaches. You know, I did the deep end fitness stuff underwater for a couple of years, and all those things just you know, create new awarenesses and develop different traits that you know, I've been able to add into my game. But for me now, it's kind of like just become part of me. So everything that I do, I kind of take that mindset, whether it's doing dishes, you know, washing the car. It's like I got to try to take a strong, detailed aspect and everything that I'm doing, and that stuff just kind of becomes who you are and it translates into baseball and everything that I do.

00:11:23
Speaker 1: So are you this intense at everything that you approach because it it seems like it. It seems like a little bit. And by the way, I apologize to you for the number of times I asked you last season, Hey, Joe, what do you think? What do you think?

00:11:35
Speaker 2: Most seasons?

00:11:36
Speaker 1: No, I feel terrible, like, oh my gosh, harassing you.

00:11:39
Speaker 3: Let me just get Marty. I'm feeling great, Marty.

00:11:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, A lot of its teammates too, though.

00:11:44
Speaker 4: I mean, like the guys care for you, and as a teammate, you're always you know, your conditioned to like check in on your guys and then you know, show that you care and that you're curious of where they're at. But you know, it becomes more of a hassle than anything. You know, it's I almost want people to just fuck off and let me work, you know. But yeah, yeah, it is kind of something that I am very intense in a lot of things that I do, and I try to take pride in everything I do, whether it's fold and laundry like I said, or dishes or whatever. And like the dish thing came up the other night. Uh, my fiance tends to turn tends to look for the most efficient and the quickest route to do things.

00:12:18
Speaker 2: And I'll be pissed off.

00:12:19
Speaker 4: If there's you know, grease left on a pan, or there's you know, a piece of silverware that's not shining. And she's a big she's big on the dishwasher. I'm a big hand washer. So yeah, it's not it's not a very serious thing, but I found myself, you know, it's easier for me to stay in this mode than it is to turn it on and turn it off, you know.

00:12:39
Speaker 2: So it's kind of just become who I am.

00:12:42
Speaker 3: This This like Joe Musgrove, He's just like us. I mean, it's like the same exact conversation I have at my house about the dishes. But neither here nor there, Joe. One are the you know for you coming back now coming out? You know, And one of the things I'm always also fascinated in is, you know, the trajectory of a major league or especially a pitcher right early on in your career. I don't know how accurate a site like baseball Savona is, but you know, you were kind of a different guy than than you were towards twenty twenty four in terms of pitch election and percentages.

00:13:12
Speaker 2: What are you expecting from yourself?

00:13:14
Speaker 3: Do you did you use this time to say, hey, maybe there's a couple of things that that you know, like I can evolve on, or there are things that I want to work on, or there might be a new version of me. Not to share trade secrets, but are there things that you know you would recognize it maybe some things that we won't when we see you back out there.

00:13:30
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think, you know, the usage might change a little bit. You know, in the past, I'd always had this concern of like overusing the break and ball one because the break and balls had good action, but I wasn't very consistent on like locating them, throwing them to back doors, throwing them to you know, the front hip a certain hitters. So it was more just like setting up middle and ripping pitches and just relying on the nastiness of the pitch, not necessarily a location or the you know, the time of when I'm using them, and for health reasons, like I just didn't think that I could sit there and rip off slider after slider after slider and not have any consequence from it. So always like kind of health related and then you know, just trust in the pitch that I didn't have back then. And then in the end of my twenty twenty season in Pittsburgh, you know, they talked about what a good pitch my curve ball was and that I should be using a little more. And I had just kind of been middle of the road pitcher, you know, mid foors vra just kind of very average. I threw a lot of strikes, but you know, gave up some damage here and there, so I made an adjustment in with a sixty game season, I was like, this is a chance to kind of go out there and pitch with a heavier you know, break and ball percentage in a shorter season where I'm not going to have to sustain this for thirty two starts. I just got to put it out there for twelve and I got really good results from it. And throughout that process, I you know, changed my arm motion a little bit. I shortened up my arm action in the back a lot, which made me more consistent and put my arm in a better position to stay healthier.

00:14:58
Speaker 2: And I got really good results.

00:14:59
Speaker 4: So traded over here in twenty one and AJ had a few ideas after talking to the pitching department about, you know, using the sinker more to lefties and doing things that were very outside of what I had ever done. And I kind of fought back on it, you know, I was like, I don't throw my sinker to lefties. You know used to tell me to throw it. I just that's not a pitch I've ever thrown. I'm not comfortable with it. And I went out in spring and I think I threw to Kansas City and gave up like seven runs, and I said, well, that's what happens, and I throw the sinker to lefties, you know, just kind of like.

00:15:29
Speaker 2: And I wanted it to work, you know, like I wanted it to work. It just wasn't.

00:15:33
Speaker 4: So I kind of went back to my way of pitching, and I was like, you brought me here to be successful, and this is how I know how to do it. You know, I'm not shutting that down completely, but I don't want to come in here and like completely lose all the ground I had made up in the last year with the break in balls and stuff. So I kind of went back to my game plan and they saw how it worked and how it played, and you know, gave me a few adjustments on the sweeper. We started throwing the sweeper a little more, and that just kind of became who I was. So coming back this year, I mean, off of surgery, I don't expect to be that, you know, fifty percent of breaking ball guy anymore, at least not.

00:16:08
Speaker 2: Right out of the gates.

00:16:11
Speaker 4: But I did work a lot on delivery and like trying to trying to improve on my fastball. I feel like I had good results with the fastball because I didn't use it a ton, so when I did show it, it was kind of a surprise pitch to people, and I usually located really well so I can get it to the spots I want. But the metrics of the pitch and the performance of it wasn't great. I just had decent results on it. So I put a lot of work in on just getting a true fastball that had a little more ride and carry and something that I can use to the top and bottom of the zone. And then you know, started really working on that synker to the lefties, which is still going to be a very sparingly used pitch, but something that I can use on the inner half to lefties, you know, guys that tend to lay off of the inner half, or if I'm not getting guys to chase the breaking balls to the back foot, it's something that I can use to kind of re engage them, show them that, you know, if it's arts in it's not always going to be a ball. I can run something back over the plate that'll be a strike and just kind of re engage hitters in the at bad. So I'm not sure how it's going to look. I think a lot of it's going to be dictated on how I feel physically, you know, what I'm capable of doing. If I feel capable to throw the fifty percent break and ball, I'd love to go back to that, but I just don't know if that's going to be doable right out of the gates. So it's going to be a lot of, you know, just trial and error and seeing how the body responds.

00:17:25
Speaker 1: You made it clear to us Joe at FanFest, that you were going to be smart about about pushing yourself and when you're going to come back, and that you would maybe you would skip a start, but with the whole goal, you want to be ready when the games count September and October. So how how important has it been for you to be honest with with Craig Stammon, with Rubin Diebola and what to you?

00:17:46
Speaker 2: What?

00:17:46
Speaker 1: And I know you map beings out, you have an idea when everything's going to happen. What are you envisioning as the best way for you to proceed?

00:17:54
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean they it's a lot of credit to them. They've really given me, putting a lot of trust in me. I told Rubin, you know, and stamming at the start of camp, I said, I want you to treat me as normal as possible, and let me tell you when I need a break or when I need a day, and they were on board with that.

00:18:14
Speaker 2: I mean, I feel like that is the best way.

00:18:16
Speaker 4: If you have a picture that understands himself and you know, as a hard worker, and it's doing the things that he needs to do, I think you should give him some trust to like, hey, I need a day and like now's the time for it, or like I feel good, let's keep pushing. So it's going to be just a lot of back and forth for us, but yeah, ultimately I want to be ready, you know when the games start counting, you know, whether that's in April, you know, first game of the season, end of March, or if that's you know, a month into the season. The idea of me making thirty two starts this year might not be realistic. You know, one hundred and eighty innings might not be realistic. So if that means I got to start, you know, two three weeks into the season, I'm fine with that. If I'm good on opening day and I got to take a break, you know a little bit before also great, I'm fine with that. It's just going to be how am I going to get myself to be sharp and feeling strong still when September October comes. So I don't really know what that looks like yet, but I got a few ideas of how we're going to do it based on how I'm feeling at the time.

00:19:08
Speaker 1: I know you're manager. Craig Stamman today talked about the idea of a six man rotation, and by the way, speaking of that six man rotation, there's a law in of candidates for the fifth and that sixth spot. I know what it's like for the media and the fans watching the past five days. What was it like for guys in that clubhouse seeing the whirlwind of movement from aj Peller?

00:19:29
Speaker 4: Yeah, exciting. I mean, you know, you know, the saying like you can never have enough starting pitching. I think everyone looks at the opening day rosters and you know, you look at how strong everybody's lineups look and how strong the rotations look, and you know, it's very rare that those things stay consistent throughout the whole year. There's constantly injuries, there's lack of performance, there's you know, family issues that happen, people might have to step away for a little bit. So I think everyone in here is under the understanding that, hey, if it's not me right away, it's going to be me at some point, and keep myself ready. I think, you know, maybe for some of the guys that are on the brink of making the rotation, you know, the four or five guys, you know, could be a little more stress for them. Now there's more competition in camp, but I mean, I don't think more groups that shives away from that.

00:20:14
Speaker 2: You know, I think we're.

00:20:17
Speaker 4: We're very clear on what's expected of you here, and I think guys are going to compete the same way, whether they have more competition or you know what we started with when Spring started. So I love it though we got you know, a lot of guys that have been really good in the past and have had success, and you know, maybe are coming off injuries. You look at Walker and Herman, even Griff, you know, those guys are all coming off some significant injuries. And Bullers had a couple a couple of years back now, and you know, Marquez one year back. But you know, knowing how I feel coming off with Tommy John and you know, seeing what they've gone through since being back in the games.

00:20:49
Speaker 2: It's not easy.

00:20:50
Speaker 4: So you know, sometimes it takes that two year two and a half year mark until you start feeling like, God, I feel like normal again, Like I can really let the ball go. And a part of it is like you've got to figure out how to throw again. You know, the elbow, the structure your elbo is different, so nothing moves how it used to move. The timing of your delivery is off now because things aren't able to take the same force that they were right away. So in a sense, you kind of got to reteach yourself how to pitch. And it's difficult, especially when you're used to doing things a certain way for so long and now everything changes and you've got to find a way to still get out at the highest level at petition. So and especially when you're in season, like time to city and contemplate and over evaluate and think, because sometimes you just got to get it and go and figure it out on the fly as you're moving. So I think those guys are are proven big leaguers that have had a lot of success, and I think they can have success again. I think with the staff we got here and you know Ruben's team of guys, I think they'll they'll fit right in.

00:21:51
Speaker 3: I would Joe Musker of the Pottery fan have felt about seeing Walker Bueller come walking in putting on the brown and gold.

00:21:58
Speaker 4: I think they gladly welcome it. Man, I would gladly welcome it, you know. I think as a ballplayer, man like, we love this game so much. I don't think it's easier for a fan to say, how could you go play for the other side. But as a ballplayer, you're trying to make money, provide for your family, and you don't want to walk away from the game. And if that's the only opportunity you got, I think you take it, you know.

00:22:18
Speaker 2: And I think there's always a little more.

00:22:22
Speaker 4: Animosity from the fan base towards each other than there is from players in one another. I mean, there's a there's a there's definitely a thing between us and the Dodgers. You know, we don't care for them too much. They don't care for us. But it's not this pure level of hatred that you see from some of the fan base. You know, we all understand we're playing the same game here. We're all here for the same reason, and there is a lot of crossover. So at some point you're going to play with these guys in the same clubhouse. Sometimes you play on the other team, so there's always.

00:22:50
Speaker 2: A certain level of respect that you carry for one another.

00:22:52
Speaker 4: So yeah, there's probably it's probably some good conversation on Twitter right now, but for us in.

00:22:58
Speaker 2: Here, we're welcome. We're welcome in with open arms. Good. Yeah, that's what I was saying.

00:23:03
Speaker 3: Put yourself back in the seats as a fan. Craig Stamman obviously great teammate, great human being. You guys are all on the record talking about your affection for him. What's it been like with Craig Stamman as a manager.

00:23:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's been good. Our camp's been great so far.

00:23:18
Speaker 4: I think Craig understands the flow of a camp and how you know, some guys prepare really well in the offseason. You know, they're five six, seven days a week prepping and getting ready. Some guys a little bit less. But going from you know, most guys are running a Monday to Friday schedule and having the weekends off to coming into spring and now it's every day for thirty days straight, you know, leading into his one hundred and sixty two game season. You know, it's very easy to wear your guys out in spring and you know, pick up little injuries just by being out on the cleats and being on the field longer than you need to be. So I think he's run a really good schedule here and minimize some of the some of the time that we spend on the field, which ultimately allows guys to invest more in their individual work. I mean, you look at our fields in the morning, there's every single field is taken and everybody's out there getting early work in, which is where you really get better as a player. You know, the individual early work where it's just you and your coaches and you're working on a specific part of your game. And then you get together for the team fundamental and you know, in our camp, those are ten minutes. You know, it's real quick in and out, make sure we're all working as a unit well together. But I've been part of other camps where we spend thirty five forty minutes on the on the group fundamental stuff, and then nobody wants to go out and do early work. No one wants to get their individual stuff because you're just beat it's like a lot of stuff in the day. So I think the schedule right now is allowing everybody to get out there and get their individual work work on the things that they specifically need work done, and then we'll get together as a group and we'll put it all together and make sure all the communications right and the signaling is right, and then we get off the field and we get in here and get our lifts in and our training recovery. But you know, Craig's really big on the book ends of the day. You know, same with Rubin is like we prepare really really well, and then when our day's over, we come in and we do the recovery. We get all the you know, the treatment and stuff we need so that we can get back and do it again the next day. I think those are the things that are extremely important and spring to stay healthy and to get yourself ready is to you know, focus on what you need to get done and cut out some of the the extra work of just standing in a huge group of sixty guys and maybe getting one rep in the twenty five minute drill.

00:25:22
Speaker 2: You know.

00:25:22
Speaker 4: So Craig's been great. I mean the speeches he's given us, he seems comfortable in the role. He seems like he's in charge of the room, and you know, he's really putting a lot of trust in his staff to go out there and do what he hired them to do.

00:25:36
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00:25:46
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00:25:48
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00:25:52
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00:26:00
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00:26:37
Speaker 1: He is a man comfortable in his own skin. That's been just obvious immediately. I do want to ask you about one of all the new guys, one guy in particular, and that would be Nick Costianos. I know that AJ Prowler, when he addressed the media about the signing why he was comfortable, said that he did speak to some of the leaders on this team before before he signed him. And when I think of the leaders in the team, I think of like you, what was that conversation like and what what did you have to consider before you're like yeah, why not?

00:27:06
Speaker 2: Yeah?

00:27:06
Speaker 4: I mean, I'm sure some of it is about, you know, some of the stuff that's come out recently about Nick and you know his issue in Philly with that Miami game. But as a player, I don't think anybody in here has an issue with that. You know, we know the kind of player he is. You know, he speaks his mind. He's very you know, very confident in what he believes in, and you know he's a veteran of the game.

00:27:30
Speaker 2: He's been around a long time. He's played on really good teams.

00:27:32
Speaker 4: He's played with a number of different you know, future Hall of famers, and he's a guy that does things the right way. You know, he prepares, he shows up, he's ready to work, very serious about how he goes about his work. So yeah, Aj is always cautious of, you know, adding someone to a group, making sure he checks in with guys and make sure it's someone that we feel is going to fit in our group and somebody that you know, we want on board, which I think you don't see in every organization. You know a lot of times it's just like here's your pieces, figure out, make it work. We're really big on the culture of the clubhouse and you know, the culture of the team. So if somebody comes in and you know they're not fitting that bill and they're not you know, getting on board.

00:28:14
Speaker 2: Of what we got.

00:28:14
Speaker 4: You know, our guys also have no problem saying, hey, this is a guy that doesn't belong here. But Aj is great and he always comes in and brings that stuff to us, includes us in it, which I feel like empowers the players and it makes you take a little more responsibility and in your actions and what you say.

00:28:30
Speaker 2: But uh, yeah, we love Nick over here. I'm glad we got him.

00:28:34
Speaker 3: So I just have one final one because I can do this all day, and I know you probably have better things to.

00:28:37
Speaker 2: Do, but I appreciate it one thing, right all.

00:28:44
Speaker 3: I appreciate something that AJ said recently. You're in a division with the Dodgers, and everybody knows it, right and and you know, common perception is everybody's just playing for second place in the n West. And AJ's you know, I don't think he says it just because he feels like it's the right thing to say, you know, because like, oh yeah, we're not there to just give up the division for guys that are in that clubhouse. I mean, do you do you view it as as such? Do you think, like, listen, like we're not here to just give in to them, you know, we're not. We're not here to just let the Dodgers run away with the NS. AJ said, like our goal is, you know, not to just qualify for the playoffs. If that's what it is, fine, Well, like we still, you know, are entering every single season thinking about we want to be division champs. As unrealistic as the outside public might think that is how do you view.

00:29:29
Speaker 6: All of that?

00:29:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, I view it just like that.

00:29:33
Speaker 4: You know, I think the guys in here compete, you know, at the same level, regardless of the circumstances. So regardless of how you know, powerful the other teams in our division are, we don't have to play them one hundred and sixty times a year. You know, We've got to take care of business against the teams that we're supposed to be and take care of business, you know, away from those guys, knowing that when we go in and play them, it's going to be a hard fight and we don't expect to win, you know, ninety percent of those games, you know, those best teams you looking for a you know, you're looking to get out of there and not have a negative, you know, negative record against that team. But we feel like we're capable of competing for this division just as much as the Dodgers are. We understand and we respect how good they are as a team and the firepower they have over there. But it's all about how you put those pieces together, you know, And like I said, you play them a handful of times a year, So it's not like we're running up against this juggernaut team every single game. You know, we got to take care of our business so that at the end of the game or at the end of the season, we're right there with them in the running.

00:30:34
Speaker 1: Joe, My last, my last question to you actually something that that Dare and I were discussing before you join us today, and that was the comments from you know, from John Seidler. He was being asked about the idea of the team being sold in relocation. Have you have has he has John spoken to any of the players in the clubhouse about the plan for this for this team moving forward? Has that or has he not really done that?

00:30:55
Speaker 2: I mean, not a detailed conversation.

00:30:56
Speaker 4: He spoke to us a couple of days ago, you know, just kind of saying the same thing, like, I know you guys are probably you know, hearing a lot of stuff, and you know, I have a lot of questions about where the team's going and the sale of the team. Pretty much said, you know, if you guys have questions, feel free to come find me, you know, give me a call, tell you what I can tell you.

00:31:14
Speaker 2: But I mean there's certain things that.

00:31:16
Speaker 4: You know, we're not even allowed to hear or know, you know, there's certain things that on the business side they just don't share with anybody. And I understand that I'm not looking for, you know, every answer that there is to have.

00:31:26
Speaker 2: But as players are, your.

00:31:29
Speaker 4: Biggest concern obviously is the guy that buys the team or the person that takes the team over.

00:31:33
Speaker 2: Are they going to be interested in winning or making money? You know?

00:31:37
Speaker 4: And I feel like, whoever takes this team, I can't imagine they'd come in and not want to keep pushing in the right direction. You know, we've already committed a lot of money to players on this team. They get the city behind you more than you ever have in San Diego, and it's a stadium that's filling out every single night. So I find it very hard to believe that whoever comes in it's going to backtrack and you know, cut payroll and and start minimizing things. I feel like the smart move, especially if you're spending what you're about to spend on the padres, you know, is to double down and keep adding and keep going for it. This is, you know, the best window we got right now.

00:32:11
Speaker 2: These players, we.

00:32:11
Speaker 4: Are only getting older, our contracts are getting shorter. So yeah, I would love to see whoever comes in, you know, commit to winning here and continuing to add to this team.

00:32:22
Speaker 1: I think you just booked for every single guy in your clubhouse, as well as that fan base. If you're that fan base, and you're right, Joe Joe Musgrove, you are the absolute best. Ten years from now, when you're done, when you're thinking about hanging it up, I really think that you should be the new co host with Darren on Friar Terriers, but you can even take over the Foul Territory network. Man, you are meant, You're meant for this, and you've got a great voice. You've got a great voice too. That's key, It's key.

00:32:45
Speaker 2: I appreciate that you guys.

00:32:46
Speaker 3: Thank you, right, don't you don't want to follow in staveds foot steps. You don't want to go down that pathway And.

00:32:53
Speaker 4: I've got to deal with enough stress on the plane. I don't know if I want to be the one answering questions all day.

00:32:58
Speaker 3: Give me one maybe who's the next guy.

00:33:05
Speaker 4: I think Michael King could be that guy. I think Jake Croninworth could be that guy. Yeah, those two guys kind of stick out to me. But dude, it's hard, man. I mean, I think you have to have like a passion to want to do this, and it's like it's so much more than just making the right calls. Part for me, part of it is the fucking paperwork. I don't want to sit here and write reports all night.

00:33:27
Speaker 2: Like.

00:33:27
Speaker 4: I love the idea of helping guys out and I'll share all the knowledge I got about pitching, but I don't want to sit here every night and write reports and you know, being meetings all day long.

00:33:35
Speaker 2: I just don't want to do that. Ship So yeah, right.

00:33:41
Speaker 4: I love the game, and you know, I can't imagine my life without baseball in some aspect, but I just don't know what it looks like.

00:33:48
Speaker 2: And it's hard to even picture it until until.

00:33:50
Speaker 4: I'm done, you know. And I don't have an option as a player anymore. I think maybe some new things will look like me, but yeah, right now that's not even in my in my sights, co host, it is done.

00:34:01
Speaker 1: Deal, co host, love it? Thanks, Sure, you're the best. Take care of right, Thanks guy, Talk you soon.

00:34:11
Speaker 3: Mhm.