White Sox SP Davis Martin joins FT

00:00:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's Talk White Sox right now with Davis Martin joining us on FT. Davis, great to have you on the show. What have you had to deal with AJ a lot lately?

00:00:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, he says he's talked to me a ton realities. We just listened to Ozzie last night. We didn't have lot, so.

00:00:28
Speaker 3: Last night we had a city We had a city cruise last night and we had him and Davis, Sean Burke, myself and Ozzy and Davis and I were sitting next to each other and then Sean was next to me, and then Ozzie was on the end and.

00:00:39
Speaker 4: It was great. So that was their first I think that was their first.

00:00:42
Speaker 3: Now your first in person Ozzy experience for more than like a five minute interaction.

00:00:48
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:00:48
Speaker 4: I was telling him.

00:00:49
Speaker 3: I was like this, we got this for one hundred and sixty two plus springs, so like two hundred days a year of this every single day.

00:00:56
Speaker 5: He's like, Wow, dominates any room that he's in.

00:00:59
Speaker 2: Oh, my favorite. My favorite thing last night is someone asked AJ a question and then she walks up, she goes a, J I have a question for you, and I have a question for Ozzie and We're like, okay, great. She asked aj the question and I blink and Ozzie's talking for like twenty minutes, and I was like, was this question for you? And He's like, I don't know, man, just sweat him.

00:01:24
Speaker 5: Do the things you're so used to it.

00:01:26
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm so used to.

00:01:27
Speaker 3: But I told Davis when he originally agreed to do this, I go, Ozzie beyond, don't worry. I'll make it easy for us because all you do is just let him go, and he'll just go and go and go. And it doesn't like they could be like, Davis, man, you're off to an unbelievable start this year. How are things going on? Ozzie be like, man, Sean berker pis great today and done. Go back in two thousand and seven we did this and then oh yeah, and then David's like, yeah, thanks, I'm doing well, thank you. It's like one boint Davis got up to use the restroom and I.

00:01:58
Speaker 4: Was like, man, that was good time as well.

00:02:00
Speaker 3: I knew Ozzie got asked a question, so I had plenty of time to go down and come back.

00:02:03
Speaker 1: So it's probably still talking about that, all right, So we're actually going to put you on the spot here for the next ten minutes, Davis. So let's start with an easy topic that I think needs to be talked about more and more. Give us everything we need to know about Morikami right now. What you're seeing on the field, what he's like off the field, how he's getting acclimated to the culture here too, which for some players can be very difficult, whether it's a player going from here overseas to Japan or vice versa.

00:02:29
Speaker 5: Give us everything you've witnessed.

00:02:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think first off, on the field, like you can see everything that he's capable of, and I think the most impressive thing I think I've seen is that just his takes. You know, obviously he's walking a lot. I think that's a big thing. Coming over. It's just like the amount of stuff that you have, not only from your front end starters, but you know, you can have your fourth, fifth guy out of the bullpen, you know, having higher average felow than he's probably seen, probably has better breaking stuff than he's probably seen. But his command of the plate, it's been great. And when he's pitches to hit, he's crushed him, which has been awesome. And for a personality standpoint, I feel like he slides right in. I mean, I'm happy where our culture is at right now and where he's coming into it, because i feel like he's kind of just accepted it and just rolled right into it and as one of the guys. And you know, I'm also very impressed with his his overall work ethic. I mean, I told AJ last night, I mean he's he gets to the field before anybody. I mean he's he's basically doing something for about you know, from time he shows up to time he leaves, he's either working out, mobility, strength training, stretching, you know, getting prepped, getting ready to go hitting, cage work, you know, all that stuff. Like he is very is very rare to see Moonit sitting at his locker by himself doing nothing. He's always on the move. He's always trying to get one step better, and it's kind of like leaked into everybody else saying like, all right, this is our best guy. You know, the other day he laid out, you know, for a ground ball at first base to try to get on base. And so when your guy that's getting paid, you know how much he's getting paid right now, is leading by example like that. It's it's really easy for everybody to follow Davis.

00:04:01
Speaker 3: Let's let's not forget the most important part about Mooney coming to Chicago, the Japanese.

00:04:06
Speaker 2: Toilets he bought.

00:04:07
Speaker 4: Not only did they so I found this out last night. We had this whole conversation.

00:04:11
Speaker 3: They didn't just get one Japanese toilet, they got like five of them. They put them in every single stall so that not just Mooney could enjoy them, the whole team got to enjoy them. So that's the most important.

00:04:24
Speaker 2: We originally thought we were gonna have like Mooney's toilet and then like toilet you know, two, three, four, and everybody's just gonna fight over that one single today. But yeah, we walked in and we got all four of them, and yeah, it's pretty sick. You walk in, open the door toilets he just opens up. He did seep. I mean, it's the show, bab, this is nice s.

00:04:42
Speaker 4: Life changing, slafe changing. Can you get Bob Beckdall off the toilet?

00:04:46
Speaker 2: That is the question. Hey, yeah, Bob was actually chirping you a little bit. He's like, you got aj here, and then there's a video picture of you running away from the Cubs catcher and Scott Segment's doing something. This is Bob's word. It's not a lot of stuff going on and a lot of Look for a bobble head over there. I couldn't find one. But yeah, it's just a lot of aj going around here.

00:05:07
Speaker 3: You know, we some of us used to be something, Davis, you know, someone was and now some of us are something.

00:05:12
Speaker 4: I asked you guys this last night.

00:05:14
Speaker 3: It was Sean and you, and Sean pitched unbelievable yesterday, seven to third, three hits, no runs, pitched amazing, but he had the opener for him, and then you talked about how you had an opener last year but you don't have an opener this year.

00:05:26
Speaker 4: Can you explain how that process works?

00:05:28
Speaker 3: Obviously a lot of the people watching now weren't on the cruise last night, but how that process works, and if it changes your pregame routine or anything that you change when you go into the game.

00:05:39
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean the process in general is just the idea of that you know, you can face that top of the order one last time, whether that be you know, a heavy dominant left handed hitter start where it's lefty, lefty, lefty and we have bad splits, or let's say it's uh, you know, to switch hitters, like for example, like the Perdomo and the you know, tel Marte for example, Like if they're better right handed than left handed, like we can kind of pin those guys and have them have one less ab on their stronger side. And that's kind of a thought process behind it for me personally, Like it doesn't bother me too much. I'm like, I think my average pitches before a game is like thirteen to fifteen. Like I don't take very long to get ready, so kind of a bullpen guy at hard I guess you could say it doesn't. I don't really have this elegant long routine to get ready to go, but some guys do. Some guys have to start at four o'clock for a six forty game, and you know every minute on the minute is dialed in, so they can kind of throw some of those guys off. But you just try to adapt to it a little bit.

00:06:41
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00:07:42
Speaker 6: You got on the cruise with Burke yesterday and he had just pitched how much do you guys at starting pitchers need to be together watch each other like, walk out to the bullpen, then the eyewash, walk back into the bullpen. Let other teams do like how much do you guys really need to be to get other to have a successful rotation together every five days, especially if you have openers and it's like, well, is that guy actually in the rotation because he opened for me?

00:08:08
Speaker 2: So does he need to walk out here?

00:08:10
Speaker 4: Or are we all walking together?

00:08:11
Speaker 2: What's happening? Yeah, I mean I think it's just yeah, being together. I mean, obviously, the when there is the opener, it kind of puts a little kink in the routine there because we don't want to so we can't walk in some get some of the relievers will go straight from the bullpen to the game and so like we can't bay go out of the tunnel and we're following them but kind of running to the side. So it kind of gets a little weird with that. But you know, I think just being together is great. I mean, like we talked about it last night, like everybody can do something better than you can, and I think you're pretty ignorant if you don't believe that. So like constantly picking guy's brains on how how they throw a certain pitch, what's their thought process, and then you know, taking their thought process into one of your pitches and see if it works. And kind of tinkering a little bit, you know, because I feel like you never really fully you know, peek at this game. I feel like you can constantly learn from somebody. And you know, I talked about it last night, like Sean and Shane were very instrumental in my in my curveball development, Like I could never throw a curveball, and I continually talk about this on the bench, like what are you thinking when do you throw? And how do you throw it when you think about throwing it, and like what's the process, and so you kind of tinker and tinker and tinker, and so I think it's been great. I think a lot of the pitches that I've developed and a lot of the thought processes that I have is from you know, talking to guys all the way back from twenty twenty two with Ceasi and Copek and all those guys, and just throughout the years you kind of pick up things from guys that come in and out, and so I think it's very important. I feel its very important to have that kind of relationship with with your fellow starters, and I think we have a good purn of each spot.

00:09:41
Speaker 6: You just mentioned twenty twenty two when you got called up for the first time. How much has this organization changed, because they've changed a lot of people. You talk about Copek, Gary Crochet wasn't even healthy back then. Now he's cy young candidate, he's in with another organization.

00:09:56
Speaker 2: You've seen the change. How much has it changed?

00:09:59
Speaker 6: And pick out one thing that you're like, ah, I really wish we still had that, and another thing that you're like, man, I am so glad.

00:10:05
Speaker 2: We don't have that anymore. Yeah. I mean, honestly, you look at once when you start throwing out longest tenored and I'm the name that shows you kind of where we're at. But you know, I think from a culture standpoint, I think we had a very clique culture. You know a while back. This is Bob No. I mean though, I think we had a very clique culture at times, and I think it was kind of like a little bit of every man for themselves, you know, back in the day, and then you start kind of getting into the nitty gritty of the twenty three, twenty four years and even last year a little bit, and you kind of have a little bit of a bright spot on the backside of it. But I think that overall, culture Hall of you know what we've been and where we're at now. I think we're kind of trending in that right direction. And to be honest, there's a lot of things that I think we've done much better than we did in twenty twenty two from a development standpoint, from a facility standpoint, Like, there's really nothing much that I would say back in twenty two compared to now that I wish we had, because I think we were trending in the right direction and in a lot of different areas.

00:11:08
Speaker 3: David, let's talk about you a little bit. You're off to a little bit of a nice start here. I know you don't want to talk about it.

00:11:13
Speaker 4: But what did you change? Did you change anything.

00:11:16
Speaker 3: This year from previous years? I mean, I know you're going to say health, but besides being healthy.

00:11:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think it's just the understanding of your arsenal right. I mean I think younger pitchers you come up and it's always, hey, you need to add this pitch. Okay, well we need to try to change this pitch. You need to change this shape, you need to try to throw this more. And I think going into this offseason for the first time, I was just like I have my arsenal, like this is what I need to do. And you know, if I have these six pitches, I feel like I can be successful and go get guys out. And so just for finding that all off season and not having to focus on like, Okay, well I need to find a slider this offseason. And so just for constantly teekering, and you know, I think I look back at last year. We looked at after the first month, they're like, hey, your slider's getting a ten percent chase ten percent with which has got awful. So you're doing a complete overhaul and a slider in the middle of the year, which is a nightmare for anybody. And so just going into the year knowing what my stuff is, how I want to throw it, how I want to set it up, kind of gets a little bit more comfortable and you know your understanding of your stuff. All right.

00:12:18
Speaker 3: Well, then tomorrow we talked about this last night. You guys played the Angels tonight and tomorrow you know who you're pitching against tomorrow night.

00:12:25
Speaker 2: So I don't know, baby, let's go.

00:12:27
Speaker 3: Does that mean you go into the game thinking like, man, he gives up, he's giving up, Like one run or something the whole year.

00:12:32
Speaker 4: Do you go in tomorrow and say boys.

00:12:33
Speaker 3: Do you go into the offense you want to say, boys, come on, I just need to give me two boys and will win this game?

00:12:39
Speaker 4: Or do you try not to think about it and just have to pitch your game.

00:12:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's pitching your game, But I think it's also understanding like this is what you play in the big leagues for, right, Like you don't want to go play, you know, some for a starter, Like you want to play the best and you want to beat the best, and you know, I always remember, I think it was you Darbush was the first really big name that I got to win against. And just the feeling of something like that in twenty two, I was like, oh my gosh, Like I remember watching this guy. This guy is incredible, and like now you're competing against him and you can you can try to beat him, and so I think just getting lost in the competition, right, like, this is an incredible opportunity and it's going to be a lot of fun and you just go out there, you pitch your game and see where it owens up. What are your rotation mates? Had a pretty decent year last year. It was an All star Shane Smith, and now he's in the bushes. How does that motivate you or how does that conversation you have with him or do you just let him be who he is because you look at a guy like that who's an all star and then the reality of the major leagues is you can get sent down at any time. Yeah, I mean, you know, I talked to him. I was like, I got option eight times or nine times in twenty twenty two, and I was just like, the reality is, it's like that's that's this game. I mean, you're never guaranteed a spot and I know that, you know, being a fourteenth round pick, like nothing ever is going to come easy and nothing's ever going to be handed to you. So you know, I just I don't think I've ever lost that ship. And I talked to him about that. I'm like, really, dude, you're not trying to find something different. You're just trying to find who you are, right Like, you've already been there, You already know what you need to do to be successful. And I was just finding that again, you don't have to reinvent the wheel and be someone or not. And so you know, we've we've had conversations back and forth, you know, over the past few weeks, and we check in with each other and make sure, you know, see how each other is doing and so but yeah, no, it's tough and that's but that's the reality of professional baseball. And I think he's ready for the challenge and he's he's ready to, you know, go out there and compete and find it again. And he wants to be back up here real bad. And he's doing everything he can. So you know, that's all I can do is support him and kind of talk to him and see how he's doing.

00:14:41
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00:14:49
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00:14:51
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00:15:18
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00:15:42
Speaker 6: All right, I have a super random question for you, Mike Trouts. Mike Trout's coming in, Okay, I'm not I don't know if you're a Nike guy or not. AJ's a Nike was a Nike guy. But if there is a picture if yeah, he lets us all know he was the Nike guy, first one to ever wear the catching equipment. But the random question is, if there is a picture on your team that wears Nike, will you let them wear the Trouts to face Mike Trout, because it feels like we talked about this this weekend with my buddy. It feels like Trout's already beaten you. If he looks out at the mount and goes that dude's wearing my cleats, I'm pretty sure I'm gonna hit a dinger off them.

00:16:22
Speaker 2: You know, it's hilarious. I actually wear Mike Trouts and I faced him last year with Mike Trouts and I even did good. Even one for three.

00:16:32
Speaker 6: That's good. That's good for Mike. One for three is great for a hitter. So maybe maybe maybe some Mike, maybe some coops. I don't even know if they make coops anymore.

00:16:39
Speaker 2: But yeah, I'll try to go. I'll talk to I'll talk to Rob and see if I can go find some some O G's or something like that. You know, maybe you've got some leftover Persinski cleats or something like that I can throw on.

00:16:49
Speaker 4: No, trust me, they shift those things out as soon as humanly. As soon as I left.

00:16:53
Speaker 3: Next spring, they sent a pod of shoes. I have a picture. I've shown it before. They send you know, those pods they have. They sent that over to the surprise and we had a whole pod. They don't, and we're like, no, bo, whole pod.

00:17:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, so it sounds like you got plenty. You can send me something.

00:17:11
Speaker 3: I gave them all away. I'd send you somebody to high school kids. We've had Foster Griffin who pitching at you guys used to wear.

00:17:19
Speaker 2: In high school.

00:17:20
Speaker 4: We've had like four or five guys come on the show and we're like, hey, I wore your catcher's gear. I wore your shoes.

00:17:26
Speaker 3: There's been like four guys that have come on here just give away. I wore like four pairs of shoes a year, and I would give They'd send me like fifty pairs of shoes, and I would just be like, take them.

00:17:39
Speaker 4: I don't care. I don't care. Like, but by the way, I only wear plastic.

00:17:44
Speaker 3: I only wear plastically too, so it wouldn't it wouldn't really work. No, I just I just like plastically. They're more comfortable.

00:17:51
Speaker 6: What you don't What you don't know, Davis, is all those pictures in Bob's office that you see of him AJ hung them up, So any thing that he was the one that hung them. I made sure there was all pictures of a J.

00:18:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm trying to see. Yeah, there's molds, all right. He's not lying though, because I do see the molds on the bottle there, so that's good.

00:18:12
Speaker 3: I did break I did. I did watch Bob break the chair across from his desk you're sitting on. You see the chair that's across from him. I did see Bob sitting it and break that chair though.

00:18:21
Speaker 2: I was there.

00:18:21
Speaker 4: I witnessed that.

00:18:24
Speaker 2: There's a lot of stuff going on in this office. Man, got just watched there's a lot of stuff going on here.

00:18:30
Speaker 3: As by the way, I know where we off topic. But asked Bob why he's a Wisconsin fan when he went to Iowa. Just that's he's never answered that for me.

00:18:38
Speaker 2: I mean too bad football programs right now, so I can't really Oh oh okay, hold on, we're not allowed to talk football because Scott doesn't get it.

00:18:46
Speaker 3: But just because Texas Tech paid like seventeen million dollars for their football team this.

00:18:52
Speaker 2: Year, it's legal. Man man front door, Patrick saying, like the only thing stop in Indiana for me to go to football was it was illegal.

00:19:02
Speaker 5: True money money bag era is over now you just you drop.

00:19:09
Speaker 2: Cho aired that out. Remember he was just like you used to go in the back door and I's coming to the front door.

00:19:13
Speaker 5: So it's so true.

00:19:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, drop off cash now you direct deposits.

00:19:20
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:19:21
Speaker 1: Last one for you, Davis, just like a general question for you. In first month of this season, anything stand out either from a team or a player perspective, an opponent you've taken on where you're like, oh, damn this this team's really good or better than I thought they were going to be. Just like to get the perspective of what you're seeing on the field in the first month of the season that stood out, you know, when you're sitting with someone like, hey, what it was something that really impressed you in terms of what you saw.

00:19:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I think two things. I think one, we went down to Miami. Sandy al Contra looks the part again. You know we talked about how where he was last year. But you know we have a trainer, a physical therapist that was with Miami back when Sandy was you know, so young, and he looked at us, he's like he's back, and you know you could just tell me, and he's just he's dominat he's attacking the zone. He's doing everything that you know Sandy can do, and it was really it was really fun to watch from a picture's perspective. So yeah, i'd have to say that nice.

00:20:19
Speaker 1: I like it all right, Well you're off the hot seat. You did great without Ozzie. We liked hearing from you.

00:20:25
Speaker 3: And by the way, if if you haven't seen it, look at the White Sox starter as well. Besides, Sean Burke has to have the opener. Look at their numbers. They're they're doing all right. They are, they're doing all right, so keep it up.

00:20:37
Speaker 5: Here comes the offense, I think. Yep.

00:20:40
Speaker 1: Well, Davis, there was a pleasure man. Great to catch up with you. Appreciate the time and we'll talk to you soon.

00:20:46
Speaker 2: Awesome, thanks guys, appreciate it.