MLB contender concerns + D’backs rookie Taylor Rashi’s inspiring rise

00:00:06
Speaker 1: In the Weeds.

00:00:07
Speaker 2: We played this game recently, we're going to play it again. Biggest concern facing a contender. There's another article out in The Athletic and it brings up different questions. This time it's more specific. Last time we went over this was more of a theme with a team. This time it's like, for example, Phillies, who's starting Game two of the playoffs for you.

00:00:32
Speaker 1: Detroit?

00:00:33
Speaker 2: What's you're pitching after Trek Skoogle, which we've gone over on this show actually earlier this week. There's some questions about offenses.

00:00:42
Speaker 1: I think there's questions about every single team. So which one do you like? Though? Which one do you want.

00:00:47
Speaker 2: Us to do? This is Friday where you get to just look at the board and you get the sound off pop off. If you're an OGFT fan and you remember that segment from twenty twenty three, cook.

00:01:00
Speaker 1: Candy pop.

00:01:05
Speaker 3: Anyway, no free and I'm I'm with I'm with you, what I I like it?

00:01:12
Speaker 4: Todd answer the question.

00:01:16
Speaker 1: Throw.

00:01:17
Speaker 2: Candy popcorn into your mouth?

00:01:20
Speaker 4: No free advertising, No free advertising. I mean, what's the biggest concern of any team because everybody.

00:01:28
Speaker 1: Has concerned, Well, it's pitching, but.

00:01:30
Speaker 4: Any individual team one well.

00:01:32
Speaker 3: I I I wanted to say the Mariners, but I feel like they're still set. Their pitching is is really good. I mean, I go with Boston Crochet has been really good, but you know, these other guys just haven't been a part of it.

00:01:50
Speaker 2: I mean, you're saying lately they're great, but you don't know if you trust it in the playoffs.

00:01:56
Speaker 1: I don't know if I trusted in the playoffs.

00:01:58
Speaker 4: Outside of or you're saying Crochet has recently done you feel like he's.

00:02:03
Speaker 3: Well, No, I feel like he'll be fine. Okay, Okay, don't do that. The guard he's really good.

00:02:07
Speaker 1: Okay, Yeah, he's probably number two hit or miss God. I don't know.

00:02:17
Speaker 2: Are there some pictures where you watch them and you're like, that's more of a regular season play, Like, not that they can't perform in the playoffs, but are there some guys that you'd face and you're like, man, when this guy faces the top competition on the planet, the top team this year or whatever, he's gonna get roasted.

00:02:36
Speaker 4: I think there's guys that, Yeah, I don't think his stuff plays in the pressure pressure of the postseason. Not that he, like a certain picture will fold, but just more like, sorry, his stuff's not elite. Everybody's everybody's amped up, everybody's juice. The bats are a little bit quicker. I think whatever your whatever your strength is, it's it's magnified in the playoffs. If you can hit a fastball, you could hit a bullet in the playoffs. And I think some pitchers you look at and you're like, he just empties the tank, empties the tank, every single pitch. I was talking about it last night on Pinch Striped Terriforatory. I think that's what Carlos Rodin used to be. He was just first pitch out, empty the tank, best slider, best slider. Last night, what I saw from him was he was able to locate some pitches that then later on if he needed a strikeout, if he got in a jam, bang he went to it and he never needed it. So it's like there's two levels to pitchers, and if a pitcher doesn't have that second level, those are the dudes in the playoffs I don't think are going to give you what you what you're looking for. It might go three innings, they might go four innings, but their managers just waiting to hit the bullpen button. Just go to the bullpen and they know it. You know, the team will let you know. No, you're good.

00:03:57
Speaker 3: The team that I know we have up here that I'm not worried about is it is the Tigers. Really Aj Hinch, Wow, it was one of the most Yeah, this guy is playing chess.

00:04:07
Speaker 1: When everybody's playing checkers. Dude.

00:04:08
Speaker 3: He will start the guy for one inning, next guy comes in for two. Like he has boom, he has his sheets. Oh oh, day two, Day three, He's got eight hundred different things about exactly what he wants to do. I want to see if they can move up a little bit more after what they did last year.

00:04:23
Speaker 1: It would be fun to see the Tigers make a big push.

00:04:26
Speaker 4: But you don't have you don't have as many question marks with him.

00:04:30
Speaker 3: I mean there is, but I just in AJ, we trust, That's all. I was so blown away when I did those games last year. This guy was unbelievable.

00:04:40
Speaker 2: In fairness, I see what you're saying, because last year they truly had school ball and then chaos. This year there's concern after schoolbl But can Jack Flaherty give you some good innings in the playoffs or absolutely can Casey Mice get through in order once or twice and make you feel good. Absolutely. I actually agree with you that from a depth perspective, there is more to it. I think they'll have an easier time getting through the beginning of a game and be a little bit less Schoogle reliant. We talked about this the other day, Kratz. They were completely Scoogle reliant. They're like, if Schoogle wins every game for us, we can go the distance. If he has one blip, we're done this year. If he has one blip or one okay, not bang or start, I think they can still win a series. Because Jack Flaherty last year was like, oh, he's amazing in the playoffs and he gets rocked. So if you get that version of Flaherty, great, you know, and he gets swing and miss. Jack Flaherty's stuff can play in the playoffs if he's feeling it. So I agree with him on that front. Did I want the Tigers to do more at the deadline, Sure, But I mean they've transformed Kyle Finigan as long as he's okay from the other day.

00:05:50
Speaker 5: He's a strikeout machine.

00:05:51
Speaker 2: Now Kyle Finigan just got paid like triple what he was going to get in the offseason, right, he made like six mil last offseason. He's probably gonna sign a two or three year deal for like six to eight mil a year, Like he might sign three years twenty one because they said, hey, you use your splitter thirty percent of the time, let's go fifty boom strikeouts. I mean it was I don't want to be I don't want to sound dumb because it's I'm not inside there, but like it did look that simple on paper, like strikeouts are up a ton. What's he doing pitch mix? Oh my gosh, he's using his slider twenty percent more.

00:06:26
Speaker 4: It's so it's so crazy splitter, Yes, I know what you meant. It's so cringey. That the that the Nats just have never seen this, and they they had him. He was successful, He works hard, he was in big spots and they just never unlock that. That's tough to see. But for me, the one that facing the contending teams, because we're talking contending teams, that's the only reason they're on this list is the Cubs. Are the Cubs gonna be? Okay? How is how is Kyle Tucker gonna come back from this injury? Is he been playing with it for a while. Is this time off that he's gonna have going to get him completely healthy? Because if he's not completely healthy, see you, it's gonna be it's gonna be quick. And that's why I hesitated even talking about the Cubs because I think they're They're two and Q I mean a three game series. I just don't see how unless this offense changes what they're doing. PCA gets back on a heater, stops swinging at so many pitches.

00:07:31
Speaker 2: Sa Zuki too, Zuki.

00:07:35
Speaker 4: He was so pissed that he didn't make the All Star Game, which he should have, and then he forgot to come back for the second half. And now he's got to play right field. And I'm afraid that if he's in right field, is that gonna wear him down? Is he already worn down? Is he dealing with something? It's a big month. You can change things in September. You can make those adjustments. Fortunately, they have a big enough lead that they're gonna be in the playoffs. They need to figure it out.

00:08:01
Speaker 2: Thank good questions, good talk Diamondbacks Rookie Taylor Rashie joining us right now on FT Taylor, great to have you on. Thank you for the time and since it's only been what a couple of weeks. Congratulations on making the show man. How's life in the show?

00:08:16
Speaker 5: Thank you, thank you, Thanks for having me. It's a pleasure to be here. It's great. It's it's a world win of emotions right now.

00:08:24
Speaker 6: It feels like this last week and a half has been a month long, but it's been like a week and it's it's a lot, but it's a good time.

00:08:34
Speaker 1: You're a big leaguer now, bro, Nobody can take that away from you.

00:08:37
Speaker 3: My question to you, is there anything in these couple of weeks that you've been a part of that you've done something wrong that you didn't know about? Like when you come to the big leagues. I remember my first time. I walked out with shorts and a T shirt on, and Arthur Road.

00:08:52
Speaker 1: Said, Yo, what you doing, man? Get your you know what? Back up to and get changed.

00:08:57
Speaker 3: I'm like, oh my god, I had no clue, Like, did you do anything wrong that you got called out for?

00:09:02
Speaker 1: Yet? Not yet.

00:09:05
Speaker 6: I think I've had some guys on the team. One of my teammates, Kyle Backus, he got called up earlier this year and he did some of those things. So like the first when he first heard about it, he sent me like a couple of paragraph long text message saying, hey, do this, don't do that, make sure you do this, show up early, like just the rookie things. But yeah, he he gave me a good briefing on what not to do because I know that he went through some of those things.

00:09:32
Speaker 1: What a great rookie. That's a good friend.

00:09:34
Speaker 4: That's a great friend, that's that's big by him, that you don't have to make his mistakes.

00:09:39
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:09:39
Speaker 6: I had a couple of guys in Triple A, guys like Casey Kelly and other guys that have you know, they've been big leaders a long time. They would have, Like Casey went over to Korea, so he was able. Like before I went up, he's like, hey, like here's the kind of the ground rules. Make sure you're in early, out late, don't wear this, make sure you you know, stay out away in the training.

00:09:59
Speaker 5: Room like things like that.

00:10:01
Speaker 4: Yeah, but you're older than most of these dudes, so it's got to be it's gotta be different. I broke into the big leagues I was I was thirty years already my first time, so I was a rookie for the Pirates, and man, I think like ten or twelve days into it was the trade deadline, they got rid of everybody. I went from one of the like middle tier older guys to the oldest guy on the team with the least amount of service time. So when some of these dudes start giving you a hard time, you still have to sing on the bus. So I bet I hope you have a song that you're ready to sing or play or dance one of the two or one of the three. But I do you gotta make you do? Can you give us like a preview of what that song is gonna be?

00:10:44
Speaker 6: The song I had to do this in college, so I have I have like a little preparation. It's Party in the USA by Miley Cyrus. It's a pretty easy song. So that's what I kind of stick with.

00:10:58
Speaker 4: Okay, So what's your big what's your first big league moment? You haven't been up there very long. What's your first big league moment that's something big league that you're like, dang, this is the show, not not. I'm not talking about like you're you know, you're out it, where you got your you got your first save, or like you're in like you're sitting in a bullpen and like, wow, the stadium is big. But like something that's like like ca tell Marte's jewelry or something like something big league.

00:11:24
Speaker 6: There's there's a lot of that. I think my first big league moment was probably my first night. Even though I got option after my game in the walkdown, I flew back with the team to LA and so one of one of my relievers, Bryce Jarvis, took me out to a nice like rooftop sushi dinner in l A. And I was like, okay, like this is this is pretty show.

00:11:46
Speaker 5: This is cool.

00:11:48
Speaker 1: I love that. Okay.

00:11:49
Speaker 2: So then for on the field moment, Taylor, you've made two appearances and you've been great. You've wracked up two saves already your first two appearances. That alone is pretty rare. Your story is rare and cool, and obviously Kratz has gone through something somewhat similar. Right where you wait you get your time now to strike? But did you expect that in your first two appearances you would be thrust into this kind of spot. I have to admit I didn't catch the first one live. I caught the second one live. I watched and I'm like, damn, this is a moment. I mean, it was the Brewers the first time around, that's best record in baseball. Second time around, it's Texas. They're fighting for their playoff lives, and I'm like, here's Taylor playing spoilers.

00:12:31
Speaker 1: So how cool was that?

00:12:32
Speaker 2: Because there's many relievers that go their whole career and they don't get to touch a save up.

00:12:37
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's cool.

00:12:38
Speaker 6: I think the first time in Milwaukee, I was kind of just thrown into it, kind of by luck.

00:12:43
Speaker 5: We didn't have we didn't have a lot of available arms with a bullpen.

00:12:46
Speaker 6: You know, our guys have been grinding down in the bullpen, and I knew that I was kind of called up to Phils innings, and those innings just happened to be seven, eight nine.

00:12:55
Speaker 5: I wasn't really expecting that by any means. It was. It was crazy.

00:13:01
Speaker 6: I thought maybe I was gonna go out for the seventh and the eighth and then somebody had come in for the ninth. But you know, after I walked in and the after the eighth inning was over and thenn't shake my hand, I was like, well, here we go.

00:13:13
Speaker 4: What is what is that? What is that like? For you in your situation. You've been in the minor leagues. You've seen guys get optioned down, You've seen guys get dfayed. When you're out there that long. Do you ever think, oh, man, this is so many innings, I'm gonna be down tomorrow. I guess. I guess I'm don't cancer your tickets, mom, dad, uncle, cousin, cancer your tickets. I won't be in I won't be in LA because they're gonna definitely option me. I just threw three innings. Do you think about that? Do guys say anything to you.

00:13:49
Speaker 5: I knew it was coming. I knew just the position I was in.

00:13:53
Speaker 6: I knew once I went out there for that third inning, I kind of sat in the dug out and I was like, well, I need to make the best of my opportunity right now, because I know I'm gonna be for two days at least, and they're gonna need guys to fill in. So I was like, you know, like, this is my opportunity. I gotta go make the most of it. And yeah, I did have to send out those text messages after the game, like hey, like, I'm not gonna be on the team in LA. So don't bother coming.

00:14:18
Speaker 1: That's good.

00:14:18
Speaker 4: You saved some money. You didn't have to get a bunch of people tickets because you would have played for free if you went out to LA and you had to get everybody tickets. But my yeah, my question is probably one that's been asked a million times, but I'm asking it because it got asked of me a million times as a thirty year old for myself going up to the big leagues? How many times did you think about quitting? And my answer was always a freaking ton But I was fortunate I never had any injuries. What is that for you? What is that? What is that is? What is the main time that you were like, yeah, this is probably when I should quit.

00:14:57
Speaker 6: It was probably when I tore my lat. At the end of the twenty two two seasons, I was in Double A. I was having the season of my life. I think I had like a sub two five era. I was, you know, I was cruising. I was having a great time. And then you know, we went up to Portland Main and I tore my.

00:15:13
Speaker 1: Lat and.

00:15:15
Speaker 6: I was just sitting there in the hotel after the game, and I was just like, man, like this, there's a very good possibility and this is it. Like I'm getting up there in age, I don't throw very hard, like this could be it. And and all throughout rehab, you know, your rehab for a year, and I spent the entire year living in hotels. And there's days where I would just wake up and I'm like, man, what if I just don't go to the field today, Like I there's nothing like I don't know if there's an end of the tunnel.

00:15:44
Speaker 5: With the light in it.

00:15:45
Speaker 6: I I just I was there was times where I was like struggling to just motivate myself to get to the field to do my lat rehab, and you know, I just kind of felt like sometimes I was like, you know, I don't know if this is all worth it.

00:15:57
Speaker 4: So there's countless times that you thought about quit, and it's all it's hard. It's hard to even like conceptualize or like put it on paper. Was there somebody? Was there somebody that kept you going? Was there somebody that's like pissed you off that you're like, oh screw that, I'm gonna show that person. You know what motivates you to keep going?

00:16:20
Speaker 6: Yeah, there's a kind of a decent amount of people I have a little list of my phone of people like throughout my career, starting in like high school, that have like told me like, hey, like you're too slow, you don't throw hard enough, you're not good enough. You know, you're out of shape. Like just people throughout my entire career that have told me like, hey, you're not like you don't have a chance. Like there's less than one percent of you know, people that play baseball that make it like why are you that person?

00:16:50
Speaker 5: So like, yeah, there's.

00:16:51
Speaker 6: A pretty solid list of people where I'm just like, you know, like I have to prove these people wrong.

00:16:57
Speaker 5: I like proving people wrong. It kind of is my motive.

00:17:02
Speaker 6: And so yeah, there's a list of people and a couple of them got text messages.

00:17:08
Speaker 4: Yeah, okay, hey receipts.

00:17:11
Speaker 1: Maybe I love every sec receipts.

00:17:13
Speaker 4: He's catching them receipts in.

00:17:15
Speaker 3: Chang here's one. Ching love every second of that. That he might be have a little jersey in him.

00:17:20
Speaker 1: No, I like that.

00:17:22
Speaker 3: Yeah, he definitely does a little swag piece. My question here is I want to talk about minor leagues a little bit about the pitchers. I know you guys understand, but you talk a lot is there a main focus on velocity, Like do you guys always talk about velocity and how much you know in the big leagues and where you're at now, it's about speed and movement on the baseball.

00:17:42
Speaker 6: I mean, yeah, there's always less from the staff, less from like pitching coaches and all that stuff, because like, you have what you have, and like, gaining velocity in the season is it's hard. It's almost impossible, especially after a long season. But like throughout the pitching staff the bullpen, like everyone's trying to find something that you know it's going to give them an extra mile or two an hour. And that's something I struggled with a lot last year. You know, I got suck into those conversations and I tried all year. I was throwing away the balls, I was doing everything, doing the extra stuff in the gym, going out on the mound and like trying to throw harder. I was really focusing on, like, hey, how can I, you know, get my average fastball velo up a mile an hour or two? And that really led to me being less efficient, throwing less strikes, not hitting my spots. And you know, this year I kind of just accepted. I was like you know what, I'm going to be that guy that throws eighty eight to ninety one, and I just have to accept that. And I know it will probably take longer to get some recognition just because I don't throw very hard. But eventually my thought was, you know, results are going to end up outweighing the what if he threw ninety three? What if he threw ninety four type talk that I know people have.

00:18:51
Speaker 4: Yeah, they're always going to talk about that, But you got two saves in the show, So piss on that heavy ball and running and gunning and throwing it as hard as you can, and you know ball four never gets an out. But my question to you is you're with the Diamondbacks. When I watched your video when I watched the game the other day, we brought it up here and I said to Scott, I said, who do you think that guy looks like? Who does he pitch like? Is there a direct comparison of a probably twenty twelve Diamondback pitcher. You probably don't even know him, but his name probably has come up because he came up through the Diamondbacks system. Is there ye are you compared? Are you comparing to that person?

00:19:30
Speaker 5: Yeah, we talked about cale mentor.

00:19:32
Speaker 4: Yes, and is that is that unfair? Because he was shorter than you were, so that's not cool. But the pitching do they do they mention that as Diamondbacks, you know, staff and stuff.

00:19:43
Speaker 6: I mean, I've heard that for the last like three or four years. I remember, you know, briefly watching him when I was younger, and I never really put it together. And then my my coach at Ucar Van ben Orloff called me in the office one day in the offseason. He goes, hey, like, you know, you don't throw very hard, but you throw exactly like this guy. And I was like, who, Like, who throws like me? Like, I know, I'm unique, I know, I'm weird, like and He's pulled up a video and I was like, yeah, that's yeah, I throw exactly like him.

00:20:13
Speaker 5: So and he's like, just keep doing that.

00:20:15
Speaker 6: One day, it'll work out, and thankfully it did.

00:20:20
Speaker 4: Definitely did that measureable we got measure I Yeah, I'm wrong. I thought Cole Mener was more like a six foot guy, six foot like two ten to twenty. He's six three two forty. You're six four two twenty. I thought you were much taller.

00:20:36
Speaker 2: But and then you use the extension too, right.

00:20:39
Speaker 4: Yeah, can you can you dive in can you dive into that at all in a sense of like the extension that you get and what that I'm not going into the numbers of analytics because I think will bore some people, But there's no way you haven't been able to successfully increase your velocity from what you said, have you been able to successfully increase your extension, your angle of attack, your spin rate in ways that has helped you way more than two or three miles an hour when your velocity would.

00:21:11
Speaker 6: Yeah, I've always been a guy that's had pretty good extension. I get around seven feet of extension on any given fastball, and so I kind of was just lucky that I've always had that and I didn't really know I had it until I got into professional baseball because that's when I all like the analytics and they start telling me all this stuff. But yeah, that kind of stuff has really helped me because I know it makes my eighty eight look a little bit faster. And just I've heard from like our first baseman's, our shortstops or second basement, like when they talk to hitters that are hitting off me, they're like it says eighty eight on the board, but it gets on you a lot faster than any other eighty eight like that they seen. So I know that the the extension helps me a lot.

00:21:58
Speaker 1: Do you know how?

00:22:00
Speaker 4: First of all, do you remember who?

00:22:02
Speaker 1: Do you remember who.

00:22:04
Speaker 4: Told you that? Was it just some like dude who was like, excuse me, Taylor, you have incredible extension or was it like do you remember the coach?

00:22:16
Speaker 5: No, I don't remember the coach per se. I just know that.

00:22:21
Speaker 6: It would come up in meetings, just like with you know, pitching, development staff and stuff like that, that it's like I have good extension. And to be honest, I never really was one since I'm a little bit older that was heavy into analytics or even like trying to understand them because they're all just so arbitrary to me, Like I don't still to this day, I don't get a lot of understand a lot of the numbers. But they're just like, hey, don't change that, And I was like, well, I don't plan on changing how I pitched. I don't think that's going to change.

00:22:53
Speaker 1: I don't don't.

00:22:54
Speaker 4: I wouldn't know how to change it if I could, so there's do you know, because everybody compares veloci, everybody's gonna say Ben Joyce throws this. When you're a team, Justin Martinez throws triple digits. Extension is a real thing. Do you know how you compare your extension compared to other guys that have elite extension? I know, or might be nerding out, but like guys need to know where you compare and why you, in my opinion, could have a really good career.

00:23:28
Speaker 6: Yeah, I kind of know where I stand as far extension. I know there's there's a lot of guys with more extension than me. I mean, you got Miserwski nowadays is I think he's like seven to five seven six extension or something like that, still throwing a hundred.

00:23:41
Speaker 5: So I can't imagine what that looks like.

00:23:45
Speaker 6: But I know just from what I've been told and like numbers I've seen that, you know, I'm pretty high up there on the extension list, or at least above average, And so I think I think that helps me a lot, and it helps me have confidence the fact that okay, yeah I throw eighty eight, but it moves a little bit and it gets on you a little bit. Faster than what the board says.

00:24:07
Speaker 4: It should it should. I'm only saying this because I want to encourage kids who are pitching that don't have ninety five at sixteen years old, that this is the beauty of baseball. You have a superpower. Go out there and know that you've got a freaking superpower, and you can get everybody out because when they get out, they're gonna look at the board and go, how did this guy get me out? And then every two weeks you're gonna get a big league check in your pocket. And that is the beauty of baseball, coming from a guy who did, like I said, didn't make the big leagues until I was thirty. And you have to find your way, and it's your way because when you get optioned down or dfad, nobody cares, but you do, so do every you have a superpower. It's okay, thank you, thank you.

00:24:56
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's uh, it's a crazy it's a crazy thing.

00:25:01
Speaker 6: Because even when I was fifteen sixteen, like I threw a lot slower than I do now, and it took a long time to realize that, like I was still able to get people out, not throwing hard, And then it took me a little bit longer to have confidence in that, and then once I just had screw it, like that's what I got and that's what you're gonna get.

00:25:21
Speaker 5: That really kind of helped me a lot.

00:25:23
Speaker 2: Well, it's an awesome story. We appreciate the time. These are great ones for us. Yes, we've got the man with experience on the desk here. So yeah, not many shows where you're like, yep, I'm gott an interviewed guy, A guy who took just as long, yeah, longer.

00:25:36
Speaker 4: Longer, he got their way before, so he's he's he must be a prospect compared to me. But now now Scott said, we were we were questioning how to say your name? What's the worst? What's the worst pa announcing of your name, your last name that anybody's done.

00:25:52
Speaker 6: I think the worst one is probably Russhi. That's they say it like with a you in there, like uh like Rashi Rice, like the football player. I think that's probably the worst one.

00:26:06
Speaker 4: But that's the worst one, not like not Rashy, like oh here comes Rashie again, he's real Rashy.

00:26:13
Speaker 5: Well that's that's actually how you pronounce it, so that would be.

00:26:19
Speaker 2: I thought it was more it was a mix of A and I because that's how I kind of heard it, like Tayler rashi, which a little broadcaster trick if you don't know, that's how you do it, right, Like you just mix. Yeah, you hear the mix on a lot of names. That's what you do. But it's rat not raw.

00:26:37
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:26:37
Speaker 6: So everyone teammates, coaches, everyone always calls me rashi, which I'm totally used to. But the right way is rash.

00:26:48
Speaker 4: There you go beat more, you know, that's what where That's what you used to say about Todd too, he's very rashy.

00:27:00
Speaker 2: Hey, well this was great Taylor. Thanks for joining us. Now the world knows the name. And keep doing your thing. Man, it's a great story.

00:27:08
Speaker 5: Awesome. Thank you guys for having me on. I appreciate it.