Nats enforce long defensive drills + Royals SP Kris Bubic joins FT

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what he said.

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Speaker 2: That's what he said.

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Speaker 1: That's what he said.

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Speaker 3: That's what he said. All right, So we wanted to get to this. Before Tuesday's game, Blake Uterra had some long quote to the media about why he's got the team out there over five hours before the game practicing defense. The Nationals are struggling in that component, and this is part of the new regime with a president baseball ops and a manager bringing them on the field nice and early to try and improve on something that they are not great at compared to the rest of the league. I see Kratz working on the substance that washes his eyes, otherwise known as eyew wash. So that's a little preview of maybe what Kratz is going to reply with. But let me at least set the quote up, and I'm going to try and speed read because it is a bit long, Okay.

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Speaker 2: So bear with me here. He said.

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Speaker 3: I think it gets to a point where we've addressed how much we care about defense and how it hasn't been very good. I think we almost started to see a little bit of our players afraid to make mistakes because of how many they've made. The message to them was that we have a super athletic team, if not the most athletic, one of the most athletic teams in baseball. We'd leave the league and run scored second and so on base Again, this a couple of days ago, but still they're high up there. We do a lot of really athletic things. We need to let our athleticism take over defensively. I don't think any sport or anything in life is fun to do if you're afraid to make mistakes. So I'd rather us err on the side of just being athletic and going to make plays and not being out there like I can't mess up. If that makes sense, we'll see if that helps. But I don't want our guys to be afraid to make mistakes. Then there was a question posed back, is there a point where it almost would make more sense to not do extra work, and he said, I don't know if I can get on board with that. I think when we're struggling like we are, we need to work. Maybe changing up to work, But I think it's tough message to players and everybody else if you make a lot of mistakes and it's like, you know what, We're just gonna sit inside krats go.

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Speaker 1: Nobody's saying you sit inside. Nobody's saying five hours is the answer. That's like saying like, well I don't like this, Okay, I'm gonna do the exact opposite. No, you're not sitting inside. Big Leaguers work. That's the only way you stay in the big leagues. If you're not getting better, you're going you're getting worse because there's younger guys, faster guys, more athletic guys coming up behind you to take your job. If an organization says we need to be out there for five hours every day. One, don't tell anybody how much you work, because it really doesn't matter. All that matters is what's going on in the field. Two. If you're just planning things, to plan things like where's the backing of it?

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Speaker 2: What is the.

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Speaker 1: Hey? I remember when I played, this is what really helped me. Hey, this is how we like When I was at the Pirates in two and nine twenty ten, their answer to everything in the minor leagues and in the big leagues was well, we'll just schedule more, We'll plan more. Other teams run the three hundred you know, three hundred yard shuttle we're.

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Speaker 4: Running a nine hundred yard shuttle.

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Speaker 1: And it's like okay, like cool, so you do more. I bet there is, And maybe AJ doesn't agree with me. If you do ten perfect reps, you can make mistakes, but you can do them perfectly mechanically perfectly, or one hundred average reps, which is better in my opinion, the ten perfect reps. Get it done, do it right, lock in because then in the game you haven't muddled yourself with a ton of stuff going on in your mind, and you're fresh and you're ready to go because you can stay locked in for ten for ten reps on defense, just like in a cage. My opinion was, you go swing. If you take more than eight swings in the cage, now you're just swinging your bat towards the baseball and you're not really getting a lot of quality reps in there.

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Speaker 4: My thing is this, in the big leagues, it's about the game from seven to five to ten oh five or whatever the day. The time of the game is that day, and if you're doing something every day, I honestly believe that you're taking away. If you're on the field for five hours, guys are gonna get tired. After one hundred and sixty games. In the minor leagues, you would have a little more early work because it wasn't about the games. It was more about developing and it wasn't about winning as much as it is in the big leagues. In the big leagues, you can't have guys out there every day, especially the older guys. Now, you could do this with the young team and if you want to try something once a week or do a little extra this and that. But most guys know how to work. They know how to get their ground balls, they know how to get their defensive work in. If you're a catcher, you have you know what stuff you need to look at as far as the pitchers and the opposing pictures, and you know how to get your A lot of guys do the framing stuff before they go, before they go to warm up the picture. But to be out there at like two o'clock and do this for three hours or whatever it is.

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Speaker 2: It's too much. You just you're gonna kill guys.

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Speaker 4: I'm sorry, You're gonna wear guys up to a point where they're gonna look at you and say, what are we doing? And we talked about eyewash all the time, Kratz, you know this too, Like you know things are going bad. Oh, let's do everybody has to be on the field tomorrow for PfP because we're gonna we're gonna show everybody how hard we're working, and we're out working people like. That's not always the answer, you know, sometimes guys need to take a step back. You want the guys to have fun, Well, then why are you making them worry about things that they shouldn't be worried about. Oh my gosh, I'm not working hard enough, the manager said, I'm not having fun. How about just saying, hey, guys, you guys are doing the right thing. Go out and play and have it and let your athleticism shine. Instead of oh we got to go out, Well, you made a mistake history, Well we got to go out correct if for the next five days like the stakes happened. I made plenty of mistakes, crowds made plenty of mistakes. Every player in the history of baseball has made plenty of mistakes. You can't you can't dwell on them and every single day go out there and work on it. I mean, every once in a while, I got no problem taking an infield or doing some pfps just to do them because you know it's.

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Speaker 1: Been a while.

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Speaker 4: But to do this every day, you're gonna wear dudes out.

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Speaker 1: And I think there is so much value to having that structure that having that A team funndamental maybe once or twice on a homestand because it's harder to get the field and get everybody out there when you're on the road, so you get a one once or twice on a six game homestand a team fundamental where we work on our cutoffs and relays if you feel like that's an issue. But if you're out there every day for five hours, which I think this is, this is a little overblown. I doubt they're out there for five hours, but I think it's like, what what are we accomplishing? Less is more, But it doesn't mean the less is lazy. It just means the less is focused attention to detail. And I think when you look down this whole roster of coaches, you say, how many of these guys have built a structure for a big league for a big league season. A lot of these guys have built PowerPoint presentations and like cool like Twitter posts for getting the job that they got in the big leagues, which I'm not saying they're not qualified for it. I'm saying the difference in winning big league games and the exact same thing that Tobony and but Terra said when they got their jobs. We're big into development here. So if you're saying we're big into development, okay, well now you just developed guys and you make sure the fans know we're not necessarily putting a winning product out on the field every single day because we're developing. Like Aj said, we're in the minor leagues. You do this because in the seventh inning, you're not going match up in a minor league game. No, You're like, well, Johnny hasn't pitched for two days, and he has to pitch on the third day because it's on our development sheet. So that's what that's what all this that's what all this basically boils down to. Are the Nats trying to develop and win at the same time at the big league level, because those are not two things that always coincide, and so maybe being able to have somebody there, having that Randy nor on the on the roster who's been in the big leagues for a decent amount of time, Sean Doolittle. You know he's there. He's been in the big leagues. He understands the grind of making seventy appearances out of the bullpen and leaning on those guys.

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Speaker 2: Not just holy crap, I'm in the big leagues.

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Speaker 1: I want to keep my job, so I'm gonna make sure I have the best presentation of what this practice is gonna look like.

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Speaker 2: And we're gonna.

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Speaker 1: Practice and practice and practice. What are you gonna do tomorrow?

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Speaker 2: We're practicing.

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Speaker 1: Oh great, and then we got to play a big game against a really good division.

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Speaker 2: It's good talk.

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Speaker 3: I love when we do these segments. Anyone that's watching after the fact, we'll post it as its own clip. Let us know if you have any comments to contribute.

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00:09:44
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00:09:57
Speaker 6: We back with our special guests. Royal starting pitcher Chris Bubach is in the house ready to break down some Royals talk.

00:10:05
Speaker 2: Chris things for joining the show. How are you? I'm great? How are you guys doing awesome? Wait?

00:10:11
Speaker 1: Wait before we get into anything at Chris, you got a collar button down shirt on? Do the Royals have?

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Speaker 2: What did you just come from?

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Speaker 6: Like?

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Speaker 1: What do the Royals have a role on the road. Do you have to be wearing wearing a gear?

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Speaker 2: Uh, We're a little more casual with it.

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Speaker 7: But I think I'm getting ready to go to the field, to be honest, right after this. So I'm a I'm a simple guy. I consider this a fairly simple shirt. But try to look my best when I can.

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Speaker 1: But the teams do teams still do that? Do teams still wear? But like, do you have a rule or is it? Can it be like a polo or like or like as AJ calls it, the male sun dress the quartersip.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's just look professional.

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Speaker 7: I think it doesn't necessarily have to be a collar shirt. When I when I first got into the organization, even in the mind the leagues, we were kind of colored shirt. But I think you know, as you go into your career a little bit more, you know, it becomes maybe a little more relaxed. But I think as long as you look professional, you know, business like, as you're going on the field.

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Speaker 2: I think every guy has their own swag too.

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Speaker 7: So I'm not, like I said, I'm a simple guy, So I try to keep it pretty uh pretty plain, I guess.

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Speaker 5: But okay, okay, Uh well, let me last question on this who's the most fashionable guy in the squad before I hit my question?

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Speaker 2: Mm hmmm, I'm gonna go with h MIKEL. Garcia.

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Speaker 7: He's got he's got some he's got some flavor to him.

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Speaker 5: I love that you get a little flavor. I love that probably got the tight jeans on with the tight shirt, all that good stuff.

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Speaker 2: Right, that's right, that's right.

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Speaker 1: That's profilely time.

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Speaker 5: I'm talking about he's out no jeans or anything like that at all. I'm not in elementary school, all right, got you? You back to Tommy Hill figures all day.

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Speaker 2: Anyway.

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Speaker 5: I want to talk about your repertoire man.

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Speaker 2: You brought in this slider.

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Speaker 5: You're All Star last year, you had, you know, you got really good plethora of pitchers, and you brought this slider. And you think that slider is a key factor and you know, an equalizer pitch for you as you move forward.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think so.

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Speaker 7: I think, you know, kind of looking at the early part of my career, I was, you know, more traditional, over the top curve ball, but I really had a lot of.

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Speaker 2: Issues with lefties, being a reverse splits guy. Kind of a change up.

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Speaker 7: First guy, and I'd say that's probably a little more balanced now I'll throw a lot more breaking balls. The slider's kind of broken up into two pitches now that I'm in the in the starting role that I've been in the last you know, season and change. But yeah, I think it just helps. You know, the sweeper helps against lefties, helps mitigate contact a little bit, which you know last year they performed exceptionally well. This year it's kind of been a little more inconsistent and maybe haven't you know, just located as well as I need to and execute as well. But for the most part, I think it's it's helped me just get more swing reactions from hitters, you know, be more competitive in his zone, more competitive with two strikes and you know those pitches. I think anything with depth helps me keep the ball on the ground as well.

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Speaker 1: Are you good at seeing that yourself? Are you good at seeing when you're adding or changing a pitch, changing the shape or do you have to come in and say, hey, what was the spin on that? Or you're throwing your pen, Hey what did the iPads say on that? Are you able to cause you're right in that, like I think you're drafting eighteen, right, right, And so you're rate in that realm where it's like, well, you know what, you're left handed, and probably some way when you were kids like hey man, that guy's a million dollar arm. He's gonna make it to the big league. So you have a natural ability. But can you see it yourself or is it only on the metrics.

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Speaker 2: I think it's a little bit of both.

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Speaker 7: I think, you know, you talk to most guys, most pitchers today, you know, for the longest time, I think, you know, going through the minor leagues, even my first couple of years in pro ball, I probably didn't pay much attention to tech, and I was doing it based on eyes and you know, hitter swings, which are still you know, still relevant today. But I think, you know, obviously stuff models for pitchers kind of run the game now, and you know, if you can create a certain pitch shape or let the seams kind of work on the way to the plate, that's kind of what I'm trying to do now, not necessarily chasing a shirt certain shape on you know, on an iPad. But I think, like you said, you you kind of know when when the ball's coming out of your hand.

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Speaker 2: The right way, you know how that feels.

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Speaker 7: You know, whether it's a fastball, breaking ball, change up, whatever it may be. You know kind of what that feels like when it's right and what it feels like when it's not right.

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Speaker 2: So I think the iPad just kind of confirms that.

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Speaker 7: But I think at the end of the day, there are a couple of things we can look at, whether what I'm doing mechanically or what I'm doing, you know, grip wise, we can tweak something and get kind of the pitch shapes right back to where they need to be.

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Speaker 6: Chris, you mentioned things feeling right, and the one thing that I think is really stood out about this season is ABS because we'll see some true conviction behind both pitchers, catchers and hitters two over what they believe is a ball and a strike. And you are working with one of the best catchers in the game in Salvor Perez. How has he been with ABS?

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Speaker 2: Oh, he's been great.

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Speaker 7: I think I remember back to our first series in Atlanta to start the year, and I think he I want to say, he had one hundred percent success rate throughout the entire series, which is pretty incredible, especially, you know, first implementing something that everybody's kind of getting the custom too, But I think our catchers overall have had a great success rate so so far. I think we're towards the top of the league. Sometimes, you know, as pitchers, we can be a little bit biased and feel like everything out there, you know, even if it's a ball or two off, feels like a strike. But I think they've they've recognized, you know, kind of you know, Salvi obviously has been around for a while, and he I think he has a really good idea of the and a really good idea of kind of the new ABS zone as well, because it's it's shrunk a little bit. I know, walks are up across the league, you know, myself included, But but I think he's done a great job in terms of understanding kind of the edges of the zone, picking picking the right times to challenge pitches. Especially I know a lot of a lot of teams are saving him for later in games and more high, high leverage situations, but he's been great.

00:16:24
Speaker 2: Carter Jensen, We've had Alias Diaz as well as.

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Speaker 7: Our third catcher, but I think all of them have a really good idea of kind of the the borderline pitches and kind of went to challenge and went to to save him for later in the game.

00:16:36
Speaker 5: Talk about starting pitching man, it's fun to watch play with Seth Lugo Fantastic's got his a thousand career strikeout the other day. Talk a little bit about him first and foremost. I know, he's just a chill dude. I don't know if he's you know, really come out of his shell yet. Talk about him and how how big of a leader he's been and helpful to you guys.

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Speaker 2: Oh, he's been great.

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Speaker 7: Uh, super super liable, super consistent. I think you know what you're going to get every time he walks in. That's with you know, everybody on our starting staff. But obviously he's been doing it. Obviously came out out of the bullpen with the Mets, but you know this, the transition to the starting roles has been great for me to kind of watch because I've done a little bit of both myself.

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Speaker 2: But he's just so cerebral.

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Speaker 7: I mean, you guys see the pitch Arsenal throwing nine ten different pitches every time he goes out there.

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Speaker 2: So it's really hard to pick one as a hitter.

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Speaker 7: I can't even imagine what that is in the box, or what that's like in the box, because you don't necessarily know what you're going to see in any given any given a bad any given count, because they'll throw anything at any time. But just to see the level of detail he goes to in the game planning, how he keeps his body right, and like you said, a thousand strikeouts, you know, not that's that's a great accomplishment. Not many people, you know, get to that point. So I think just to see him kind of grow through the years. Obviously he's been great for us in the last few years since he's been here in Kansas City.

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Speaker 2: But he's a great guy to emulate.

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Speaker 7: Just to see the daily consistency of the daily work has been great for me, and I know the other starters in the rotation as well.

00:18:08
Speaker 1: All right, Chris, So two years ago, we were celebrating the twenty fourteen team and I brought my one son into the clubhouse and besides the fact that everybody was ginormous, that's what he was.

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Speaker 2: Like, whoa, dad, everybody's huge.

00:18:19
Speaker 1: He goes Seth Lugo's book of I was like, that's a scatter report book. He's like that folder he goes, does everybody have one that big? So do you have a Seth Lugo scouting folder binder his binder like him?

00:18:36
Speaker 2: Yeah?

00:18:37
Speaker 7: Yeah, So that that started for our starting rotation. Probably Lugo was the inspiration for that, but our starters back in twenty four when we made the playoffs and had a playoff run, I was down in the bullpen when I came back from Tommy John, but all the starters were carrying around binders and their game planning and their notes and you know, just just scouting reports and whatnot, just to do their homework before the game, kind of making adjustments when they needed to.

00:19:01
Speaker 2: But now, as a.

00:19:02
Speaker 7: Starter, I do have a binder that I carry around most days, do my game planning study hitters, make some notes on guys, especially if I facing guys with the first time or facing guys multiple times.

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Speaker 2: So I think, you know, Lugo's kind of the poster.

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Speaker 7: Child, I guess for that because you'll he'll pull up you know, his splits by pitch type and it's it's, you know, it's like an essay because so many pitches, so many hitters to kind of work through. But it's great just to see the the method, to the madness to kind of work behind the scenes. I think just the game planning itself. You see the level of detail he goes into. It's really helped myself. Obviously we have Michael walk he's throwing the night for us, and he's been great as a veteran guy as well, because those guys came in around the same time for us. But just to see the level of detail and the level of conviction that they go to in their game planning, and then hey, you go into the game, you know, sometimes things change, you make an in game adjustment.

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Speaker 2: They're really good at that as well.

00:20:00
Speaker 5: I want to talk about Vinnie pas Quortina. Talk talk about him and so give me some quotes from him, some of the funniest things you've heard from him, or you know that you could say on here, some of the antics he does. It just looks absolutely like he's a joy to be around too.

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Speaker 7: Man, he's awesome, as outgoing as you guys can imagine. I know the Espressional machine made its way around the WBC, so our lockers set up in Kansas City in the Home Clubhouse.

00:20:25
Speaker 2: There's actually like a stretch of four lockers.

00:20:28
Speaker 7: I have one corner and Vinnie has the other corner, and then in between there's two empty lockers, but one of those houses the so called especial machine.

00:20:36
Speaker 2: So I stay out of it.

00:20:38
Speaker 7: I let him and the CAGs take care of that. But I will say something actually that popped up recently, so, you know, me being a calmer kind of i'd say, lower heart rate guy, sometimes I gotta get up and you know, a little more angry when I go pitch. And sometimes this is funny, but he's recently recently been calling me batrack boobage because he's kind of trying to trying to piss me off, trying to motivate.

00:21:06
Speaker 2: Me a little bit. You know, hitters are just so excited.

00:21:09
Speaker 7: Opposing hitters are so excited to get you know, to the batrack and go face me because they're gonna tee off on me, which you know, I I I think it's I think it's funny, but it also like, hey, you know, he's got a point. Sometimes when I pitch, a little angrier probably goes a little bit better. So those are some of the things that stand out. But yeah, he's he's a great leader for us, you know, a good presence in the middle of the order, driving and runs and you know it's it's a joy to have him in the clubhouse every day.

00:21:37
Speaker 1: You got me on focus and we're supposed to say focused here, so that's he just says. He just calls you batrack, boobage or like, what's another way, what's another way that can get you pissed off? Because like I think, I think, I love this. I love that. I like out of control, calm people. So what else I mean, get into the espresso machine maybe.

00:21:57
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that's uh, I actually have yet. I will drink my fair share of coffee.

00:22:02
Speaker 7: Cold Brui is probably the go to, or just any caffeine and beverage before I pitch. But but yeah, when we get back home, I'll make it a point. I got to have some respression, especially you know day game or something night game or day game after night game. Got to wake it up a little bit, you know, provided some good vibes for them in the WBC.

00:22:21
Speaker 2: So I'm all, I'm all for the vibes.

00:22:23
Speaker 1: All right, Well, on your pitch, on your on your start day, maybe you should wear like what mikel Garcia wears and then you can have like you could be like crease crease, bubik and then like it's your alter ego when you're pitching. But anyway, you do what you want. Stanford guys they're super smart. So I'm not gonna I'm not gonna get in the way of that. Let's talk about your return after Tommy John surgery, the things you learned during that year plus long rehab and then also to come out on the end of it and get back to starting pitching to make an All Star team. What do you feel like are the lessons that you're able to teach younger players through it, but also what you were going through during that time.

00:23:10
Speaker 7: Yeah, for me, you know, things can change in an instant. I think you keep your head down, you keep working. You never know when when an opportunity is going to come knocking. And then for me, you know, looking back at that time, you know, at the end of twenty twenty two, I was kind of in a in a in a tough spot.

00:23:24
Speaker 2: I had a really bad year, just nothing was really going right.

00:23:28
Speaker 7: I knew I had to make some changes going into twenty three, and I did, and we saw some early returns, kind of overhauled the repertoire a little bit overhaul the mechanics, but then you know that got halted because of the Tommy John surgery that ket me out you know for the remainder of twenty three and then the first half of twenty four. But I think, you know, going into the bullpen that year really helped kind of solidify my mindset in terms of being aggressive, attack and hitters, you know, being a it. Really the bullpen thing was actually quite interesting because at the time I had built up as a starter on my reab assignment, so it was kind of intended to be more of the long guy, you know, the starter out of the pen, but you know, just kind of worked my way into some more leverage opportunities and you know, just took it and ran with it. So I think that mindset really helped me going back into starting in twenty twenty five, just to keep attacking guys, staying aggressive and I think you know, the stuff played in the zone, and you know, that's something that we've had at times this year. It's kind of been a little more inconsistent for me so far this year, but overall, I think just to be in this spot after you know, going through the Tommy John surgery, you know, it's along your plus process. You just I'll just you never know when things can change, because you know, for me, twenty two is kind of rock bottom, and you know, for me, I had kind of nothing to lose going at you know, into twenty twenty twenty three and beyond. So for me, it was like, hey, put your head down at work. You know how often, you know, you go into an off season, you get you let your body kind of recover for a little bit, and then you build back up. So for me, the Tommy John rehab was like, hey, how often do you get, you know, a year plus to really work on your your physical strength, your you know, weight room stuff, arm care stuff, your mentality?

00:25:11
Speaker 2: Like how often do.

00:25:11
Speaker 7: You get this kind of underrupted period to really work on yourself both physically and mentally. So I tried to take advantage of every single day and kind of use its an opportunity instead of the setback. So I think that really helped my mindset and just kind of getting to this point that I've gotten to today.

00:25:27
Speaker 1: All Right, anytime somebody comes on from the Royals, I have to tell them that I played with Salve when he was a baby, and Sarby always he toy like this and essent never changed. But he could never say people name right, he would call me crappy. What does he call you? Or what did he call you when you first came up? And has your name changed since you've been there?

00:25:51
Speaker 7: Uh no, I can confidently say no one calls me by my first name, as you guys could probably imagine, giving my last name being a little more unique. But he usually says bubitch in his in his accent. But uh, but no, he's he's great. I'd say that's probably the most common thing.

00:26:11
Speaker 2: I mean, I.

00:26:11
Speaker 7: Have a variety of nicknames, but I'll let you guys kind of think about what those could be. But uh, but yeah, no, he's great in terms of, you know, just just the energy he brings every day. Like he said, you play with him, just a smile he has every day, even when you know he's such a legend in Kansas City, like he could retire today and and you know be in our Hall of Fame in the Royals and you know, make a pretty good case for Coopers Town as well. But but no, he's he's always he's always ready to go. He's always you know, talking some smack here and there. But He's a joy to have around as well.

00:26:54
Speaker 6: Well. Chris, you were a joy to have on with us today. Thanks for taking some time out of your busy day and surely I have no idea where those nicknames could possibly lead. With you a family show here on Foul Territory. Best of luck the rest of the season. Royals in Saint Louis this weekend for a three game set. The I seventy series is what they call it. Chris, thanks so much again for hoping on. We'll see you soon.

00:27:17
Speaker 2: Appreciate it. Thank you,