Marlins' rookie Jakob Marsee talks team mentality, wearing number 87, Big League growing pains

00:00:02
Speaker 1: All right, Jacob Marcy kind enough to join us now of the Miami Marlins. We always appreciate getting players here on foul Territory. Jacob, thanks for taking the time. We appreciate it very much. How are things going.

00:00:13
Speaker 2: They're good. Thank you guys for having me.

00:00:15
Speaker 1: Of course. Of course, so you guys beat Colorado last night. You hit an RBI double and the third to extend the lead to three. Nothing. I mean, this is something that I can appreciate both about you guys obviously and the Rockies. Neither team things going the way that you guys wanted to obviously, but the players themselves are still incredibly competitive and you're out there trying to win. What do you take to the field every single day in terms of that mindset?

00:00:42
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it's a long year, and obviously we had a stretch where it wasn't going as we wanted to. But at the end of the day, we're still trying to win games and do everything we can to win. And I mean you saw last night we were up big and then they came back and battled back and just competitive game and we just want to win every game. So whether that's leading us to anything, this year or just going into next year.

00:01:07
Speaker 4: All right, So how much has that talked about? What is that conversation? Like, I was fortunate every time I was on a bad Big League team or a team that wasn't in the playoffs, they fired me, they sent me home, so I got to play more on just I got to beat on the teams that were making pushes for the playoffs. What is that conversation like day in and day out for you guys. That's a very young crew, a very in my opinion, you guys are beating expectations, but you guys are doing it in a different way than I thought you would do it because your pitching is really good. You guys are also hitting. So what is that conversation like day in and day out for you guys?

00:01:46
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean at times it's a little bit tough, just because of the fact that we want to win and like, yeah, we're young, but we try not to use that as an excuse. But at the same time we do have some growing pains with that. But I think it's just leaning on each other every day, working hard to get better and then just taking care of business when it goes to the field and trying to win every game and do everything we can to compete and the rest will take care of itself.

00:02:11
Speaker 4: You say growing pains? Can Can you explain growing paints? Like when you're young, you don't know that you're young. When you're in inexperience, you don't know that you're in experience, Like I don't. I maybe you can tell me differently, But has there been a situation and the big LEAs where you're like, shoot, I didn't know that those guys were going to be doing that. Like you've played a lot of baseball and you've had a lot of success, as everybody that's gotten called up, has is there a moment where you're like, oh, yeah, you know, we're a little inexperienced in that sense that you've seen.

00:02:43
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:02:44
Speaker 3: I mean, I think sometimes it's just like for me personally, I'm super aggressive on the base pass and we have some other guys that are too. So just learning situations that you shouldn't go in and that you should go in, and just little things like that that you can learn and grow from each and every day that if you want to win every every single game that you have to take care of.

00:03:06
Speaker 5: Jacob talking about being young, why are you wearing number eighty seven? Can we not get you a better number? I mean, I'm sure, I'm assuming you're Alliance fan, so maybe you're a Sam Laporta fan, but why are you wearing eighty seven? Like, can we not get you a number that's not a wide receiver or tight end?

00:03:22
Speaker 2: Yeah? I'm actually not a Lions fan. I'm a Bears fan, which.

00:03:25
Speaker 5: Oh, all right, well I like you so much better now, thank you. Even though the Bears are terrible, they just lost twenty one against the Lions, so I apologize.

00:03:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, they're brutal, but no, honestly, it was I think it was my spring training number.

00:03:38
Speaker 2: I was hurt the whole time in spring, so I don't really know.

00:03:41
Speaker 3: But it was my locker whom I got here, and as long as they gave me one, I didn't really care.

00:03:48
Speaker 5: Fair But how good do you have to be until you ask for one?

00:03:52
Speaker 2: Like?

00:03:52
Speaker 5: What point do you do you go to next spring and say, look, man, I don't know who the clubhouse guy is in Miami, but are you do you go in after the season ends and after the season you're having and you're like, hey, yo, bro, like eighty seven is not working? Can I at least get like an eight or a seven, but separate them.

00:04:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know. I've gotten asked that a lot.

00:04:11
Speaker 3: I mean, maybe it'll be a conversation this offseason that has had, but as of right now, I mean that's been a big question, a lot of interviews I've had and just people around the clubhouse.

00:04:24
Speaker 2: All right, Jacob.

00:04:24
Speaker 1: Two part question, one silly one and one a serious one. You're in Miami, so a ride of passages in Miami is drinking Cafe Kuana, and I know that when they have the cafecito, the little espresso cups for all the visiting clubhouses. Have you started drinking Cuban coffee yet in Miami because that's huge? And have what's your favorite Cuban food?

00:04:48
Speaker 3: Oh jeez? Two questions. Yeah, honestly, I haven't drank Cuban coffee yet, and.

00:04:56
Speaker 2: No, I have not. I didn't even know what that was until you just said that. And then.

00:05:04
Speaker 3: Cuban food. I don't really know what my favorite is. Yeah, I still haven't really gotten out to enough restaurants or anything around to really dive in. I mean, I've had a lot of family and stuff in town. When I've been at home so haven't been out too much. That's definitely something I need to go do.

00:05:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, I tell you what your club house, your clubby. Better get you on some Cuban coffee because you need to know what I'm Cuban. I'm born and raised in Colorado, but spent every summer in Miami. We got to get you on the Cuban coffee, all right. You work a ton of walks, Jacob on three two counts more walks than he has in terms of you know that you have an AB's in a full count. So let's talk about that for a hot second. That gives you a nine to forty six ops some full counts higher than Kyle Schwarber, higher than cal Rawley, two guys that are having unbelievable years.

00:05:53
Speaker 2: What is it about you?

00:05:54
Speaker 1: Patients at the plate, working your counts, not swinging at you know, pitches that are outside of the zone, are not swinging at pitches that you don't feel comfortable with. Tell us about it. I mean, at a young age, that type of patience at the plate is pretty key. Tell us more about that.

00:06:09
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I think it's something I've I've leaned on definitely coming up through the miners and stuff. And then as I've gotten here. But I mean, people think I'm passive in trying to work walks, but it's like I'm really not.

00:06:21
Speaker 2: I'm just trying to get a good pitch to hit.

00:06:22
Speaker 3: And then I think with two strikes, I think I sometimes get a little bit more disciplined, which helps to just especially in counts like that where I know they're trying to get me to chase and stuff, and I'm really not trying to walk them up there, trying to get a good pitch to hit, and they got to make three of those before three pitches on the corner before.

00:06:43
Speaker 2: Four balls.

00:06:44
Speaker 3: So at the end of the day, I just I'm just trying to get good pitches to hit and whatever comes comes.

00:06:50
Speaker 4: That's an elite approach. I wish. I wish I could have done that, but I never could. So stick with it. Screw what everybody else says. And secondly, Cuban caf is just a bunch of sugar thick and it is like it will keep you awake for like nine years if you watch him make it.

00:07:09
Speaker 1: Cuban back on. Put the Cuban back on with him.

00:07:11
Speaker 4: First of all, it sugar in it.

00:07:16
Speaker 1: If you make it with a lot of sugar, but it is it is. I will say it is absolute gasoline. It will keep you up. It's a little bit of coffee, but it has it packs a punch. It packs a punch. Jacob, don't let the white guy tell you. Listen to the Cuban Okay.

00:07:31
Speaker 2: I don't really know if I want to drink that before the game, if I'm going to be up all night.

00:07:34
Speaker 4: Then I played in Miami. I played more games in Miami than Alana did. So the Cuban coffee that they made, and there I just watched them stir all the sugar into the bottom of this like pot. Anyway, anyway, you don't need coffee. You're too young. You don't need to. You don't need to be drinking too much of that anyway right now. But since you've been in the big leagues, who's the most impressive player that you've seen when you look across the field. Maybe it's on your team, maybe it's maybe it's Exavier Edwards, my old teammate from Team USA. Don't say Exavier because he's not that impressive. He's tiny and he just runs a lot. But who is the most impressive player that you've seen that, You're like, well, bro, I'm in the big leagues and I just saw Aaron Judge and my debut.

00:08:25
Speaker 2: I mean there's a lot of them.

00:08:26
Speaker 3: I think, Uh, two of the ones that stick out big time are one Kyle Schorber. Just what he's doing this year and just being able to see that live was pretty cool. Just didn't really give into pitches and then when he hits him, it's all one hundred and fifteen every single time, So.

00:08:46
Speaker 2: Seeing it here and that was it was cool.

00:08:48
Speaker 3: And then Jose Ramirez, I think just his ability at the play literally do everything. He was super impressive to watch. Aaron Judge wasn't there when I did, so I wasn't able to see that, so that that kind of sucked a little bit.

00:09:05
Speaker 2: But yeah, those two guys, for sure.

00:09:08
Speaker 4: You hit better again. Your numbers right now are better against lefties. We talk about it all the time platoons in the league, there's platoon advantage. You have a reversed platoon split right now. Is that something that you facing lefties helps you against righties or do you feel like that is completely separate.

00:09:30
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:09:30
Speaker 3: I think sometimes I've told people that when I face a lefty, and I haven't been feeling as good that sometimes a lefty makes makes my mechanics have to be kind of correct so that I can get to pitches, So I definitely think it helps. And yeah, I think sometimes when I'm going bad and I face a lefty, it sometimes gets me back on track.

00:09:56
Speaker 1: Jacob, at what point in your career did you realize that you had made it? And I'm not talking about obviously when you made your debut or whatever, but at what point coming up did you realize that you had stuff that was good enough to a get to the big league level but also to stay there.

00:10:13
Speaker 3: I think it was probably my first full year going from I just high in Double A.

00:10:20
Speaker 2: I had a pretty good year.

00:10:21
Speaker 3: Overall, and then I went to the Fall League after that, and just all of the top prospects in the game were there at the time, So just being able to have a good year against everyone in that year and then at the same time being able to have a good performance in the Fall League and play pretty well against some guys that have been pitching in the big leagues there too, which definitely gave me a lot of confidence moving forward.

00:10:49
Speaker 4: All right, As a rookie, obviously you got to sing on the bus. I always ask guys what song did they sing? Or have you or will you sing on the bus? And who's in charge of the mic of the Marlins when you guys go on road trips, who's in charge of the mic?

00:11:05
Speaker 2: Lately it's been Kyle Stowers.

00:11:07
Speaker 3: It was Calquantra, and then after the Braves picked him up, then we had Kyle takeover and he's been doing pretty good job lately.

00:11:17
Speaker 2: And I sang Ain't no Mountain high enough.

00:11:20
Speaker 3: I was trying to think of a song that could just get the guys into it and uh, hopefully not be as bad just because I'm not a great singer.

00:11:27
Speaker 1: But yeah, Jacob, you guys are you guys are in I just talked over AJ Sorry about that. You guys are in Denver right now, right You're at the hotel in Denver. Are you a breakfast guy?

00:11:42
Speaker 2: Yeah?

00:11:43
Speaker 1: All right, go to snooze. If you're not going to drink Cuban coffee in Miami, I need you. I implore you to go to snooze at Union Station and get the corn beef fash. Okay, if you do nothing else while you're in Denver other than beat the Rockies. I implore you to go to snooze AJ.

00:11:59
Speaker 5: You can now go hey when you're when you grew up. So we have something in common. So you're from Dearborn. I spent a lot of time in Dearborn inclosing nine to eleven, which just passed, and you were born I saw in two thousand and one, so we were kind of close to each other. I'm assuming, but I want to know this, how many how many hours did you spend in that Dearborn mall that was there at Dearborn, Michigan, Because I spent a lot of hours. We used to stay right there. There used to be a ritz across the street. We went to the Beni Hanna and there was a Fridays because back then that was all we had was the Fridays and the Beni Hanna. But then they also had one shop, and I want to know if you ever went they had a suit shop. You're probably too young, but maybe your parents went there. It was like three suits for thirty nine dollars or something, and they were some of the coolest suits that I could never put off in my life. So have you been to the mall at Dearborn and have you seen this store I'm talking about.

00:12:49
Speaker 3: I have not seen that store, but I might have to go check it out now if it's still there.

00:12:54
Speaker 2: I've definitely been to that mall. I know that that exact area you're talking about.

00:12:58
Speaker 5: Yeah, so we were in the Hyatt was the high across the head, the circle thing at the top, for nine to eleven. We spent like ten days or twelve days there because we couldn't go anywhere, so we were just stuck there and we the mall finally opened, so we at least we could go to the mall every night. But yeah, and then we used to go to the Henry Ford Museum across the street, and there was a big gym we'd go to right there. So I spent a lot of time in your hometown. And then when we were driving into the stadium, they had the big tire, the giant tire.

00:13:23
Speaker 2: I don't know what the hell they had, Yeah, the big tart fire. Yeah.

00:13:26
Speaker 5: See, so you know, I mean, listen, I know about Detroit now, but I'm proud of you for being a Bears fan.

00:13:32
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:13:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, my dad was a Walter Payton fan, so I'm glad I'm a Bears fan too.

00:13:36
Speaker 2: Except right now the lines are.

00:13:38
Speaker 3: Kind of being them every single time, so that doesn't help.

00:13:44
Speaker 1: Did you play football, because the size of your neck looks like you could actually be a freaking tight end like eighty seven suits you. Did you play football coming up? Or were you always? Were you always a baseball kid?

00:13:57
Speaker 3: I mean, I don't know if I could be a tight end, but I don't know if I'm big enough for that. But yeah, I definitely I put football in high school and growing up.

00:14:05
Speaker 4: What do you do on the off days? What does an off day look like for you?

00:14:13
Speaker 2: I mean, I guess it depends where we're at.

00:14:14
Speaker 3: Like we were just had off day here and I actually I had a friend that's out here, so went out and just kind of explored a little bit. We went to the Red Rocks and then went up in the mountains a little bit and got some food. So definitely, just if I'm in a new city, I try to go explore and do stuff. And then if I'm back in Miami and stuff, just kind of try to take care of things like laundry and just stuff like that so I can be ready going forward. But I definitely try to go explore as much as I can. Especially on off days, just so you have a little more time.

00:14:44
Speaker 4: When when you say explore, like, are you talking like you want to go on hikes, because ain't nobody hiking in Miami. They're sweating. They're sweating down there. Do you like, I mean, is there is there a video game? They like, a store that you always go to in every city, some type of food because you said you don't you haven't eating Cuban food, So do you like, what's your favorite food?

00:15:05
Speaker 3: I'm a big, big breakfast guy, so I definitely like to go to breakfast spots and then at the same time, I always get a good dinner, usually steak somewhere. So definitely a foodie when it comes to going to places. But at the same time, like we've had time off in New York and then here too, so just like there's a bunch of stuff to do in New York.

00:15:28
Speaker 4: So just.

00:15:30
Speaker 3: Doing stuff like that, just uh, stuff that's only in New York or or here. Just being around the mountains just I didn't really hike, but just going and seeing that stuff, I think, I think super cool.

00:15:41
Speaker 2: All Right.

00:15:41
Speaker 4: I know you haven't been in the big leagues very long, but it's always interesting to hear what big league players want or think is the best team in the in the big leagues. Who do you think is going to represent the American League and the National League in the World Series?

00:15:58
Speaker 2: Oh dang um.

00:16:03
Speaker 3: The Blue Jays are super impressive just pitching staff and then obviously super good offense.

00:16:08
Speaker 2: So I think they're definitely. Uh, I think they're They're really good. And then National League. I don't know.

00:16:19
Speaker 3: I feel like there's so many teams that are are competitive. But maybe the Phillies. Uh yeah, I mean true, hopefully that's one.

00:16:35
Speaker 4: Day, just not this year.

00:16:38
Speaker 5: Yeah, all I could go from here, have one two World Series. It's more than almost any other team can say in the last thirty years.

00:16:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.

00:16:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, got to get back to the winning ways. I don't know who who needs it more in terms of uh, back to the World Series for the Marlins or back to the Super Bowl for the Dolphins. My whole family lives in Miami. We'll have that discussion at a different time.

00:17:08
Speaker 2: We get back to the Super Bowl for the Bears, well they should be to Dolphins fans.

00:17:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, Jacob, we appreciate it. Go get snooze, Go get some Cuban coffee. Best of luck the rest of the way, good health, and we look forward to watching your career, my friend. Thanks for coming on.

00:17:23
Speaker 2: Foul, no problem, Thanks for having me. Guys