Sal Frelick on The Miz debut, Judge’s 3B impact, Tipping Pitches

00:00:00
Speaker 1: We Obviously, if I needed to move to third, I would, but I think for right now, I think I'm stuck out right.

00:00:05
Speaker 2: But you never know.

00:00:12
Speaker 3: We have Sal Freelick joining us right now from the Milwaukee Brewery. Sal, how you doing, man happy?

00:00:19
Speaker 4: Has it been going good?

00:00:22
Speaker 2: Good?

00:00:22
Speaker 1: So far?

00:00:23
Speaker 2: All healthy and still going so all good?

00:00:26
Speaker 5: Hey, tell Vasalo he can leave the room. It's okay.

00:00:28
Speaker 6: We're not gonna ask mans. Mike appreciate it. We know you're only in. Tell him that Murph said he only covers national things, so you know he only comes around with national things coming.

00:00:40
Speaker 5: So he's telling me he's good.

00:00:43
Speaker 2: He's cracking up back there.

00:00:46
Speaker 4: How is Burf by the way, how's Murph doing season two?

00:00:49
Speaker 5: Here?

00:00:50
Speaker 2: He's good, He's good, same old Murph, So nothing changes there. He'll be the same though he's.

00:00:56
Speaker 7: Not a little grumpier. Come on, he looks a little grumpery. You guys won the other day and he was high fiving in the line and he was just he wasn't I feel like he needs a snack. But you tell me you're around him every day.

00:01:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think he's just grumpy twenty four to seven, So like for me, I think it's just that's him. But I guess if you guys see it think he looks grumpy, I might have to cheer him up a little bit.

00:01:20
Speaker 6: Hey, I was there on Saturday, and I told these guys when I that he was not the same Murph was.

00:01:25
Speaker 5: Really he was definitely grumpier.

00:01:26
Speaker 6: Than what he wasn't So I don't know if it's because of the expectations of winning Manager of the Year and he's the reigning manager of the Year so that has a lot of weight on him now. But he has to change it up and try to be grumpy old guy. But I mean, we need Murph to be smiling and happy all the time.

00:01:43
Speaker 1: No, I agree, and we definitely get our doses of that. But I think when called for and he needs to be serious, he is. So No, he's still especially you know when we first get to the clubhouse, he's walking around like like he usually is, cracking jokes and stuff.

00:01:58
Speaker 7: So does he Does he still wear those white cotton sliders? Is he still the only one that wears those gross white cotton sliders?

00:02:08
Speaker 2: I don't know.

00:02:09
Speaker 1: I think fortunately I haven't seen him in his sliders, so I'm unsure of what he's wearing.

00:02:14
Speaker 2: But I wouldn't put it past him.

00:02:16
Speaker 7: That was maybe more of a bench coach thing. Maybe a manager always has to have his this sounds bad, always has to have his pants on.

00:02:24
Speaker 2: No, it actually checks out.

00:02:28
Speaker 5: Hey, just what's his nickname for you? What's Murph's nickname for you?

00:02:32
Speaker 1: I know I do not have one. I think everyone always asks me. I think one of the few guys that doesn't doesn't have a nickname. Really, Yeah, talk to me a lot.

00:02:44
Speaker 7: Maybe he doesn't like you, Yeah, maybe he doesn't like you. Yeah.

00:02:47
Speaker 2: Sometimes I don't even know if he knows my name. I think I don't know.

00:02:55
Speaker 7: So we were just talking. We were just talking about it a little bit. You guys face Hey, zus Lozardo. It's no secret he was you know, there was something he changed he thought he was tipping. Take me to that game one. Did you guys have the tip that he had and that's why he scored twelve runs too? Are you pissed when someone else finds a tip and you're like dad going out? We could face him later in the year now we don't have it.

00:03:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, No, I mean, obviously he's an unbelievable pitcher and you really got to come prepared when you know he's out there. We facing a time when he was with Miami, and no, we didn't have any tips on him. I think I think the boys you showed up that day ready to go, and maybe he didn't have his best stuff, but no, he was. He's always a really tough matchup, especially left on left, and I think we kind of just are playing going. It was just be a little more aggressive and make sure we're swinging at strikes, not just taking him and letting him get comfortable and putting some pressure on whether it be bunting and stuff like that, try to get him uncomfortable up there. And I think it just worked out for us that day. But no, didn't didn't have any tips on them. And yeah, I mean you hear you know pictures saying there realize they're they're giving up stuff. But I think, uh, most of those tips that that we have usually come within the game, not before. It's like, you know, we got guys on the bench, we got coaches, guys you know just watching the game that might pick up on something.

00:04:19
Speaker 2: I think that's where you know most of it will come from a picture.

00:04:24
Speaker 6: Why the players never want to admit it, like people I just love it.

00:04:28
Speaker 5: I love it, like.

00:04:30
Speaker 6: I know, but nobody ever, no position player ever wants to admit until Like we would trade for guys sometimes and then we'd be like, hey, we had all your pitches, and like I knew you guys had something, right, But even if you have something on somebody, you never want it's almost like, oh, well yeah, he already figured it out, but you don't want to admit that we had something.

00:04:50
Speaker 5: We just want to say we were.

00:04:51
Speaker 6: Good that day, right, Like I don't know, Like it's I get it because I played, and I understand why.

00:04:56
Speaker 5: It's just funny to be that.

00:04:57
Speaker 6: Nobody will ever just say, like you probably there's a guy named Brad Rack You've pitched way before you, but I came up with him or he was in the big leagues.

00:05:05
Speaker 5: I caught him.

00:05:06
Speaker 6: Then I got to the White Sox and we faced him. We had every pitch and we hammered him. So he invites me to his retirement party and he's like can you speak? So I speak at his retirement party. I'm like, Brad, I just want to know we had every pitch. That's why he's like, you stood up. He's like, I got a pitch for five more years. If you'd have told me, I was like, well right now, right, so I just nobody ever wants to admit it until it's over.

00:05:24
Speaker 5: But I applaud you for that.

00:05:28
Speaker 4: Well wait, I have a follow up just so that we can clarify.

00:05:33
Speaker 3: You know, in your big league career so far, have you faced anyone where the team has had a tip?

00:05:38
Speaker 4: I don't.

00:05:39
Speaker 3: I don't want the name. We just had the anonymous player poll. Have you ever benefited ever from any type of tip?

00:05:45
Speaker 4: Oh?

00:05:45
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean all the time.

00:05:47
Speaker 1: I mean, guys, again, I think most I haven't, and I've been this my third year. I haven't played a game where before we've been like, we're gonna have every single one of these guys pitches. That's that's never been the case. I think most us to the time, and where I've seen it the most is when we have a guy on second or maybe even a guy in first, where they can see it from first, and we might before the game say hey, if you get to this base, look we might have this tip. So I think most of the time it's when I'm in the box and we have runners on base that are actively looking on maybe a tip we thought we might see and then they are able to relay where that's the only area where I've really seen tips worker, you know, be the most beneficial towards you know, an offense. And but that's it.

00:06:36
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00:07:37
Speaker 7: So you need to go from the media room directly into Matt Arnold's office and tell him to hire somebody that does this, because there are teams that that is the end of the Hitters meeting and the video is always running. It's like from the stretch, from the wind up from like tow pointed, not toe pointed like, and we have it.

00:08:03
Speaker 1: We have it in every Hitters meeting too. I think we have those guys. I actually know we have those guys. I just think sometimes and I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but they'll put it up on the on the on the video and we'll be looking at it and then you get out there and it's just near impossible to see from you know a lot of the tips we're getting from the center field camera from one of the cameras on the side, and it's just a different look when you're out there. So we we we have all that information. I disppose I know most teams do. I just think sometimes when you're in the game and it can you know, maybe speed up on you. You don't want to be trying to peek in and then not get a good secondary and not score on a base hit. We've kind of run into that issue sometimes. So as much as I think it can help, I think, you know, we don't want it to hurt maybe our base running or you know, slow down our offense at all, because we're trying so hard to get stuff like that. But like I said, there's definitely times where it's blatantly obvious, and we've gotten that before the game. We just got to make sure they were paying attention to that stuff.

00:09:06
Speaker 5: So real quick.

00:09:07
Speaker 6: Last thing he saw, did you see the Angels in the Red Sox get into it because the first base coach was moving and doing all this rigamarole. My biggest thing with tipping was I needed it early, like it couldn't be Uh, the guy's got his leg up coming right. So from the video I watched with the Angels and the Red Sox guy, he was moving late as hell. The guy was already coming and then they're like, oh, he's moving on fastballs or whatever. He was doing to me as a hitter, like I wanted the earth like there was the guys that tip, but they were already like coming at you, and you're like, all right, that's too.

00:09:37
Speaker 2: Late for me, right, Yeah, I saw that video on Earthly.

00:09:41
Speaker 1: I yeah, I saw I saw that video and I was like, there's no way that a hitter was Look, it was able to pick that up and then lock back with a picture and be able to hit the ball. It's just, you know, it didn't make sense, like like we were talking about, it's got to be so early, almost before you know the picture even comes set or as he's coming said, if it's anywhere after that, Like, as a hitter, I don't even want any of that information. I think a lot of guys are even sometimes we'll even say, hey, if you're on second you have a tip, don't tell me.

00:10:09
Speaker 2: I don't want to know. So I think in a lot of times, just because.

00:10:14
Speaker 1: You know you're getting it so late, they don't want you jumping around out there or whatnot adding more movement. So, like you said, Peers, I think it's it's gonna be as early as possible.

00:10:23
Speaker 7: Did you see what Aaron Savali said about or his agent said about wanting to be traded. What's what's the what's the reaction? His agent said, because he got moved. He said, oh, well, yeah, you know, he he should be traded. What's what's the player? What's a teammate's reaction when you hear something like that.

00:10:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean again, we love sim. He's he's he's one of us.

00:10:48
Speaker 1: And I think it's coming from a place of competition and coming from a place of I want the ball, you know, I want to be out there, you know, giving my team the best chance to win. So I don't think anybody takes that personally, any of us look at him differently. I think it's just, you know, that's the mentality of a starter, right. He's been to starter his whole life, and he wants the ball up there, and he wants to be able to go out and you know, give us a great chance to win. So, you know, I think that's where that's coming from. And you know, I haven't talked to sim about it, but I'm sure he, you know, didn't necessarily want you know that that getting out publicly. But at the same time, I don't think it's coming from a place of anything bad where he thinks that, you know what would do anything to the clubhouse or maybe other guys, so.

00:11:28
Speaker 6: Better chance of happening this year or this week. Maybe Mike Vasselo is sitting there watching his kid on Game Changer playing a game during a Brewers game instead of paying attention. I how can I not like theo or you moving possibly to third base or another position?

00:11:50
Speaker 5: What else? What's more likely to happen this year?

00:11:53
Speaker 2: I mean this, it's Vasalo. It's got to be a Vasalo.

00:11:56
Speaker 1: I can't imagine anything is more likely than that, because that's probably gonna happen, maybe even today. But no, yeah, I hope, uh, you know, obviously if I needed to move to third I would, But you know, I think for right now, I think I'm stuck out and right, but you never know.

00:12:17
Speaker 2: I I don't know.

00:12:19
Speaker 7: Do you like playing hard?

00:12:21
Speaker 4: Like?

00:12:21
Speaker 7: Is it something that you take grounders and in, you know, in VP or whatever ever once in a while.

00:12:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean last spring training was definitely That's all I was doing. I was just taking him every day, planning on playing there. I played a little bit last year, maybe like a couple innings.

00:12:37
Speaker 2: I think I.

00:12:38
Speaker 1: Thought it was all all fun and games until the first time I played there. Stanton was up and made a position player throwing, so that kind of ended my dreams of ever wanting to go back there. And then the same thing this year I was. I played there opening day again throwing a position player, and Judge was up looking to hit his third homer of the game, so I had to imagine he was gett in the head out and I was trying to play in the grass and the ump kept telling me I had to play in the dirt with the new shift rule, and I.

00:13:07
Speaker 2: Told him if I died, it was on him. So yeah, I wasn't wasn't over there.

00:13:13
Speaker 7: That is so true, man, They're so close when the when the monsters come up. It's the same at first base for me. But the thing I want to ask you for me to finish is the big thing was talked about in spring training. You put on all you know, you put on this weight. Now it's big Sal. Uncle Sal's turned into Grandpa Sal. How is that extra weight? One? Have you kept it on because some dudes can't ever keep it on? Two? How's your body feel playing every single day with that extra weight?

00:13:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's been awesome being able to maintain it. Obviously, you know you fluctuates a little bit, you go down to go up, but for the most part, been able to maintain it. And yeah, that was the that was the whole point of it. It was like, you know, last year, I remember going home after the season and my mom was like, my gosh, like what is going on? Like you look like a skeleton and you know, just minor injuries popped up a little more and I was like, yeah, I really got to make sure I put on some good weight this year just to be able to get through one hundred and sixty two. Last year was the first time I had ever done, you know, played a full season, and I think it was a little immature of that aspect on you know, really how to go about it, you know, off of the field and get my body ready. So yeah, it's been it's been great, just you know, waking up feeling better you know after, you know, whether it's a night game into a day game, where in the past i'd you know, maybe dragging a little more or stuff like that. So definitely been able to see so far the benefits of that.

00:14:39
Speaker 6: So I'm more excited to see Miz make his debut tonight or face Sonny Gray tonight.

00:14:43
Speaker 5: Which excited about.

00:14:45
Speaker 2: I have to go with Miz. I think Sunny's numbers in the past few years.

00:14:50
Speaker 5: No, super super, Tonight's to night.

00:14:53
Speaker 6: Okay, I got you Max Max month, he was like over thirty against Aaron Nola. I did the game, got three hits. You went three for three.

00:15:01
Speaker 5: So you know what, I'm gonna take some of my months. You good luck, and I'm gonna put it on you tonight.

00:15:05
Speaker 2: I'm gonna need it. No, it's gonna be it's gonna be fun.

00:15:08
Speaker 1: Love going out and getting to compete against those guys who you know, it's just it's it's it's a blast. So super excited to get to face Sonny again. And I can't wait for miss to go out there, you know, and show everybody you know why he's why he's up here and ready to go.

00:15:24
Speaker 4: It's pretty hard.

00:15:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm pretty glass on our team.

00:15:29
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's gonna be fun.

00:15:31
Speaker 3: I've got one more for you because you brought this up from the first series of the season, which obviously didn't go well from a win loss perspective. You guys have bounced back since, but it feels like ten years ago already to me. Do you remember the hysteria from that first weekend and how casual baseball fans were being brought in and saying.

00:15:50
Speaker 4: This is insane. There's these different types of bats, it's gonna change everything.

00:15:54
Speaker 3: We haven't spoken about it since that first week, so I just wanted to get your perspective.

00:15:59
Speaker 4: You're good on this stuff. How crazy was that?

00:16:01
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, we were.

00:16:02
Speaker 1: We were just talking about that like a few days ago actually, and I was like, we haven't heard anything about the bats. And I think after either the second or third game, it was like, oh, this series might be under protest or people were calling for I was like, you know, just whatever, letting the people talk. But yeah, I mean, clearly everybody I think has at least tried to use a torpedo bat, whether it's in batting practice or in a game, and.

00:16:31
Speaker 2: Some guys like it, some guys don't.

00:16:33
Speaker 1: I think it's been disproven that you know, it might be a you know plus if you're using it and you know, win for the hitter already, or an advantage, and I obviously think that's not true. But I think it was just because it was so new, and you know, obviously we got destroyed. So like, you know, we go in there and maybe you know, win one or just play three close games. It's not even talked about. But yeah, it's kind of crazy how no one's talked about it since amazing.

00:17:01
Speaker 6: By the way, what's your hat? I'm trying to figure it out. I'm I'm googling it when it says first so I can barely read it, but I mean.

00:17:09
Speaker 2: What a day to have a day? And then it's the it's the uh like.

00:17:17
Speaker 5: Sonny Gray, baby, what a day to have a day?

00:17:19
Speaker 2: There you go say, right there that here in Milwaukee right now.

00:17:24
Speaker 5: I love it. I love it.

00:17:26
Speaker 3: This was fun, so great to catch up, but you always enjoy it. Good luck tonight, enjoy A lot of us will be watching obviously this MAS and we'll catch you down.

00:17:34
Speaker 2: The read awesome. Guy's always a blast.

00:17:36
Speaker 1: We'll talk soon, Okay, thank you, exactly like this before showing me the game changer before we got on.

00:17:52
Speaker 7: He's always on game Changer and it's always awkward. It's an mike. Just hold it, hold your.

00:17:57
Speaker 5: Phone like normal.

00:17:58
Speaker 7: You don't have to hold it like this, Mike, like like you're like holding it like you're gonna do something about the game. Like it's not gonna change like, just watch it, enjoy it, go on to the next one.

00:18:10
Speaker 5: He made us freelick type play.

00:18:12
Speaker 7: Yesterday I was telling him, yeah, well all right the video.

00:18:19
Speaker 4: Thanks you appreciate yourself.