Rays starting pitcher Ryan Pepiot

00:00:00
Speaker 1: They don't necessarily want us to skip starts. There's gonna be times where it may be a five or a four inning start where you know they take you out early, even if.

00:00:07
Speaker 2: Your cruising.

00:00:13
Speaker 3: As promised. Ryan Peppio kind enough to take some time away from his day to join us here on foul Territory. Ryan, it's great to see you. I'm bummed that I never had the opportunity to cover you when you were in LA when I was there, but I'm enjoying watching you pitch now with the race. Tell me how that's been going for you and kind of the biggest differences between the LA Dodgers and the Tampa Bay Race, two very different organizations, both having success.

00:00:36
Speaker 2: Thanks guys for having me. Been following the show for a long time, so it's fun, fun to hop on. But going from.

00:00:42
Speaker 1: Tampa or from LA to Tampa, it was a little bit different. Obviously LA's major, major city and then Tampa a little bit smaller.

00:00:50
Speaker 2: But I love it.

00:00:50
Speaker 1: It's been one of the best things that's happened to me. The staff's been phenomenal with the guys over here in the clubhouse are awesome, and they really just let me be myself. And you know, pitch the way I want to pitch. And then this kind of some minor tweaks, nothing too crazy, but they just let you go out there and be yourself and play how you want to play.

00:01:08
Speaker 4: Ryan, first of all, thanks for joining us. But then I want to know when they traded you for glass Now, was it mandatory that one of you had to have great hair? And you were the chosen one since they got rid of great hair with glass Now, and then they had to bring you back and say you have to have the flow.

00:01:22
Speaker 1: No, that wasn't one of the mandatory requirements. He's got a little bit longer hair than I do. I actually got to meet him this offseason, and awesome guy. But I'll give it to him. He's got a little bit better hair than I do. But Cash and Neander and and Snyders.

00:01:35
Speaker 2: Are really good.

00:01:36
Speaker 1: When I got traded for when that trade went through, they're like, hey, we want you to be Ryan.

00:01:39
Speaker 2: We don't want you to be Tyler.

00:01:41
Speaker 1: He's phenomenal in his own right, but we're not asking you to go out there and be him.

00:01:46
Speaker 2: We just want you to be yourself.

00:01:47
Speaker 4: Hey, none of those guys have hair, so you can't really go to them for hair advice cash No or none of them have hair at all. I don't think so.

00:01:56
Speaker 1: No, they have a little bit, but they don't have they don't have flowing locks outside the hat.

00:02:01
Speaker 4: Okay, okay, what's it like on Tampa Bay though, because Tampa Bay for years was, hey, we'll get our pitchers through five innings, our starters, then we'll go to the bullpen.

00:02:09
Speaker 2: This year, the.

00:02:10
Speaker 4: Starters are going six, seven, eight innings. Are you like, thank God, I get to pitch all the time, and I get to pitch deep. Now, this is so much fun.

00:02:19
Speaker 2: It is fun.

00:02:19
Speaker 1: There's some times last year when when we go through some of the games you'd be at like five innings through like sixty pitches, super a fishing game, and then they kind of pull you in and you're like, well, why, there's a lot of other underlying factors. You know, they really take care of us and make sure that we're good and healthy throughout the entire season so that we're throwing our best in September and October when the games mean more. But you know, coming into this year, our pitching staff and especially the rotation, we're really close group. So we kind of wanted to go into the season to be able to prove that we can go deeper in the ballgames save the bullpen, because.

00:02:51
Speaker 2: We do have a really really good bullpen and those guys down there.

00:02:53
Speaker 1: We have full trust in all those guys, and we want to keep those guys fresh so that they're not at seventy eighty outings by the end of the regular season go into the playoffs kind of taxed. So trying to take some of the load off of those guys. And you know, Lattel's got a CG this year and he's holding.

00:03:06
Speaker 2: It over all our heads. The rest of us have gone close to.

00:03:10
Speaker 1: Eight, so we know we're trying to knock down the door and join Lttel with a CG. And you know, kind of like play at old school wise, where you know, it's our day to take the take the ball, and it's our game until until we get taken out.

00:03:22
Speaker 5: Yeah, when you get your CG, I need you to turn around to the bullpen and just salute them because they didn't need to do anything the whole day. So that's how you can hold it over those.

00:03:31
Speaker 1: Guys exactly that, and you know, hopefully there's a you know, six pack of beers in my locker afterwards something like that.

00:03:37
Speaker 5: Okay, so you're at one hundred and one hundred and two innings already. You had one hundred and thirty last year. We talk about it all time with teams like the Rays, teams like the Dodgers. When there's pitching injuries. You say you're getting the most out of the pitchers, but you know they're worried about these injuries. Do they ever have conversations with you guys, especially just you starters, Hey, you know, this is the inning limit that we want to get to because you guys are a playoff looking team. You're gonna pitch upwards to two hundred innings if you guys make a deep run into the playoffs. Are they like, Hey, we're a little concerned about this. We'd like to skip a start, we'd like to put another guy in the rotation. Do they talk to you guys about that.

00:04:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're pretty upfront with us about kind of the innings management. I know, only through one thirty last year. Kind of going into the season, you know, it's kind of can shift the need a little bit, always add a few more or taking you off. It's kind of just down the stretch. Seeing they're always asking how we're feeling between each start. They don't necessarily want us to skip starts. You know, there's gonna be times where it may be a five or a four inning start where you know they take you out early, even if your cruising, just to make sure that we're able to pitch all the way through October. But they're very good at being open and honest with us and having open conversations so that it's not like out of left field kind of get taken out of the game. We kind of have a little bit of idea if if there's gonna be a time especially when you have some of these road trips that we have coming up, or when you're playing sixteen to twenty games in a row, they might call somebody up, you know, give everybody an extra day or something like that.

00:05:18
Speaker 3: The curveball is new, Ryan, the cutter is new, the fastball usage is a little bit down. But you're having success with all of the changes. Why switch it up.

00:05:29
Speaker 1: More and more times you pitched against the same teams, there's more information out on you kind of teams have a better game plan and you know, just add next to wrinkles, just to have more tools in the toolbox to keep hitters off balance, you know, slow them down a little bit.

00:05:43
Speaker 2: I've always tried with a curveball.

00:05:44
Speaker 1: I just kind of never really found a grip that really worked for me that I could consistently throw. So even if it's a five to ten percent usage pitch, it just slows hitters down and has something in the back of mind that they have to think about. Cutter a little bit more for try to keep the ball out of the left handed batters loop. And then I've been working on a sinker as well, so it's not necessarily like a down sinker, more of a two seam, just kind of a runball to get on on the righties, just so that they can't just sit on the heater at the top of the zone.

00:06:13
Speaker 5: I like that because you can't ever throw hard enough right so you've got to be Now, I.

00:06:18
Speaker 1: Don't throw a hundred you know, best bullets in ninety eight, so I'm not you know Misrawski with the Brewers, who's out there ripping one hundred and two every pitch, So, you know, just trying to add extra wrinkles to keep the hitters off balance.

00:06:33
Speaker 5: What a what a cage e vet. What a cage e vet you are? Now, I got to ask you, you hit on it a little bit. Your schedule obviously they shifted y'all schedule around to be more on the road later in the year. Have you guys, because when I played for the Rays, they had a sleep specialist, they had you know, they had whatever road trip planning for each road trip and then what's coming up? Have they changed anything because you guys are gonna be on the road a lot, and they talk about a lot of sleep choices, a lot of that kind of stuff. Do they change anything in that sense because you guys will be on the road a ton here because you were at home a ton early.

00:07:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, July we have eight home games. In August, we have eight home games.

00:07:13
Speaker 1: We have a four city West Coast trip in August too, so that won't be a long one. You know, I don't even know how to pack for sixteen days, I think.

00:07:22
Speaker 2: Is what it is.

00:07:23
Speaker 1: But you know, we'll figure it out, find a laundromat somewhere or whatever. But they've been talking a lot, a lot of it early on during spring training was about hydration and recovery, just about playing outside in the Florida heat and the humidity, and especially we're playing day games at noon at home now and those are they're warm.

00:07:42
Speaker 2: To say the least.

00:07:43
Speaker 1: But for sleep purposes, we have all the resources we could ask for, and it's just about us going if you need the help that you need, or if you don't need anything, they're not going to force anything you to do anything. But all the resources are there, and it's really just about making sure we're taking care of our bodies. You know, play a game, maybe have a night game, get away and you get into the two or three in the morning sometime and then you have to play the next day. Just trying to do whatever we can to just stay on top of the recovery modalities and make sure that we're ready to play the next day.

00:08:13
Speaker 6: AJ we're in Vegas right now and I have not had a lot of time to eat during the day.

00:08:18
Speaker 2: No, what could we do?

00:08:19
Speaker 5: I could?

00:08:20
Speaker 4: I would love a huel right now. Vanilla fuel would go down perfectly because I'll have to skip meals because I'm too busy doing what you do in Vegas, which is not eat. I need a quick replacement and fuel is the perfect thing.

00:08:30
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00:09:14
Speaker 3: Obviously, you guys are doing the best you can with the situation with the hurricane and Tropicana not being there. But how long did it take or is it still a process of getting used to the stats and just kind of how to maneuver a sign Brenner Field with that as your home ballpark, it.

00:09:31
Speaker 2: Took a little bit to get used to.

00:09:32
Speaker 1: You know, you play in the trap and you have seventy degrees, no humidity, no wind, and no other external factors, and you know your game is getting played that day and never have to worry about rain delay. You could look up on the video board that shows all the pitch data. You know, a lot of guys look up in their radar gun checking. We're mostly pitch metrics checking. So you know, you go into some of the games outside and maybe the win's blowing out, maybe it's blowing in your face or cross wind. It's gonna do something different to the ball every single time. And after a couple starts, we kind of figured it out. And then obviously, you know some of the fly balls that get hit, you're like, oh cool, that's just canicorned to right.

00:10:12
Speaker 2: Nope, it's going over the fence.

00:10:14
Speaker 1: You know, it took a little bit to get to used to, but our hitters have also adapted to it as well. And I've been smoking the ball out of the ballpark and you know, giving us a lot of run supports. So it's it took a little bit to get used to, but we're making the most of the situation and you know, we're we're the team like in the city. But there's a lot bigger things that are more important than us, which the hurricane took a lot of stuff from a lot of people in the area, So you know, we're just trying to be an exciting team that people can gather and rally around.

00:10:43
Speaker 4: Just have Westy do your laundry when you're on that sixteen day trip. Just tell blest you drop a bag off in Westy's office, and Westy's their travel guy. Just have them just drop a bag off and say, AJ told me to do that, you would do this for me and you He'll do it automatically. I promise you.

00:10:57
Speaker 2: I'll go.

00:10:58
Speaker 1: I'll go around and take one of the big host tell laundry carts and just go to everybody's room and just stack a giant pile and then leave it at his door. And then that's from you. So yes, I'm sure he'll get it done. It'll be it may take a couple days farm but it'll get done.

00:11:11
Speaker 4: You'll also not be sleeping in the hotel, You'll be sleeping in a ten outside. But whatever, you probably should do that.

00:11:16
Speaker 5: Nah.

00:11:17
Speaker 1: You know, my wife likes to go on all the road trips, so I'm gonna make sure I keep them in his good graces smart smart.

00:11:23
Speaker 4: All right, So you mentioned your schedule, and you mentioned how they prepare and all this, all these things, and you're at stein Binnerfield and you look ahead and see when you're pitching. Do you ever look at the schedule and say, all right, we're in Detroit. Who we missed schoogle because oh man, we get three days of h no schooble, so I don't have to fit. You get flairty, but you don't get Schooble. So you're like, oh, thank you, no schooble against me.

00:11:45
Speaker 1: I got this pitching against school last year and it was very entertained watch from the dugout. Yeah, that was talked about yesterday when he was throwing that we're like, oh, we get to miss him again. But you know, it's always fun to go up against some of the best you know, and he's phenomenal and it's fun to watch, as you know, as a pitcher, you go out and watch him just dominate with all the different pitches and throwing one hundred from the left side, and it's cool to watch. And what he did last year and then reciprocating it again this season. It's always enjoying enjoyable to go out there and pitch against the best and you know, toe the rubber and you know, compete against them.

00:12:19
Speaker 2: But I'm not complaining. I don't have to pitch against.

00:12:21
Speaker 5: Them, all right, you're a three sport athlete in Indiana. AJ will say Indiana is not a real real state. But as a.

00:12:32
Speaker 4: State, I mean it's a real state. I mean they have they're in the state your fifty states.

00:12:36
Speaker 5: I mean, it's a state. It's the country, it's the country. He will say, it's not an athletic state. And pitchers are not athletes. Where do you rank on the team? Where do you rank on the team as far as athletes? God, you kind of look at some of the guys like you watch you watch Simpson around, You're like, dude, you're fast, but I could probably do a lot of things better than you.

00:12:59
Speaker 1: I'm not beating him in a forty yard dash. I'm not beating him in the first base or stealing a base. I'd like to think I'm semi athletic. You know, I played football. I played basketball. I mean from Indiana. It might not be a state according to AJ, but from Indiana you have to play basketball. But you know, I like to go out there and shag and batting practice and you know, get a little power shag in. So you know, yesterday we ran out of people on the bench, so someone had to be cleaned up and ready to go if anything was.

00:13:27
Speaker 2: An emergency, and that was me yesterday.

00:13:29
Speaker 1: So you know, luckily I didn't have to go in there because I knew the ball was coming right to me no matter where I was out on the field.

00:13:37
Speaker 2: You know, the ball away is fines you.

00:13:38
Speaker 1: So I got to stand in there with cleats on, ready to go, but I wasn't needed and.

00:13:42
Speaker 2: We ended up pulling out a win yesterday. So win win for the team.

00:13:45
Speaker 1: But I don't know where I rank myself on the team, but I'd like to put myself pretty high up there.

00:13:53
Speaker 4: Okay, all right, let's let's let's get one things rat. Indian Indiana is a real state. I played in Fort Waite, so I know it's a real state. Okay, let's not let's not get Eric all trying to get me in trouble. But I will say it does say something about Indiana, or more maybe more specifically Indianapolis, that Lance Lynn is the best athlete to ever come out of Indianapolis, So maybe that's more of the point.

00:14:15
Speaker 2: That's fine. Lance is a phenomenal athlete. The guy can field the position and uh knows how to pinch uh me spent.

00:14:22
Speaker 1: I got to spend a lot of time with Lance, you know, also growing up and that we played. His high school was in the same high school conference that mine was, so I got to watch him when he was with Drew Storn on the same high school team, and then Tucker Barnhart went through the same school district as well afterwards, so their team was very very good to Washington I was growing up, and then getting to play with him a couple of years ago was it was really cool and really special. You know, he taught me a lot and we still talk to this day and consider one of my good friends. So it kind of took me under his wing and it was it was a lot of fun to be around him. But yeah, I'd give it to him. Or Keer Myers also from from Indiana, from Fort Wayne area, so uh, I think he got a little confiden.

00:15:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's a lot of athletes that you brought. A good athletes that you just mentioned coming out of the state of Indiana. Larry Bird didn't he go to Indiana State. I mean, come on, now, state. Yeah, there's some there's some good athletes coming out of that state. All right, So you're an Indiana kid living in Florida. Are you more of a let's go play hoops guy, or let me go to the beach guy.

00:15:22
Speaker 2: I don't know.

00:15:23
Speaker 1: I'd probably say go to the beach, but I can only go there for about like an hour before I get to sunburnt.

00:15:28
Speaker 2: So you know, I'll go to the beach for a little bit and then I and then I pack it up and go back. I'd rather go on a golf course than go shoot hoops.

00:15:37
Speaker 3: Okay, what's your what's your handicap?

00:15:40
Speaker 2: Like a five? Oh?

00:15:42
Speaker 5: Oh okay, Like that's not there's no like a five. It's either five.

00:15:48
Speaker 1: Or it's but it's it's I can play on any given day. I can play like a fifteen and I can just start spraying it or I could I can play like a scratch sometimes if I keep the ball in play. But I'm definitely not the best on our team. Curtis me it is our best by far.

00:16:01
Speaker 2: He's like a plus two. In the offseason.

00:16:04
Speaker 1: He lives up in Adelaide, Australia where the live golf tournament is. That's his home course and he's shown me all his rounds that he's shot under part there and it's it's impressive. When we're out there playing golf with him. You never won a gamble against him because he's going to take your money every single time.

00:16:18
Speaker 3: Do you take your clubs on the road.

00:16:21
Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, they go.

00:16:22
Speaker 1: I didn't bring him on this road trip. We had a bunch of day games in Minnesota and then we go to Boston after this one. And I like going around and hanging around in Boston, but on the road most of the time, I take my golf clubs.

00:16:32
Speaker 5: I was gonna say, you got to figure out how to pack for sixteen days. You got to pack your wife's clothes for sixteen days. But your clubs are making it. There's no doubt your clubs are making it.

00:16:41
Speaker 1: Oh, they're making the trip. We have two off days. We got off day in Seattle and off day in San Francisco. They're they're definitely going.

00:16:48
Speaker 5: Okay, So you so you you mentioned Tucker Barnhart and all Indianapolis. Did you ever go to Indianapolis Indians camps?

00:16:55
Speaker 2: Oh? Yeah, all the time.

00:16:57
Speaker 5: So Tucker Barnhart one time, just like randomly, I came up to the bat and he was like, bro, I used to watch you play at Indianapolis. So did you ever see me play for the Indianapolis Indians when like Andrew McCutcheon was there, Garrett Jones was there, Pedro Alvarez, Brandon Moss, like that whole crew, Garrett Cole, all those guys.

00:17:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was on.

00:17:22
Speaker 5: So you watched me play? It makes me feel good.

00:17:24
Speaker 2: Yep, I've watched you play.

00:17:25
Speaker 1: Actually, I've definitely watched you play because when Garrett Cole is coming up, I would go sit down by the uh, by the bullpen, right because you know it's on the field. So right there, I'm talking. I was a little kid, little little kid just sitting there just watching Garrett Cole warm up.

00:17:39
Speaker 2: So I was watching you warm up and catch him.

00:17:41
Speaker 1: That's awesome.

00:17:43
Speaker 3: Oh that doesn't make you feel cold at all, right, Eric, he was a little kid watching warm up. It's fine, It's totally fine.

00:17:50
Speaker 2: Heyre's there.

00:17:52
Speaker 1: I'm still I'm still like a nineteen ninety seven kid. There's kids now, like two thousand and four in the major leagues, and they really feel make me feel old.

00:17:59
Speaker 2: Like me and I'm twenty seven, and I'm like, we have junior.

00:18:02
Speaker 1: Or Cameronaro just turned twenty two the other day and he's hit twenty two homers or whatever so far this year, And I'm like, dude, you're twenty two, what like, what the heck?

00:18:10
Speaker 2: Twenty two?

00:18:10
Speaker 1: I was still in college trying to figure it out how to throw a strike.

00:18:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, Matt Holliday got or Jackson Holiday got called up when he was twenty. I mean that you guys are these are young young kids. Tell us about all the charity work that you're doing. Ryan, I know it's important to you and your wife. Tell us a little bit more about reading with the rays and some of the other things that you guys are doing in the community.

00:18:29
Speaker 2: We've done a lot, you know, helped out a lot with the hurricane. We stay local.

00:18:34
Speaker 1: We moved to Saint Pete after the trade went through, and so it really feels like home for us.

00:18:39
Speaker 2: So trying to get back as much as possible. We did the Ron.

00:18:41
Speaker 1: McDonald house last week when we played the Rangers. Earlier we were at Gg's Playhouse for the kids with down syndrome with Jake Berger. I'm forgetting a lot of things that I've done. But it's just been a lot of fun. The people in Saint Pete and Tampa are phenomenal and you know, trying to give back as much as they possibly can because the city's given us so much and really raised us. And it's it's been fun, you know, just trying to put a smile on people's face and you end up walking out of the place with a bigger smile because of what the hard work and the trials and tribulations that some of these kids go through that you see, and then they still show up with a smile on the face after maybe going through some some chemo or whatever they've had to go through during the day, and they still have the energy to go out there and play and hang out and it's really inspiring.

00:19:26
Speaker 5: Brian.

00:19:26
Speaker 4: Before I let you go, I have to ask, since you now live in Tampa and you're from Indianapolis, Okay, better steakhouse, Saint Elmo's or Burns.

00:19:38
Speaker 2: I haven't been to Burns yet, but it's on my list. I know, I know, I know, I haven't been to Burns yet.

00:19:45
Speaker 4: Well, you're just qualified.

00:19:47
Speaker 1: I know I can't, but I will say sant Almos phenomenal and I do love Growing up in Indiana, they sell the sant Almos cocktail sauce at the grocery.

00:19:56
Speaker 2: Store, so you always take to the parties.

00:19:58
Speaker 1: And I don't know why any one would want to eat shrimp cocktail in Indiana because you know, landlocked state, where do they.

00:20:03
Speaker 2: Get the shrimp?

00:20:05
Speaker 1: But every every party that you go to or a family get together, they'd always be shrimp cocktail. And then you'd throw out the sant Almo sauce and sometimes you'd want to.

00:20:13
Speaker 2: Everyone would put the label of which one. It was just so that everyone was prepared.

00:20:16
Speaker 1: But you know, kid, you want to switch them and you watch somebody just load up a shrimp with a ton of sant Almo sauce and see their face afterwards. So that was always entertaining. But sant Almos is pretty tough to beat. Whenever I go back and try to go.

00:20:30
Speaker 4: St Amos has two things going. For the reason you don't care about the shrimp. They get them out of that little river that runs through Indianapolis, whatever, that little creek, that's what they pull them out of. But they put so much horseradish in the Saint Almos cocktail sauce that it burns your nose even if there was anything on it, it kills it automatically. But yeah, they have the best drink. That doctor pepper Cola thing they have. It's adult beverage. They have at Saint Almos is delicious, and their New York strip is unbelievable, but it's no Burns and Burns has a dessert room. You probably don't eat dessert, you know, you're probably shredded. But if you go to Burns, you got to get the Chateaubrians, the French onion soup, and then you got to go upstairs to the dessert room and get like a piece of cake or ice cream that's like bigger than your head, and then you have to eat it all. And then you waddle out and you're like, all right, I can make it.

00:21:15
Speaker 1: I can do that. We got the also break coming up. I'll make myself a reservation that sounds like good night, do it.

00:21:21
Speaker 3: Teller to get here, you can probably just call and say, hey, I'm Ryan Peppio, I want to get in. I'll get you right in. I did that, and I went to Tampa to see Morgan Wallen last year. When he canceled, so we had a night off and Andrew Friedman got us into Burns and we did the dessert room and the wine room. Ryan Peppio, you must check it out. Thank you so much for being with us. Best to luck the rest of the season. It's been a pleasure, great to get to know you lot.

00:21:44
Speaker 2: Thank you guys, Thank you very much for having me