Bonus pod: All-Star Chris Sale joins Foul Territory from Texas

00:00:00
Speaker 1: Hello everyone. My name is Brad Rowland. I am one of the hosts of the Hammer Territory podcast covering all things Atlanta Braves in one stop fashion. But today's podcast is kind of a bonus episode. Earlier this week, the awesome folks at foul Territory, which we are part of that network, they actually hosted Chris Sale, Braves starting Pitcher and cy Young candidate on their show live from Texas as part of the All Star festivities. We thought would be a good idea to go ahead and show that audio with you on this feed. If you've not already, please check out and subscribe to Foul Territory on all the audio platforms as well as on their YouTube page and their live coverage each and every day covering the baseball world plus covers the All Star Game and all that fun stuff as well. With that said, here is the Chris Sale interview in full, and we definitely encourage you to subscribe to this podcast if you're a new listener to Hammer Territory. We cover the Braves each and every day as well as we are part of the foul Territory network. So all that said, here we go with Chris Sale and the Foul Territory.

00:00:53
Speaker 2: Crew, Chris Sale, the All Star Atlanta Braves left. You're joining us right now on FT and we're thrilled to have you.

00:01:00
Speaker 3: So the count though, hold on, does it count?

00:01:02
Speaker 4: You're an All Star because you moved your pitch day so you were scared to.

00:01:06
Speaker 3: Not pitch in the All Star Game.

00:01:08
Speaker 5: You know, I've been embarrassed on National TV enough. I'm gonna leave it to these guys. Let the big dogs go out there and throw their one hundred. I'm gonna sit back and enjoy it.

00:01:18
Speaker 4: There was a day when there was a day now where you were like I can throw a hundred, Why can't I pitch?

00:01:23
Speaker 3: That was a few surgeries ago, But but we brought that up.

00:01:27
Speaker 4: I brought that up just the other day, and I'm so glad you're on because that is a searing memory for me. You coming out and being like, oh, I got one inning, I'm gonna let this thing eat. And to me, that showed what you really had. And I know guys in the clubhouse talked about it. So when big league guys talk about it and then you go out there and you're like, oh, I can do this, and you just blew guys away. Did you have that in your head before you went in there?

00:01:52
Speaker 3: In All Star games? Is that All Star game? Oh?

00:01:54
Speaker 4: This one where you came out and you were like you were normally like a ninety nine guy, and then you came out and you were to it's like one oh one the whole time.

00:02:02
Speaker 3: Did you have that in your head? Or was that just kind of spur of the moment.

00:02:06
Speaker 5: I think too, just like with with adrenaline and just knowing like as a starter like you, you have more innings to carry. If I'm going out there for one inning, it's just let's just let it rip. You got, I got one sprint to run as opposed to like a marathon, so.

00:02:24
Speaker 3: You know.

00:02:27
Speaker 4: But see that confuses me because when you first came up, you were a closer and you didn't throw one hundred. So that's like what changed? How did you go from like ninety two when you were a little thumber to now.

00:02:38
Speaker 3: All of a sudden, I can throw a hundred. Well, I just I went to the gym and I just got really jazzed.

00:02:44
Speaker 5: And then and now that I got all these big muscles, I can I can throw a little bit harder now.

00:02:48
Speaker 4: Different catcher yeah, it was calling the right pictures right number one. It wasn't the right one. Confidence sorry sliders confidence.

00:02:56
Speaker 3: So you had a fat finger.

00:02:57
Speaker 6: I needed a skin in your finger, saying, uh possible, Johnson mold situation. Moving forward, you know, one day you're like, I'm good on starting, go off with the bullpen, get three hundred saves, pitch here you forty eight rethink it's okay.

00:03:10
Speaker 3: The day that I'm done being a starter is the day I'm done playing baseball. It's fun.

00:03:15
Speaker 5: I'm I'm a house cat now, you know. It's I like, I like going to my schedule.

00:03:22
Speaker 3: Do you remember the game I've told the story on here, and these guys are lude.

00:03:25
Speaker 4: You pitched in against camp I think, and you dealt and you threw a bunch of sliders and people were kind of like, oh, he's gonna blow out. And then we went I think to Seattle and Don Cooper told me he got twenty five sliders to throw, and I said, do you remember this game?

00:03:41
Speaker 3: And I said, how am I? How am I supposed to keep track of that? And He's like, I don't know.

00:03:46
Speaker 4: So I put twenty five sun follower seats in my pocket and every time you throw and I.

00:03:50
Speaker 3: Click went out, so I knew when I ran out. I also, yeah, I remember there were a couple of times.

00:03:55
Speaker 5: In my career they're like, all right, you have X amount of sliders to throw in this game, go like figure it out, and uh yeah, I guess it worked.

00:04:06
Speaker 3: I still ended up blowing out, So there we go.

00:04:10
Speaker 4: Did they do that for an injury standpoint or did they not explain it or was it like, hey, we need you to develop your other pitches.

00:04:16
Speaker 5: I think it was more so just like the the injury thing, because I and in twenty twelve, I had in early May. I remember I got sent back to the I started for April, ran into a little flexor thing, went to the bullpen, kind of had conversations to get back into them. Yeah you remember those conversations. I used that word loosely but arguing. Uh well, there were conversations and I got back into starting, and I think it was more so like all right, let's let's try to not hurt this guy for the long haul.

00:04:56
Speaker 3: It worked. He still blew out. Yeah, so again you're later. But everybody blows out now, right, I mean there's very few guys.

00:05:03
Speaker 5: That don't blow out at this point, and there's a lot of guys having it for the second time too, which is kind of alarming, But it's just, you know, that's that's the risk you take being a big league pitcher. Now, you know, like it you sign that dotted line, you got to go out there and tow the rubber and that's that's just kind of the risk for the reward that we seek.

00:05:24
Speaker 3: How much has that talked about?

00:05:26
Speaker 2: Do the young guys spring it up and ask the vets like, hey, what's the best way to preserve myself and prevent injury?

00:05:32
Speaker 3: Or they just like, eh, if it happens, it happens.

00:05:35
Speaker 5: I think it's more so that one. Just there's no real formula that says like, Okay, you're not gonna blow out, and you know it was you know, you put you can put pitch counts on guys, you can stress, you know, recovery, massage, therapy, shoulder program, but there's no like you have guys that take really good care of themselves and blow out, and then you got guys that don't and don't blow out. You know, is it the pitch count guys were you know, Nolan probably was throwing two hundred pitches in then in an outing and then throwing on three days rest and never you know, never had it.

00:06:11
Speaker 3: And then you.

00:06:12
Speaker 5: Got guys that are on really strict pitch counts that blowout.

00:06:18
Speaker 6: Let's be very clear here, ten years with no injuries is pretty impressive. Uh and to go that long everyone gets hurt at some point. We're just not meant to do this. But I you you spent almost no time in the minors, correct, You were like straight to the big leagues, and which is becoming maybe not that fast, but it's becoming more and more common that guys are getting up faster.

00:06:39
Speaker 1: A month.

00:06:41
Speaker 3: I mean, he's spent a month down there. He really grinded it out.

00:06:44
Speaker 4: Got six years in Charlotte though, So that's extra.

00:06:47
Speaker 3: Did you go to the old Charlotte That's what I mean. Yeah, let's June and then he was there in August and we're like, what how old this guy? Yeah?

00:06:58
Speaker 6: And now everyone and ones got to Chris Sales on their team. Uh So, what was the hardest part about just going straight from college pretty much to.

00:07:06
Speaker 3: The big leagues, Like dealing with this guy? I can only imagine if you had somebody soft without a catcher.

00:07:13
Speaker 4: I don't think it would have built Maybe you can answer better, I don't think it would have built you to what you are.

00:07:19
Speaker 3: No, and I did.

00:07:20
Speaker 5: I definitely did appreciate that too. I think that I say this all the time and people ask me, what like I've I don't shake at all? Right, Like, I don't do I don't look at reports, I don't do any scouting, I don't watch video.

00:07:32
Speaker 3: I just I just go pitch. And people ask me, like, how I've done that?

00:07:37
Speaker 5: And then like if you think about my literally my not only my entire career, but my entire life, I've never called a pitch like I'm in Little league, gets the coaches calling it, get the high school, my coach is calling it. I got to college. I dare you to shake off your college coach? Yeah, maybe you should have shook off the one you do to de Gram where you hit it. My only that's the only one. And that and check the tape. That was a bomb. I know it was a freaking bob, but you know, and then I and then I get to the minor leagues.

00:08:09
Speaker 3: You know, I'm a first rounder.

00:08:10
Speaker 5: I'm the new guy, like I'm not gonna be you know, the a hole to shake off these guys, and then I get to the big leagues and he's my first catcher, Like I'm not gonna be I'm not gonna shake him off. And then I got Burley as like, you know, he was the guy when I first got to Chicago, Like he was the guy, and he never shook off. So it's like I had never called a pitch for myself in my entire life. And then I'm gonna get to twenty four years old and start doing that, like just kind of makes it easier for me to just go out.

00:08:40
Speaker 3: There and compete. Yep. Well what change this year? I mean science? Health right?

00:08:46
Speaker 4: Because you I mean you were one of the most dominant dudes forever. Okay, then obviously went to the Red Sox. He won the World Series, and then you know, things started happening. He started getting hurt. You're falling off bikes, you know, you're jumping in front of cars and all these crazy things.

00:09:01
Speaker 3: Playing Froger.

00:09:01
Speaker 5: Yeah, real life probably would have had better luck with that, honestly, But.

00:09:07
Speaker 3: What change this year?

00:09:08
Speaker 4: I mean besides health right, I mean, you're thirteen and three with a two. I picked you to win the cy young, so no pressure like, what change.

00:09:18
Speaker 5: I honestly, I just think it was the health aspect of it. I finally had a full off season. Like every off season since twenty eighteen, I've gone into the off season rehabbing something, whether it be my shoulder after the World Series, my elbow the next year, you know, the the wrist, the pinky, all that stuff.

00:09:42
Speaker 3: The year after that.

00:09:45
Speaker 5: You know, I started throwing bullpens this past offseason at the time where I started just picking up a baseball in previous offseasons. So I just think being able to get my feet underneath me and like I just had to throw. I just had to get a lot of throwing done, you know how it goes. May like, I played so much long toss this offseason. I was probably fifteen bullpens deep before I got the spring training.

00:10:11
Speaker 3: You were trying to make the team, Yeah, well, I was trying to have gone duck. You know, he would have.

00:10:16
Speaker 4: Gone, he would have gone to winter ball if he was trying to make it.

00:10:18
Speaker 5: Say yeah, pitching, I mean what, I have one hundred and forty one hundred and fifty innings over the last what four years, and I had what like five yr That's not fun. You know, like going out there and throwing primetime batting practice is not u not the funnest thing to do. So it was I was able to, you know, kind of lock it in and take it serious and get a lot of throwing and and just baseball activity.

00:10:42
Speaker 3: Done this offseason.

00:10:44
Speaker 6: You mentioned all the injuries and and uh, just kind of having to battle over battle through one thing after the other. And you know, I've been there for a little bit, not quite that long, but uh a little bit.

00:10:53
Speaker 3: And is there something to getting that Philo off season?

00:10:57
Speaker 6: Obviously, but also like kind of getting a clean slate where that baggage isn't associated with the team. Like being in a training room in Boston you have this like I'm always here rehabbing. It's not normal, right, And having kind of the whole atmosphere kind of change.

00:11:09
Speaker 3: Did that help and get I think so?

00:11:12
Speaker 5: And it's no it's no knock on Boston or anybody there, Like those guys were amazing, Like they what they did for me not only my career but in my life personally, for me and my family.

00:11:23
Speaker 3: I'll never be able to repay it.

00:11:27
Speaker 5: But I I do think that I just I put a lot on myself when I was there.

00:11:32
Speaker 3: You know, I get traded.

00:11:34
Speaker 5: Over there, we win the World Series, show up the next spring training, sign this big contract, and then from that point on literally was the worst part of my entire career. And I just felt like every time I stepped on a mound, I was trying.

00:11:48
Speaker 3: To prove this right. And that's just not clean living.

00:11:53
Speaker 5: That's that's a tough way to go through your career, through an outing or through a year, is you know, every pitch I throw, I got this contract on my mind or trying to show this, prove this or whatever. And you know, once I got here, it was kind of okay, like, hey, you got a clean slate, like you're the trailer kind of got unhitched. And you know, obviously the clubhouse is great, this is this is a great team we have in Atlanta. The staff is amazing, the fan base is awesome. And uh so that all those things kind of together got me kind of going in the right direction.

00:12:29
Speaker 4: Can you can you say yes, I was a change of scenery guy, And would you have said that before, because all of what you just said kind of feels like it is because we always talk about that. And did you think that before the season started.

00:12:45
Speaker 5: I think it would be unfair to a lot of people that helped me out to say that it was only the change of scenery. But I do think that it that it had an impact for and and I never would have really tabbed myself as a change of scenery guy. Wherever I'm at, you hand me the ball, I'm getting after it no matter what.

00:13:09
Speaker 3: But I'm I definitely do think that that had some help. You know, I'm not getting out of here without asking you a White Sox question. I love it, so.

00:13:18
Speaker 4: Get it has nothing to do with you know're not gonna think where I'm going. So they have a guy that's at the All Star Game, Garrett Crochet.

00:13:24
Speaker 3: Yes he's better than me, that guy.

00:13:27
Speaker 4: That wasn't That also wasn't what I was gonna ask.

00:13:31
Speaker 3: But you have any advice for him? Because they brought him up quick like you. They put him in the bullpen.

00:13:36
Speaker 4: He got hurt, he blew out, and now he's starting and he's done more in musition he's ever thrown, probably maybe in his life.

00:13:42
Speaker 3: Do you have any advice.

00:13:43
Speaker 4: For him about how to manage that, how to control being a starter, and how to get through the year and stay healthy.

00:13:51
Speaker 5: I think if you look at his year and you look at my year, I should have more questions to ask him. But yeah, I think I think with him, he just keep doing what he's doing. He I mean, he looks like his stuff is there every game, right, so like you know, I think he's bouncing back. Well, I mean you look at just his body, the physicality of it. I mean, he's he's a big boy. Like it looks like he's prepared to make this jump from to do to do this, And I just more so than anything, just stay on your routine because whatever he's been doing has been working. So just carry that through the second half and just keep competing. I mean, just keep filling up the strike zone because that stuff is I mean that it's unhittable every time.

00:14:40
Speaker 3: By the way, we have I have a present for you. But are you gonna start tight?

00:14:44
Speaker 4: You're gonna start tight rolling your pants the way he does like nineties? No, this is not if what's that I got through skinny legs and show these things.

00:14:52
Speaker 3: I have a present for you.

00:14:54
Speaker 4: So Adidas has brought you a present for the All Star home run derby since they have all these scars, know bombie, they brought you a bomb Pop so you can have that Bomby Pops.

00:15:08
Speaker 3: What is this? Is this legal legal? I don't know.

00:15:13
Speaker 5: He has brought in a special bag with dry ice, Bobby Pops.

00:15:20
Speaker 3: I was like, is that it is under? This is sick.

00:15:29
Speaker 1: Hot?

00:15:29
Speaker 3: Yeah?

00:15:29
Speaker 5: Another company I've been stealing money from for the last few years, so I can finally give them some.

00:15:34
Speaker 3: Some well uh well respected publicity. Well they still love you. They still love you. I mean no, no other way of showing love than a hot day. Yeah. I don't need to be chicken chipping any of these chickens. I was gonna say that you remember these central.

00:15:57
Speaker 2: Maybe you could say these as a collector's item. I gotta go find it. Chris, thanks for swinging by. We're gonna take a break. Appreciate you swinging bye. How is it good?

00:16:05
Speaker 3: What's that? This thing is hard as a rock. But yeah, they seem like you went full. That's delicious. Yeah, all right.

00:16:19
Speaker 1: That is it with Foul Territory and Chris Sale. Please go ahead and subscribe to Hammer Territory covering the Braves each and every day on Apple, on Spotify, on overcast, that anywhere you might find your podcasts, and also be sure check out Foul Territory as well. Enjoy the rest of your day and we'll see you all next time.