Dusty Napoleon of Northwestern [Morning Brushback Pod EP43]

Dusty Napoleon, assistant coach at Northwestern University, joined us to talk about recruiting, tech, analytics, how college and pro baseball are changing, and much more. A high-academic school, Northwestern recruits a different type of player and has to look a bit beyond just baseball skills. Listen in for Dusty’s real-world experience both as a former D1 player (Iowa), pro player (Oakland A’s) and a veteran D1 coach at Northwestern.

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Transcript of EP43 – Dusty Napoleon of Northwestern Baseball talks recruiting, player development, tech, hitting and more

Dan Blewett: Well, welcome back. I think we’re live. Thanks for being here on the Morning brushback. I’m your cohost, Dan Blewett. I am joined here by my other co-hosts Bobby Stevens. Robert, how you doing?

Bobby Stevens: Back in the studio car,

Dan Blewett: back in the studio car, you’re stealing Dunkin donuts, sweet wifi.

Bobby Stevens: They’ll get known as this strong wifi for anyone looking at work from their car.

It’s got really strong life

Dan Blewett: and we got it. Awesome. All right, Bobby, get over it. All right. We’re over your wifi. We’ve got a great guest today. Dusty Napoleon is here from Northwestern baseball. How are you, sir? Thank

Dusty Napoleon: you. It’s actually Napoleon. So no,

Dan Blewett: he’s fine with that. What did I say

Dusty Napoleon: Napoleonic would say, you know, just want to throw an extra vowel on the end.

I am Italian, so it’s

Dan Blewett: okay. I’m a terrible, I’m a terrible host. Very sorry, sir. No,

Dusty Napoleon: I’m good, man. But you’re giving away Bobby secrets with stealing the Dunkin donuts wifi. So.

Dan Blewett: Is there any, like, can you smell it? Does it have like a, do they like infuse it with any kind of like maple or anything?

Bobby Stevens: It’s good people watching for anyone that’s interested.

There’s no, there’ve been no street Fest this year. There’s been no, like you have been able to sit at the park and just watch people walk by Dunkin donuts. And it’s like attached to a gas station, solid people watching for the last 20 minutes. I’ve been here.

Dan Blewett: It’s Dunkin donuts though. Like the Walmart of the craft coffee world.

Oh, wait, wait, you gotta be right.

Bobby Stevens: It’s gotta be the most generic coffee place, maybe seven 11.

That’s

Dan Blewett: not a coffee place though. Like he gets where people, who would you put in this conversation does see like the standard, like the big three or four coffee places. There’s Starbucks and Dunkin and

Dusty Napoleon: the Starbucks.

Dunkin. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, shoot man. That’s that’s the only ones I kind of see around. I’m not a big coffee guy, but, uh, I think it’s in Chicago. I don’t know if it’s national, but is there a Pete pizzas is kinda big in Chicago.

Dan Blewett: That’s true. Pizza. Yeah. Pizza. Well, what did, so you, you played pro ball. You were drafted by the Oakland athletics.

If you’re not a big coffee guy, what did you do in your five o’clock after BP to get going? What was your, what was your caffeination of choice? Nothing.

Dusty Napoleon: Well, I was back in the day where the pre-workout was kind of kicking in, right? Like, so you wake up in the morning and you wake up in the morning and then, uh, go work out.

And then after BP is usually a shower with a scoop of explode back in the day. I know you guys remember that. So

Dan Blewett: I actually never took it. I never, I’ve actually never taken pre-workout in my life. I don’t know why. I’m not like. I think it’s a little weird, especially when younger kids are taking it. Like when 15 year olds are taking it, I’m like, you’re doing life wrong.

You don’t need that. Like, you need that to get through a workout now. Good luck when you’re 28 and like all of your joints are swollen hurting.

Dusty Napoleon: Yeah. That came. I mean, that, that kind of popped up when we were in college and sophomore, junior, senior year. That was kinda, that was kind of the thing to do. And then in pro ball, it was a, it was all legal.

So, you know, everyone was jumping on board.

Dan Blewett: Well with those things being quote unquote, all legal. I mean, guys got popped for stuff every once in a while in college and pro ball. And they blamed it on those a lot of times, right. I mean, who knows? There’s like cocaine and some of these crazy pre-workouts that just because the FDA doesn’t regulate them so they could throw whatever they want in there.

And like, no one really knows. It’s

Dusty Napoleon: kind of scary. I remember I was in, there was 2010. We were in, uh, in AA, in Midland and. We’re playing. I believe the Astros may be somebody in, uh, there was like eight or nine guys who tested positive for something and it was, they’re all taking the new one. The new pre-work on that came out.

That was the Jac three D

Dan Blewett: at the Powell. That’s right. I remember that one.

Dusty Napoleon: Yeah. So that was a big one that guys were starting to test positive for.

Dan Blewett: Eight and eight or nine guys is not a small amount of guy. That’s like, Oh man, we need like more players to like, have a team now

Dusty Napoleon: it’s

Bobby Stevens: better. It’s almost better that, that many guys, at least, you know, it’s like, okay, there’s definitely something

Dan Blewett: tainted and that’s true.

Bobby Stevens: Yes, it’s just the one guy you have this, like I swear, I didn’t take anything bad to come on, guy.

Dan Blewett: The Mary Kay steroid rep visited the team. Now they all went home with something. Right. Um, so does he, how long have you been with Northwestern and what’s the current state of, of your program right now?

Dusty Napoleon: Yeah.

So just finish the abbreviated year, right in 2020. Um, so yeah, we, uh, uh, was hired in, in the summer of 2015 with a head coach, Spencer Allen. Um, who’s kind of been all over, but, uh, he was hired from Illinois when he was the hitting coach there and they had their, their 51 season. Um, so we’ve been there for five years and, you know, I, I really believe our program is, is on the uprise, you know, this past year, Um, you know, we took two out of three from South Carolina on the road.

Um, so, you know, we were, we were right around 500 when the season ended and, um, the 2017, we, we made it to the big 10 championship and the big 10 tournament. So, um, you know, I definitely think we’re trending in the right direction.

Dan Blewett: Well, you guys a really nice facility. I, I, my team’s played up there a couple years in a row or our summer tournament circuit and just like a really nice, cool place to play.

Does anyone ever put one up one of that? I got it. I can see if I can remember the architecture. You’re your football cause I’ve been in the football. So for those of you who haven’t been Northwestern’s field it’s, it’s beautiful. It’s got a nice ballpark. It’s a brand new term. It’s got good bullpens. Like it’s really like, you guys did a great job with it.

Um, and then you have your football facilities, like your indoor is like half field or is it a full field? I can’t remember.

Dusty Napoleon: So probably one when you were there, that was the indoor football. Um, and then we had our cages in that, in the annex as we call it. Well in the last, a year and a half, they totally remodeled that.

So when football opened up there brand new facility on campus, which is the best in the country, they got it. The whole old indoor football, turn it into, um, No half of it is a basketball volleyball facility. And then the other half is actually all turf for baseball and softball. So we have, yes, we have a good, you know, a 40 yard turf area, full infield, and then connect it to that where our cages were.

We have five permanent cages, 80 feet, long, 20 feet wide, 20 feet high. So it’s, uh, in who we got in there and you know, November a little bit. And then January, February, we have to train there. Um, and then obviously what happened with COVID, but, um, it’s, it’s with everything that we have there with the weight room there and, and, you know, the hydrotherapy and, um, the field and locker room, like, I mean, it’s, uh, it’s a top, top facility for sure.

At least in the Midwest.

Dan Blewett: Yeah. Yeah.

Bobby Stevens: And they, they D I know the ADA had a lot to do with it. So the ADA at Northwestern, Jim Phillips was the ADL NIU. When I was there. And he just totally revamped the whole, the whole way everyone looked at athletics, fundraising facilities. Like if it wasn’t gonna be top of the line, then it wasn’t worth doing so.

And I use got an unbelievable facility. Now that new Northwestern football facility is unbelievable. I mean, it’s right on the water. Don’t like you said. Yeah. You know, if you can find much better than that. Yeah, you are

Dusty Napoleon: good job. This was how they planned it out to where, you know, the cafeteria for the student athletes are, is right next to academic services.

Right? So just the flow of that building. I know Hackett’s Gerald had a big part of that, but, um, they really did a good job with that facility. So

Dan Blewett: let’s talk a little bit about being a, uh, a crappy weather college. Cause this is a major. So like one of the kids, I mean, in my Academy, we had a lot of kids go a lot of places.

Obviously one of them went to South Dakota state, Zach, I’m sure you’re not listening, but, um, we’re decision. But when kids choose to go North, like there’s some reschedule is very different and, and they kind of need to understand that. There’s a lot of factors, including like the facilities that really matter.

Like for you guys having a lot of indoor space, that’s a really important thing. Like in my college, uh, you USBC, we didn’t have a ton of indoor space. We just share like gym space and all this stuff they’ve upgraded as well. They have great facilities now, but that should be like a big part of our recruits decision, potentially if they have a lot of options, because I mean, let me, let me phrase it.

So what should recruits know about playing in a rough weather? College, like, how is that going to affect their spring schedule, their travel, all that sort of stuff.

Dusty Napoleon: Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, first, like growing up with it, like growing up with the weather, like, you know, by the time I got through college at Iowa, it was like, I never thought about it.

It was just kind of, it’s just what you did, right? Like you played spring baseball, but snowflake is coming down every one, right? Like it was just kind of what it is. Um, you know, but I, but I think, uh, you know, just talking to recruits about, you know, playing in Chicago and, you know, the first thing is, is like, you ha you have to have a good indoor facility in order to, to develop.

You got to have access to cages and, and, uh, have an area where you can. You know, work on your craft and work on your skills. So, you know, that’s kinda the first thing and we have that at Northwestern. Um, you know, I think, I think the second thing is just educate them and don’t hide behind it. Right? Like we, we recruit coast to coast and we have a ton of California kids and kids from Texas and we just don’t hide it.

It because it is what it is, right? Like we’re going to play our first four weekends on the road, I’m in the spring and we’re just going to be a lot of travel, which is funny. Yeah. Yeah.

Dan Blewett: That’s what I was kind of getting at. Yeah. So you guys so full month, huh? That’s cool. That is fun. You’re right.

Dusty Napoleon: It goes by fast.

Right. But, um, in the first four weekends or on the road, and then you, you hope to potentially mix in a midweek game somewhere in there. Um, you know, usually heart are our March 2nd. Midweek game with UIC is it’s hit or miss it’s coin flip, but, uh, you know, it is what it is. We just don’t hide behind the weather, you know?

And then I think once we start to really dive into with recruits, it’s like, you know, Hey, you look at major league baseball, right? And normal season, you know, they’re, they’re playing baseball in Chicago and in April. And so, um, it is, it is, and we’re just going to be up front about it. And we have a great indoor to, to develop.

Dan Blewett: Yeah. Well, and one of the reasons I think that’s especially relevant is because, I mean, what, what day did you open up this year? Was it February

Dusty Napoleon: 15? Yeah.

Dan Blewett: That’s the fundamental difference, right? Like pro Blong. I mean, you know, your opening day was April 20th, probably. Right. So huge difference. And like for.

I guess one of the things I want people to consider is so like for my Alma mater, we were kind of fringe, like Maryland’s cold, like everyone’s cold in February. Right. But we weren’t cold enough like Chicago, where we had to play South. So we just had to suck it up and play 30 degrees and flurries and 15 degree wins.

Whereas you almost kind of want to go so far South. Where it’s like, there’s zero chance. We’re going to play anywhere locally in February and early March. So we have to go South. So like, you guys are spending your first four weeks on the road, which is, like you said, it’s super fun. Like, I, I think it’s cool to have a nice home ballpark, but it’s also, you know, one of the experiences, where are some of the places that you got to play in college and in pro ball that were pretty special to you?

Dusty Napoleon: Yeah. I mean, I think, uh, we got to go to, um, Fresno, like the year before they won the national championship. So we played them on our spring break trip. Got to go to Fresno, do a little tournament at Dallas Baptist there. So that was in school. Yeah. Yeah. That was fun. Um, you know, we usually kind of do the, the Florida trip, the Bradington one with everybody does, um, Yeah.

I mean, you know, and then just playing with the A’s down in Midland, Texas, the Texas league and AA was, was a good experience

Dan Blewett: straw though, as a

Bobby Stevens: recurrence, if you can. If you’re going to be going to Northwestern and you could say, Hey, we’re going to Arizona this week. Then next week we go to Florida. Then we have our spring trip down in Texas, or, I mean, that’s part of the recruiting, especially for warm weather States.

I mean, I went to Northern Illinois and my first trip was Arizona state. And that was part of this, you know, everybody knows their schedule a few years in advance. It seems like now, if not three, four years in advance, just with. Home and home and all that stuff with everybody. Um, when you 20 trade off film series, so you have a good idea of where you’re going to go when you’re recruiting as a junior in high school or even sophomore, essentially.

That’s a good selling point. I mean, there’s, if you’ve got a school that’s going out at Arizona state and Florida and California, as opposed to while our spring trips in st. Louis. Okay. Well, I’ve been to st. Louis. I don’t want to, I don’t need to go back.

Dan Blewett: Yeah. Dusty. What’s your favorite city? So if you had to.

If you could like start a college baseball program, maybe, maybe I don’t, I don’t want to phrase that. Cause I don’t wanna change if you were to travel and you could pick any, any city that your team was going to. Fly and spend a three day weekend with what would be your favorite city to do that in?

Dusty Napoleon: That’s a good question. Um, you know, I’m actually going to go, uh, where I’ve spent two summers in pro ball and I’m going to go to Vancouver. So I know, I know it’s in Canada, but, uh, you know, playing in the Northwest league was a short season ball. I got to. It’s been a full summer there. And then half the summer of Vancouver, Canada is just, it’s unbelievable in summer, but the weather’s perfect.

Um, off days you go to Whistler, you know, put a couple hours away and, um, you know, that’s a, that’s one of the cities that I just really, really enjoyed playing in, had a great host family and just everything they were building for the Olympics when I was up there too. So it was just growing and I just, I just loved it up there, up in the Northwest.

Dan Blewett: Yeah, the travel is definitely one of the cool parts about, and one of the under talked about parts, I think of college baseball and pro baseball. I think college baseball, a little more so than pro ball. Cause you know, in pro ball, it’s just like you have your circuit. And a lot of those towns, aren’t like, they’re not, most of them are not Vancouver.

Right,

Dusty Napoleon: right.

Dan Blewett: So, but it is pretty fun where every year you’re like, Hey, you want to go to South Carolina and play against them. And like you said, take two or three from him and then go to friends. Like there’s a lot of really cool. Places you can go and actually see a bit of the country, which is pretty fun.

Dusty Napoleon: Yeah. Let me talk about it as a staff. When, when coach Allan’s, uh, working on the schedule, where do we want to go? And then we also like to talk about, uh, trying to reward some of our kids. So, you know, we needed to get out to the West coast with so many California guys, and we’d like to start our year in Arizona.

We have great relationship with the Cubs and white Sox. So we kind of alternate at their facilities and that’s what we’ve done the last four years. So. Yeah, so it’s been awesome. So, um, yeah man, just, just traveling the country, playing baseball, isn’t nothing better than, you know.

Dan Blewett: Yeah. I’m

Bobby Stevens: sure those teams in the big time that love coming to Chicago to play, I do have one gripe with, with Northwestern field and there’s no lights there really hurts the summer ball circuit.

Cause I want

Dan Blewett: to play

Bobby Stevens: some night games and at Northwestern or we have to stop at like eight o’clock at night. I mean it’s early, obviously

Dusty Napoleon: my work.

Bobby Stevens: I’ll call Jim Phillips. We’ll look at that tape

Dusty Napoleon: for you guys. I appreciate it. Nice. Uh, you know, hopefully, hopefully it’s coming down the road, you know, we, uh, got the field, we’ve got the scoreboard, we’ve got everything there and you know, obviously the lights would be nice, but, um, you know, we make it work with, with what we have.

Bobby Stevens: So what’s your favorites, uh, visiting park to visit in the big 10 cyber system. Big campuses. You guys. Maybe even natural rivalry rivalry with you by in States, a big 10 school, but what’s your favorite? What’s your favorite place to go on the road or the fans get crazy anywhere.

Dusty Napoleon: Uh, Nebraska is always fun, right?

Like we played in Nebraska and they draw away. Um, yeah. Yeah. They do a good job. Uh, so I’ve been here for five years and we were actually supposed to finally go there. Um, but yeah, university of Iowa where I played, right. We haven’t played at Iowa. So, um, I was like, I was looking forward to that this year.

They’ve come to us a couple of times. We haven’t played there yet. Um, so. I’m going to say Iowa, just cause I’m an alum, but, uh, you know, in Indiana, you know, with, uh, with their field setup, there is good as well. And, um, good memories there from the 2017 big 10 tournament. For sure.

Dan Blewett: So I’m on your bio here. It says you led the big 10 in walks as a college player.

So one of the things. Bobby and I got into it with, uh, one of our hidden gurus was the importance of the swing versus the importance of plate discipline. And. One of my thesises in this theses was that you could give Barry bonds, a crappier swing, and he’s still pretty much very bonds like 99% very bond, because what made Barry bonds really special was his visual acuity.

His pitch selection has played discipline, et cetera, et cetera. He also had a great swing, but, um, where do you fall on this debate? I mean, how important? Obviously both are important. Like we can just like throw that out there. I know that, but how important is plate discipline?

Dusty Napoleon: Yeah, it’s huge. Well, first I think both of you guys did a great job being, uh, uh, handling that, that conversation when you guys had those guys on.

So, and the thing that I’m just going to tell you that, um, you know, I, I think there’s, there’s kind of two thoughts, right? Like I think there are, you know, kind of going back to that, that there are swing coaches and there’s hitting coaches, right. So I think guys are, can really, really teach the swing from mechanical aspect.

Right. But did they talk about approach? Do they talk about hitting and then the hitting coaches, right. It’s like, um, you know, you talk about approach and what this guy is trying to do to set you up. So I think my job at the college level, and when I try to do is you gotta be a hybrid of both. Like, I don’t think you can fall into, you know, one bucket and say, I’m just a swing coach and I’m just going to teach mechanics and.

We’re going to throw approach away or I, and I don’t think you can just be a, you know, a hitting coach and just say, we’re just going to teach approach and mechanics are out the window. Right. I just compete. Like, I think there’s gotta be a hybrid of both. So, um, obviously the hardest thing to teach, I think once you start to get up in levels is discipline right?

And, and swinging at strikes. Right. As a pitcher, you’re only as good as the pictures that you swing at. And so my, my, my hitting coach, um, in college was Brian Brownley. Um, so I know, I know Bobby knows a little bit and

he’s

Dan Blewett: listening

Bobby Stevens: right now. He just texted me.

Dusty Napoleon: You just called me, which I was like, come on.

Um, but, uh, you know, uh, and I think he, he is a light really went on for me. And I kinda, I feel like I always had a good plate discipline, but he told me my junior year, when I, you know, led the big kind of walks was. You know, if you want to hit for a high average, you read, we got to cut the swing down and we got to walk more and it’s like, okay.

And it just kind of clicked with me. And, you know, um, obviously when I, when I was drafted by the A’s, it wasn’t a coincidence and, and they really liked that, you know, that was kind of Moneyball era type, you know, 2007. So, um, played this one. It’s huge. It’s huge. And, and you really got to having a plan, have approach, but you also have a good swing with mechanics to back it up.

Dan Blewett: So one of the things that people were in my ear about, and I was like, I’m just an innocent bystander. I’m just trying to make good conversation. They’re like, well, a better swing gives you better plaintiffs of one. And of course there’s some truth to that, right? Like we all know that 13 year old who’s just got to start ambushing so early.

Cause it’s bad, super slow. And his swing super long and yeah, on his front foot, he’s got, he’s got less time to react. Cause he’s got to start sooner. We get that you’re throwing 105, like that’s like the norm these days, you know, you have less plate discipline because you have the decide sooner and you’re going to make more bad decisions.

But how important. Actually do you think the swing is cause like when we get to college and this was part of my life frustration with that conversation, it’s like, we’re talking about big leaguers here, right? Like we’re not talking about like comparing Barry bonds, his swing to Johnny, you know, Johnny trash swing and you know, in college we’re comparing Barry bonds to an average, big leaguer.

Like these are the most special hitters on the, in the world. They’re just not quite as good as him. So at like higher levels, like D Juan’s a really high level, all guys have pretty decent swings. Right. Um, so do you feel like there’s a big enough variance between two division, one starters where the swing is really making up the difference in their plate?

Discipline?

Dusty Napoleon: When you say starters, you mean like guys on the mound?

Dan Blewett: I mean, no, I mean, I meant like guys are in the lineup guys are in the line. Yeah.

Dusty Napoleon: Yeah. Um, man, I think that’s another good question. I think, I think it’s, it’s again, it’s a hybrid of a little bit of both. It’s like you, you have to, you know, for starters, like, you know, especially at our level, right?

Like we’re not going to recruit kids, at least in Northwest. We’re not gonna recruit kids with bad swings and say, Hey, I’m gonna try to fix it. Right. Like, we want to find kids who, you know, with, with myself and coach Allen, that, that kind of fit the mold of what we’re looking for. And then I think like once you, you starting to use like ton of technology, right?

We have every piece of technology there is to have at Northwestern. K is last and track man. And you know, I think you use those tools to, okay. The swing is good, right. Sequence, right. He’s where he’s loading properly. He’s where he needs to be. Right. And then I think like that, it’s just as important as the plate discipline part of it.

Right. Because I think they go hand in hand. So, um, but you gotta use the technology. Um, you know, it’s there for it. Um, yeah. People who hurts really hard on developing those things to, Hey, we’re going to develop this guy this way. And technology is going to show us. Hey, is this time to contact right? Using blast motion?

Is it really isn’t really long, right? Is it, is it over a 0.15 where, yeah, he’s going to have to start earlier in order to make contact or is it super quick with supervision? Plus bat speed and he can make a decision. Like, so again, like I know it didn’t really give you an answer, but it’s kind of a, it’s going to be a little bit of both.

And I think the separator right is the guys who can make adjustments, right? The adjustability, you can hit off speed pitches. So that’s going to go back to swing, but it’s also going to go back to, to decision making to

Dan Blewett: Bobby. What do you, what do you got?

Bobby Stevens: It’s so hard to like. It’s so hard to change a kid, especially when you get to like the division one level, that’s so successful at what he does, but you’re watching him and then you do video and it’s, it’s like, that is not an Orthodox swing.

Like you can clearly see some mechanical flaws in it, but at what point are you. Are you hurting him to try and help him? Where, I mean, if I played with a kid in college who was, you probably wouldn’t teach his swing, but he’s the all time hits leader at NIU. Like he just, he kind of like threw himself at the ball a little bit, but he had great hand eye coordination, always barrel the ball big first baseman, like six, three, but he didn’t hit for power.

Like he wasn’t a poolside power guy. He was left center gap doubles guy. And. To get drafted. Everyone naturally said like you play first base, you gotta hit home runs. It’s like, we need you to have 20 home runs. And that just wasn’t as swing. And he probably could have changed and suffered a little bit in the beginning and figured it out.

But are you going to change a guy that’s in three 80 and college and slugging, you know, over 500. I mean, it’s, it’s hard and it’s like, You know, like you said, you got a blend. I think I tried to get Jeff and Richard at the end of that podcast.

Dan Blewett: Let’s not mention them by name. Let’s stay focused on just hitting guys.

Bobby Stevens: So talk. Okay. There’s an overlap here. Like you can’t just be a swing coach in pro ball. You can’t just be a mechanics guy or you just can’t be just a approach guy. Like you have to blend at some point. Because if a guy’s problem is mechanics, you should be able to identify it of your pro head and coach, or even a college coach for that matter.

And most 99% of coaches are a blend. Like, I don’t know any college hitting coaches that are strictly mechanics that cannot talk approach to their hitters. I’m not sure what good they would be during a game. If you could only talk mechanics and vice versa, if you’re in the cage and a kid is struggling bad and you can’t necessarily identify something he’s doing wrong, that he never used to do.

You’re probably no good to that kid either. You’re not, if you’re not

Dan Blewett: gonna be able to help them.

Bobby Stevens: So there is an overlap there’s, there’s a hundred percent a blend of, of both swing coach and hid and, you know, approach, coach or philosophy, whatever you want to call it. I just don’t know. And when we get into like the Twitter hitting discussions, if anybody cares, because everyone tries to carve out their niche.

So where they can get X amount of followers to make X amount of dollars to do whatever it’s a different team. It’s just different. It’s a different animal. When you’re talking online coaching

Dan Blewett: while it’s fun, I’m trying to explain a way everything into one bucket or the other. So for example, one of my kids who’s actually back in Chicago is playing for rhino baseball.

He’s a pitcher. Um, his mom sent me his, uh, pro baseball. Video from, he was playing in one like the futures games or whatever you call them underclass games. So it was like the center field view of him pitching one half inning. And he’s like a pound, the strike zone kind of kid, like a real natural, good strike thrower.

And he walks his first batter. I’m like four pitches actually. I think he hit him in the first pitch and then he, like, they kept him in there. Um, just really wild in the first two batters. And for me watching it, I was like, Oh, he’s just nervous. Like he’s pushing the ball. And he’s thinking a little bit.

He’s just like, clearly you can’t really tell he’s nervous, but you can tell he’s nervous. Right. And it would be really easy to explain a way that as like, Oh, you’re doing this or you’re doing this or you’re doing it. Like the nervousness is the reason he was having mechanical. Like he was pushed, shoving the ball a little bit and he’s an off.

Right. So it wasn’t like talking about his mechanics is like completely irrelevant in that moment. It’s just like, Hey, you’re just nervous, relax. Just stop. You know? And there’s also an often, not a way to talk them out of it because there was like, you knew he was on sort of TV. It was like a sort of big event.

They’re like Scouts behind him. There’s no way to talk them out of it. It’s just like, Hey, just throw the crap out of the ball, man. And he settled down after his third hitter. Right. And that’s normal. But you can’t explain to you, if you try to explain that as your mechanics are off, you’re just missing the point.

Um, So, yeah. So does he, here’s a question that I’m interested in as when you get guys. So Bobby, that was a good example. You said like a pro like a, not prototype Google first basement guy. Doesn’t hit home runs, but he’s a really good hitter. Dusty. Is that like, when you get guys in your program, do you try to make it, them fit that mold?

So if you had a guy like that, would you be saying, Hey. Let’s see if we can get 13 home runs out of you. Like let’s try to tweak your swing to get some of that pop. Like we know you can make contacts, let’s do this. Let’s do that. Do you try to get guys into those molds that will get them into pro ball?

Dusty Napoleon: Yeah, I think, I think it, it, I think there becomes a point right where that discussion will happen. Um, but I think what, right, like early in his career, like, That dude needs to prove that he can handle couch pitching. Right? So if you sit in three 53 or Haiti, right, like stupid numbers, um, I think that conversation probably needs to start happening, um, when he goes out to summer ball, right?

Like summer balls are great time to start working on things and. You know, so like a guy like that, it’d be like, Hey, like we want you to start pulling some more balls. So, you know, Hey, get your knock. And your first two abs, and then the last two abs it’s like in, in, in summer ball, right. I’m talking when you’re trying to develop and it’s like, Hey, let’s start working on something.

Let’s start trying to ambush fastballs to the pull side. So I think that conversation happens when you have a guy with a, has a lot of success who knows how to hit. Um, whose swing is good and this money have to be some tweaks. Right. And if he comes to us and he’s like, I want to like professional baseball, this is my goal.

It’s like, okay, well, we’re going to have to do some things, but also on the same point, like, you know, you gotta, you know, um, have the success that you’ve had too, but with adding different layer and guys who can make that jump and make that adjustment near the year, like those are the special players for sure.

Dan Blewett: We’ve got a

Bobby Stevens: standard Ryan Brown Lee chime in, uh, anecdote about your playing career conversation with you was that you were gonna put the ball in play if you swung. So you needed to make sure that if you swung it was something you could drive said you were not a good runner. So contact wasn’t good for you.

But the byproduct of everything was that you walked

Dan Blewett: more, which

Bobby Stevens: gave you essentially forcing yourself to swing of things you could drive, gave you a better plate. Discipline. Because, like I said, you weren’t a, you weren’t going to beat out in field singles or

Dan Blewett: not that,

Bobby Stevens: which is another thing, like when he’s beating out any infield singles and when you get to even division one baseball, I mean, you may be once every series, like you get a jam job and the guy’s fast, but plays are made at those higher levels.

Like, especially at pro ball, like you’re not a slap and run in the infield type guy. Like there are, it’s not a thing. So you really have to be able to try the ball into. At least through the infield or into the gaps.

Dusty Napoleon: Yeah, no doubt. And that was okay. Is that,

Bobby Stevens: do you remember this conversation?

Dusty Napoleon: No, I, I do. And he, I remember he brought me up after my sophomore year and was like, you make too much contacts at the end of the year.

I was like, what are you. W I make too much contact, you know, and he either said like, you know, and they had data and stuff and yeah, it was just like, well, when you swing, you put the ball in play. So you really, really have to be smart about the pitches that you swing at. And I think my plate discipline was already good, but like, it just clicked with me that okay.

Like I really need to focus in on like what pitch I’m looking for and hunted out. And if it’s not there less than two strikes, I’m going to take it. Yeah, it’s something I really worked on and it paid off. So, um, and I would say Bobby, to your point too, like when I got to pro ball, that was probably one of the biggest things besides the bowl and arms, right?

Like open arms in college, like they’re going to be good. Um, but each team has a couple of guys and you get the pro ball. It’s like the bringing out bullpen guys who are just ridiculous, who are number one starters in college. And, um, you’re just facing those guys over and over. It’s like, that was a big thing.

And then just. Like the outfielders. I remember hitting a couple of balls in the gap there, like off the bat. You’re like, okay. Yeah, I know it was what Baptist, like that’s the base it, and it’s like the guy catching it, like, right. So like, those are the two big adjustments where the bullpen arms in pro ball and then just the outfielders.

He really, really had to hit balls, you know, gaps and with the right spin and as the Vilo, all that stuff to get double section basis.

Dan Blewett: Yeah. That’s interesting that you brought up Megan too much kind of cause that you definitely become aware of that as a pitcher where. I remember one of our Alma mater who made to the major league is made to the major leagues.

He came back and talked to guys, and one of his sentiments was that he learned over time that he didn’t want guys to swing and miss all sorts of pitches. Like there were lots of pitches that would, he made it. He was like, dang, I wish you hadn’t swung and missed of that. Or I wish you hadn’t taken it. I wish you’d put that in play because I know if you do.

You’re grounding out to second base. Right. And as pictures we know that too. It’s like, I, I, which is lots of times hoping that you put this in play, because if you do like, you’re going to be out 9.5 out of 10 times, probably right. Like a cutter on the outside corner or something like that. Like you’re not going to get, you’re not going to get a hit on that unless you’re lucky.

So that makes sense. Whereas, lots of guys, like you said, it’s probably almost helpful to them, to whiff on some of those and only make contact when they can actually hit a hard.

Dusty Napoleon: Yeah. And I think we’ve, we’ve all been there too. When you’re in the bar, can you get fooled by pitch less than two strikes and you like slow your swing down to make contact.

Like, I definitely did that freshman and sophomore year. Just not kinda just by habit. Right. And I really had to like, get myself out of that mindset. Um, I’m just looking to drive ball, so,

Dan Blewett: yeah. And that was one of the big. Big differences. I saw on pro ball guys besides plate discipline, like them not swinging at balls off the plate and very much at all.

And also just sometimes the willingness for them to take a called strike three, that they knew they couldn’t drive. Like I had a conversation with a guy after a game once where I rung, I got them rung up on a fastball that was probably two inches inside. Like it wasn’t on the plate and I felt a little guilty about it because it’s like clearly a ball.

And I saw him at the bar after the game. I’m like, Hey man, like. No, I kind of accidentally got you a little now. And he’s like, nah, dude, I don’t care. He’s like, I’m like never swing at that pitch no matter what. So if it strikes me out, so be it he’s like, but I can’t, I can’t hit that bitch. He’s like, it was a good pitch Stryker ball.

I’m not swinging. So if the empire rings me up, whatever. Which I thought was pretty smart. It’s a good answer.

Dusty Napoleon: Yeah. And we, and when we talk about that at Northwestern too, with our hitters is like, when we get to two strikes, we’re like, we can’t be in swing mode. Right. We almost need to shrink the zone a little bit.

Right. So we talk about what we’re looking for in that time and what this picture is going to do to us. But, um, you know, at least, you know, in my head, right, like kind of what you just said, Dan is. Go down looking at a borderline pitch or do you want to swing at a ball for strike three? You know, so breaking on the dirt, like which one?

Right? They’re both strikeouts, but in your head you can probably live with the borderline pitch that don’t par calls. Then the one that bounces 56 feet.

Dan Blewett: Yeah, for sure.

Bobby Stevens: Underrated skill. I saw a lot in pro ball was the ability to just swing to the pitch that you think you see as opposed to swinging at the ball.

The is probably something, I don’t know if you’ve ever heard this or not, but

Dan Blewett: guys talk about that with like low sinkers and cutters. Like no, they have to get below.

Bobby Stevens: So the one guy I saw that did it the best was Jake Fox. I mean, he was big leader with the few teams he coaches now, um, Kind

Dan Blewett: of labeled as like an ambusher,

Bobby Stevens: like always jumping on first pitch, but it wasn’t necessarily just fast ball.

Like he was looking for a first pitch and if he thought that he was getting it, like he swung as if he got it. So for example, if you’re looking for speech curve ball, and you get you, look, you see the pitch, you think it’s a curve ball. You swing to that pitch, even though. It might be a fastball. And if it is a fast ball, he doesn’t try and make contact with that fast ball.

He just swings right through it. And it’s better to be old one than, Oh, for one. And I, I say that a lot and I don’t know how much it resonates with like younger players. It does a little bit with, you know, The Farsi and college baseball players come around, like in the cage.

Dan Blewett: But I guess I noticed is that referred to as like curveball versus fastball, I’ve heard guys talk about it versus like swinging at a high, like I had a spinner high spin rate fastball, so guys would tell me they kind of had to like, try to get above it and like swing above it.

And I’ve heard that about sinkers obviously and cutters, but I’d never heard that about curve balls. So that’s interesting.

Bobby Stevens: Well, it’s not necessarily curveball. A common one is if you think you see fastball and ends up being changed up and then you try and just extend the,

Dan Blewett: okay. That makes sense.

Bobby Stevens: Pitch and chances are, I mean, Dan, you could talk to this, like if you see a guy that just looks very early on one of your changeups, I would imagine you’re like, I’m looking change up again.

I’m going to sit change up on the second pitch. Uh, just because he’s already made me look foolish on the first one. And I look like I’m ambushing a fastball. So I’m going to set change up, like personally, that’s it. That’s what I’m going to do on the next, but

Dan Blewett: yeah,

Bobby Stevens: the ability to swing through that change up as opposed to trying to like last second, throw the barrel down and maybe make some weak contact.

It’s something you have to a little bit, you learn a little bit,

Dan Blewett: especially

Bobby Stevens: when it’s an Oh Oh one o-clock hitters counts where you’re not, it’s not a, you know, contact or out situation. It’s not a, it’s not a skill that’s easily obtained. And like, it’s hard to instill that it’s okay to swing a mess first, you know,

Dan Blewett: in some instances back to a dusty what you said, which is like, stop trying to.

Make weak contact with that curve ball. Like just either whip through it or let it go. Wait, it’s hard.

Dusty Napoleon: It’s hard. As Bobby said, it’s, it’s really hard. Some guys do it and some guys, they can never break it, but it’s, it’s a hard skill for

Dan Blewett: sure. Yeah. Especially with, like you said, with guys that can do that.

Cause I definitely have players that could just always make conduct if they wanted. And I went to the batting cage with my family on. Um, I guess like two weekends ago for my dad’s birthday and we’re all just like screwing around the batting cages, but I get hit every, every pitch that is the one that’s really old machines.

It’s like head hunting and then it skips them off the ground. Like they’re all over the place. And I had swung a bat and then multiple years. But I could still make contact with every pitch, no matter where it was. Like, I could just like stick my butt out and like hit the one off the ground and the one over my head.

But then after I do that for a little while, I’m like, I guess even then in the back, I’m like, I gotta stop doing that. Like this it’s like hurting me to like, just try to make cotton, just like, just let it go. And it’s that same, same kind of thing. That’s interesting. So what, what do you, so you talk briefly about if a guy’s sitting like.

Having success at the college level hitting three 50 or three 80. So a lot of success, I mean, is it okay? Like you start to see guys in pro ball, like Joey Gallo hit, like, you know, Oh, 89 with 39 home runs in, you know, the, you know, by July, is it changing in college baseball where say you have a guy who’s hitting two 90.

Is that enough success to say, Hey, let’s hit two 60 with 15 jacks or is it where’s the bar today? Do you see that changing in college baseball?

Dusty Napoleon: Yeah, I think a little bit, you know, I think, uh, you know, the, the home run is, is a big part of the game, right?

Dan Blewett: The point you get a point, if you hit over the fence.

Yeah. At least

Dusty Napoleon: at least one. Right. Um, so I think, you know, at least for us, right, we try to put guys into, you know, Hey, this is what we think you need to do to be successful for our team and for your career. Right. So if it is a guy who needs to add power, Um, that’s what we’re going to work on. Right. So I think like when it comes to us, like, we’re not, we’re not teaching, you know, our, our big first basement is not working on, you know, sack Bonnie and for 10 minutes at home at practice, right.

He’s, he’s, he’s going to spend an extra 10 minutes working on, you know, positive count, right. Drive the ball into the gap, um, type things where our guy who, you know, is not there yet from a physical, you know, from a physical standpoint. And he’s going to work on sec bonding for 10 minutes and drag bunny and in doing those things.

So I think, um, You know, kind of answer your question. Like I think you have to again, have those conversations and you have to, you know, try to get guys to the next level, right? They want to play professional baseball. So I think each individual plan, um, is going to be catered to what they need to do for them to be successful and for our team to win.

Bobby Stevens: So, I mean, I want to transition a little bit because you are at a premium academic institution. So Northwestern standards, you get into Northwestern for a normal student. So how does that, how does that inhibit or is it, is it any different I’m into recruiting? Are you going after. The player first and the academics.

Second are you, do you have to look at the academics first, even see if you can recruit that player? You know, what’s the approach when you’re recruiting for a school that’s got such high academic standards.

Dusty Napoleon: Yeah. Um, I mean, you have to, you have to cast a wide net, right. From coast to coast. So, um, a lot of the work that we do is definitely on the front end.

Um, so I think, you know, it doesn’t make a lot of sense for us to go to a national event. Without any, you know, research and information and calling high school and travel coaches to the kids who are going to be there, who fit our mold. Right. So if there’s going to be, let’s say a hundred kids at, at a national events, right.

Just throwing a number out there. Um, there might be, we’ll say 10, right? Who can get into Northwestern. So, you know, for us, like we just want to work smart. So instead of going there with, with, you know, with the naked eye and just, Hey, I’m just going to see these kids. And I liked 10 of them, but only one can get into school.

Like that just doesn’t make a lot of sense. Yeah. We try to go somewhere where there’s going to be academic kids. So we do a lot of work on the front end of seeing who’s going to be there. And as an academic advance, you know, are they interested in kind of, you know, if we, if we can reach out to them first and there is interest, okay, I’m going to, I’m going to bear down and lock in on this kid and.

See what he can do. So that’s probably the, one of the hardest parts about us recruiting. Cause we can’t just go to an event and sit there and I like that shortstop and he can’t get into school. Right. So that’s probably the biggest thing and we just have to go coast to coast. Right. We can’t just stay in Chicago, although there’s really good players here.

Um, we have to go coast to coast.

Dan Blewett: So what is your standard in general? Like what, what says, okay. I can go look at him and it won’t be a waste of my time. Um,

Dusty Napoleon: from, uh, from like academics, like great. Yeah. You know, th there’s not just like a set number, um, for us, right. They’re going to work with us a little bit.

Um, you know, I think if you’re, if you’re in the, in the high twenties with act score and your GPA is, is over, you know, is, is right around three, five, I guess that’s kinda what we’re looking for. And, you know, Bobby and I have talked about some of his players in the past and, and guys who, who. Who’ve uh, fit that mold and some clothes, but it’s yeah.

Right. And it’s tough, you know, and it’s an expensive school too. So like there’s another factor once you throw that in there. So, um, you know, once you hit all three, right. Was from the financial piece, the academic piece, and obviously the baseball piece, um, you know, then we’re gonna go after the kid, uh, pretty aggressive.

Dan Blewett: And where does upper twenties act? Where does that translate into sat score?

Dusty Napoleon: Like a, like a mid 12 hundreds. So 1280s, usually the is usually the target or is that like a 27? Um, ACP. So,

Dan Blewett: gotcha. Yeah, that’s a good grades for sure.

Bobby Stevens: Those are really good grades. I mean,

Dusty Napoleon: you’re,

Bobby Stevens: that’s a good test. That’s good test grades.

And also your consistent GPA, like day to day grades with what the high school

Dan Blewett: with, is there any.

Bobby Stevens: Is there any difference recruiting the year 20 ones and 20 twos right now, if you guys are still looking for those guys with potentially not having act sat.

Dusty Napoleon: Yeah. I mean, it’s, it’s been tough, right? It’s just, uh, and everyone’s in the same boat here, but just not seeing Keith in person.

Um, and not having test scores. So it makes it a little bit more challenging. I think we’ve, we’ve been at Northwestern now for five years, so we know kind of the mold and we can look at a transcript and see if this guy’s trending in the right direction. Um, and then once you start talking to the kid and.

Family and the parents and then the high school coach travel coach. And they’re all like, this is, they start to say the right key words. Right. And, and, uh, we realized that he see the target for us.

Dan Blewett: Yeah. So if you’re just tuning in, we’re here with Dustin Napoleon. She’s an assistant coach with Northwestern university, uh, up in Chicago, also a former pro baseball player drafted by the Oakland athletics.

So if you have a question, um, Shoot over to us on Periscope or on YouTube. We’re both checking. I’m always scrolling through the YouTube one. Bobby monitors are our Periscope. So, um, so back to recruiting a little bit. So I’ve heard there’s a bunch of these sort of like high academic shows, the cases. Are you a school that tends to frequent those?

Dusty Napoleon: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it’s, uh, you get, you get a lot of bang for your buck, right. For us one when we go there and there’s hundreds of kids there, so it’s, uh, it definitely helps us.

Yeah.

Dan Blewett: I’ve heard of, I heard about them, I guess a couple of years ago there, they seem like they’re a pretty recent thing, but it makes sense.

I mean, it’s like you said, it’s hard. I remember a couple, actually a long while ago. I sent out video of my two best players at the time, one almost like an 84 to 87, like five, 10, five, 11. Right-hander he like a 32 act and like a 4.0 and rice called me about him. I’m like, what’s what is happening. I’m like, but they’re like, yeah, dude, it’s just really hard to get people into our school and we have one spot left.

And it’s getting kind of down to the wire and, you know, we just can’t get kids into our school. And like, we like how that could look. So he’s got to get some good stuff. Like what do you think? And I think it’s a, it’s a weird situation where you can slip into a really great school potentially, cause this could end up going D two and do like an engineering school.

And he was a good, very good pitcher, had a good college career, a great, super smart, good person. Um, but yeah, it’s interesting that you can almost. You have your own set of unique choices when you’re a really high academic kid where a lot of kids that like, they just can’t possibly be in the conversation, like you said with you

Dusty Napoleon: guys.

Yeah. We’ve, we’ve, uh, we found in our five years to like, once we, once we get the kid into school, right? Like there’s so much support here for the kid who, you know, um, Just from, from tutors and academic services and having advisors that, you know, we don’t, we don’t really have to worry about them. Um, you know, handling their, their schoolwork.

Like they’re, they’re going to get it done. They’re, they’re very motivated kids. And so, um, you know, when they get to the baseball field, it’s a, you know, it’s an outlet for them. Right. And, and to work and get better, but they’re motivated off the field too. So, um, we really liked getting those kids. Cause you don’t have to worry about them right there.

They’re going to handle this business and show up, ready to go.

Bobby Stevens: So when you’re out recruiting, I mean, I’ve had unusual amount of run-ins with people have tournaments, just odd happenings at these, some of these tournaments. And I know this isn’t a normal recruiting year for division one, but how much are you taking in the surroundings?

Like, are you noticing only what’s on the field? Are you taking a look at the dugout? Like, are you watching preening? I try and stress to the kids. Like, look, they’re watching everything. You know, guys are only there for a set amount of time. They want, they need this. They need to do something regardless of, without the ball, you get a hit, um, Are you watching everything preening in the dugout?

You know, what are you focused on as far as when you’re, when you’re trying to identify kids?

Dusty Napoleon: Yeah, man, I mean, I think you nailed it. It is everything from the time I show up, you know, try to get there early so you can watch them play catch and how they interact with their teammates and talk to the coach.

And then, um, how they come on and off the field, how they handle. Failures. Right. I think that’s it. That’s a big one, you know, how do they act when they strike out or throw on the mound? Um, you know, how do you, how do you handle that? Uh, you know, I’m part of Sweden, you know, all those things. So I think all that stuff’s super important.

Right. Um, you know, how are the parents and Stan, you know, like you, we watch everything once we get there. So, um, that’s definitely something I miss about this summer is getting out there and they experienced and everything, and it’s really, um, bearing down on a kid.

Dan Blewett: Let’s go through a couple of, so one of the things that’s funny.

You know, you always get people like people and I do this and Bobby does this sort of like bringing to life things to, Hey, don’t do this. Cause it might get your kid cross off the list. Like there’s a lot of, uh, that being brought to light, I think on social media, on the web, whatever, which is a good thing.

Cause a lot of parents just don’t know. Uh, but then obviously at some point it gets like too, it goes too far and then pure like, wait, wait, wait, wait. Like, you’re not going to get your kids. I crossed off if you’re a parent, gives them a stick of gum, like, you know, after the game. So like what, what are some things that you said you would say they might get you cross off a list as a parent, like a thing a parent could do that might get their kid cross envelopes.

And what are some things that you’re like, eh, probably shouldn’t do this, but it’s not going to like deter me, but you should probably like, maybe not.

Dusty Napoleon: I mean from a parent’s perspective, just how are they, how are they interacting during the game? Right? Is it is a mom or dad behind home plate when someone’s on the mound and they’re yelling at the umpire or something like that.

And, um, being vocal in a negative way, right? Like that’s, that’s probably one of the biggest things, um, from a parent’s perspective, but yeah. Man it’s, uh, I think you hear, you hear the worst end of, of what parents do, right? Like it’s, it’s, I’ve been to a lot of games and, um, I don’t see it that much. I really don’t.

Um, so it’s, uh, but I would say just being negative in a vocal way is probably one of the biggest thing.

Dan Blewett: What about dugout interactions as a parent? So parents like sneaking over and like having a conversation with their kid through the fence or handing them. Food or drinks during a game? Or like what about any of that stuff?

Dusty Napoleon: Yeah. I mean, I don’t, I don’t care about the, about the Gatorade. Right. He’d have to stay hydrated during the game he has

Dan Blewett: brought up recently.

Dusty Napoleon: I know, I know. I saw know, I think that’s a Philly, but. But like after an at bat and you and kids going over in bed by the fence, mom’s by the fence and they’re there talking to them about the swing.

Like I think that’s just, I think it’s just a, it’s just a red flag. Right? I don’t think you’d just totally cross them off, but then I think it’s a conversation, right? Um, it happens repeatedly and now you start to. Talk to the travel coach, talk to the high school coach again, and then, and then talk to the kid about, you know, the relationship and, um, to see what the dynamic is.

So I don’t think he necessarily crossed them off the list when that stuff happens, but we’re definitely aware of it when it

Dan Blewett: does. Yeah. And that’s a good point. I was hoping you would touch on that because the Gatorade was one that, so, so like my, my take is I actually told my, my family is just at our Academy.

I said, look, I want you to just give your kids. And I want them to be responsible for bringing everything they needed, you know, the dugout before the game. So they’re just like being a grown up about now, if they run out and they need water. Whatever, like it’s like, I’m not going to have my kid pass one that gets passed out.

But just like, look, this is the policy. Everyone gets their stuff. So you don’t need mom and dad to bring you stuff during the game that you can make it two hours. Right. But like you said, it’s not gonna get someone crossed off the list to slip a Gatorade through the fence. Like we all get that. Um, but you’re right.

I think the, when you start to notice this, dad’s always sneaking over there to talk to his son after a bad at bat.

Dusty Napoleon: Yeah,

Dan Blewett: like you said, red, I think red flags is a great way to put it and parents should just understand that. That is kind of something like, alright, they’re going to be a little suspect of you and now they’re going to dig deeper about, okay, what else does this dad do?

Or what else does this mom do? Is she a helicopter parent? Because you don’t want them in your stands at Northwestern, essentially. You know, like if they’re going to be a problem and a distraction.

Dusty Napoleon: Yeah. See, I got lucky in high school because I played for my dad and in high school. So if he didn’t, if he didn’t have Gatorades and I was, I was just, Hey, I just had to set a fend for myself.

So hopefully my mom was there, but, uh, yeah, I think, you know, and I get your point to it too. Right. You’re trying to teach them to grow up and. That mom and dad aren’t going to be there in college. So I definitely understand that. And, um, I was initially think, you know, the quicker they can under the student athlete can understand that, that they have to start taking care of them, of themselves and being responsible and doing those things.

It’s uh, I think it’s important.

Dan Blewett: Yeah.

Bobby Stevens: Those are definitely tame. Examples of. Of like parent child interaction, you know, Gatorade afterwards. But the more agregious ones as some, a lot this past weekend where we had a parent litigate, that’s a whole different story. Uh, when your parent is running out, I tweeted out.

But when your dad is running after the coach in the parking lot, Threatening litigation. That’s a, we call it a red flag, but I saw parents, uh, one of Mark because actually, you know, pitching, he’s throwing, he’s throwing fine. Like he’s, you know, little while, but nothing outrageous. And his dad is though is very loud and boisterous behind home plate.

Whether it’s fix your mechanics or let’s go blue, or it was too much it’s to the point where it was, it was just annoying as a, as a guy who was coaching the team, like it’s annoying. Just let the quiet only when there’s a result, say something when there’s no results, like you don’t need to talk after every single pitch.

So it was annoying to me. Yeah. I could see some of the, there were some junior college coaches at the game

Dan Blewett: and. You

Bobby Stevens: could just, I guess you could feel like the annoyance of the sky just needs to sound like it’s too much already. And I, I actually, I, I pulled him aside after the game. I’m like, you cannot, you can’t do this.

Like you’re not helping your son at all. Whether it’s nobody’s, there’s no coaches there. You’re still not helping him because all he’s doing is listening to you. Like he only hears you and he needs to hear myself or somebody else. Cause it’s just, it’s falling on deaf ears for them.

Dusty Napoleon: Yeah. Yeah. But you, you were in the dugout yelling at him, just, Hey, throw strikes.

Weren’t ya?

Bobby Stevens: More, more, so figure it out. Let’s go with three hours already.

Dusty Napoleon: Yeah. Yeah. One on one, when coaches would yell at you to throw strikes.

Dan Blewett: Oh, the light that’s when the light bulb really goes off. Yeah, for sure. Oh, that’s my job. Got it. Yeah. It’s frustrating. I mean, I think it always comes from a place of like a concern, like in a good way, like they want you to do well.

It’s just, I think a lot of them just aren’t aware. And no one wants to correct them. It’s such a hard thing to like, correct. A person like another adult’s behavior. Like if you’re one dad, are you going to tell something? You’re the guy next to you? Like, Hey dude, you’re being a huge Dick. Like stop that hurting your kid.

Like I don’t think anyone will, those conversations. They’re hard conversations to have. I mean, we were at Indianapolis last year at a bullpen tournament. In between games, a blooper dropped like kind of a no man’s land on his own different from the field of Jason’s on the, you know, the big Clover and, uh, one of the dads who was standing there watching just freaks out Anias screams.

It’s like so loud that the entire complex stop he’s like, God, you know, just screams God dammit. And that ball can’t drop blah. Just like a drill is so loud. And I was just like, Good grief. And then everyone was just awkwardly quiet for awhile. And then he just like went back to standing next to the other two dads and like watching the game.

I’m like, what do people think right now? Like who are those other two dads next to him? Like. Just picking up the conversation where it left off after you just absolutely reamed out your own son and embarrassed everyone on the field and made a scene, just like, Hey, who’s gonna win football game. This Sunday was like, well, where do you go from there?

From there? It was just, it was just bizarre. Um, But like someone needs to correct that, man, wherever he is, maybe he’s in jail by now. I don’t know. But you know, you see stuff like that. It’s, it’s crazy easy conversation. It’s not, it’s really hard, but like whoever, anyone who was around took a note of that dad, it’s like, okay, who’s that kid?

That guy’s son that’s definitely, he’s not on my list anymore.

Dusty Napoleon: Well, do you guys, do you guys talk to talk to your parents before the season or when they join your programs about how to, how to interact and all those things?

Dan Blewett: Yeah. And a lot of it’s unfortunately, a lot of it festers because you try to be a good communicator.

And I know at the college level, you guys it’s so much better for you because you don’t need to tell parents why that you’re, you know, their kid isn’t starting at second base anymore. But at the younger levels, you know, like a parent might be watching the game and their son’s playing second base, the whole game.

Then you take them out in the sixth and they don’t know why they don’t realize that you’re taking them out because you might need them to come and relieve. If the game gets to a certain point in the seventh or whatever, but they just saw that he got yanked and a lesser kid gets put in and then that goes in the memory bank.

And then a month later, They’ve got a little list. They’ve been sort of like caring. They’re like, Oh, well you met, you did this on this day, you did this, this, this, and it festers. And then you’re like, why don’t you just ask me about it? I had a good reason for doing everything I did. And, and sometimes I screw up, but like, and then that’s when things get explosive sometimes, or you have to have a sit down and, and it’s like this really contentious conversation.

Where it’s like, no, no, no, no, no. Those were all things that I did for legitimate coaching reasons. Not because I was trying to screw your son over. Right.

Dusty Napoleon: And it’s

Dan Blewett: hard because you can’t, you can’t tell them everything you’re doing. Like you just can’t right. And they don’t need to know everything you’re doing and the kids don’t need to know everything you’re doing, but it’s just a, it’s just a different climate.

But I know that barrier is broken in college too. Isn’t it? Sometimes don’t you guys sometimes get emails from, from parents and stuff or not so much your

Dusty Napoleon: program. Yeah. Yeah, no. I think, you know, with how early the recruiting process has started for right when we start recruiting kids as sophomores, like by the time they get to us, like we’ve, we’ve had.

I’ve had multiple conversations with the parents and the family and, and they’ve been around the program, right. Just on visits, on official official visits. So I think they understand the culture that we have. Um, doesn’t mean that, that it doesn’t happen. Right. I, I know coach Allen deals with it every once in a while, but I think, um, once you get to college, maybe it’s handled on a different level.

Um, You know, but, uh, it’s I think, I think it’s going to happen, right. She, I was just listening to something the other day or are they saying it was, it was happening in pro ball a little bit too. So I, um, and being, being a dad of two kids, like I do understand it a little bit more now. Right. Just, and they’re young, but, uh it’s because you want the best for them.

Right. And you want to protect them and, um, but there’s certain ways to handle those, those, those talk issues or, or just communicate with somebody.

Dan Blewett: Yeah. Yeah. I, Bobby and I were talking about, um, this book that I just finished called the coddling of the American mind, which I highly suggest you read it as well.

And anyone who’s working with kids or as a parent, I think should read that book. It’s, it’s disturbing some of the things that are just in the, in the cancel culture, the way kids. They get into tribes and only want, you know, if you don’t agree with my PA my opinion, then you’re in this other tribe and I hate you.

And I hate your opinion. I don’t want to listen to your opinion. You can’t come and speak on my college campus about it. It’s, there’s a lot of stuff that’s crazy. And there’s the way that kids are brought up. You know, it talks about crime rates from back in the sixties when kids could just go roam around, you know, like, Oh, I’ll see you.

You’re going to go hang out in the woods or run down the streets, your friends. I look, I just be home before dark. Like that doesn’t happen anymore. It’s really interesting. Just like book about how kids are raised and whether we’re tougher, mentally soft nowadays. And if so, why, what are the factors behind it?

Um, but you’re right. I mean like my college coach. Well, what is it? 12 years ago now or something like that? Now, 16 years ago when I came in and he was like, look, it’s very clear, your mom and dad never contacted me about plank. I’m ever you come to me, you’re a man. Now you’re in college. That’s how it is.

They contact me. It’s not going to be good for you. I don’t know that anyone’s parents ever contacted my coach. And he, wasn’t a scary, he’s a super friendly, like a really good person, but that was just like what it was. But I think between then and now that that barrier has been slowly. Chipped away where it’s still mostly good.

I’m sure it’s very good. I’m sure you get very infrequent, but everyone hears about the negative stuff when it happens, you know, like this parent did that, like Bobby getting litigation or whatever. However, you know, those are the stories, but most parents are good still, so

Dusty Napoleon: yeah.

Dan Blewett: Well, how else have you seen college baseball change?

Cause I mean I’m 34. You’re 34 Bobby you’re 33, right? 33. I mean, dusty. What are some of the ways that you’ve seen the college game change since you were there? And then you’ve been coaching long enough to see it evolve a lot. What are. Fill us in here.

Dusty Napoleon: Well, at least in the big 10, right? Like when I played in the big 10, 2005 to 2007 and it was a one bid league, right.

So maybe two, um, now big 10, we’re getting five teams a year in NCAA. So. For starters that the investment in facilities across the country has just been huge. Um, you know, uh, schools want to wins. They’ve really invested in facilities. And then I think just the, just the talent, right? I think people are. Um, just with the, or access and recruiting and, and social media and emails, like all that stuff.

I remember sending out VHS tapes to schools right. When I was trying to get recruited. And, um, so it was, it was more like a regional, um, recruitment at the time. Now it’s like, you know, I have eight or nine kids in California and we’re getting out there to see them. And it’s just, I think it’s easier that way.

So I think there’s the talent in the big 10 is so much better. Um, you know, there’s, there’s high draft picks. So, um, just top to bottom and in our league, right. There’s there’s 13 baseball schools and every year it’s a battle to finish in the top eighth and make a big 10 tournament. So just the talent, uh, at least in the big 10 has really, really increased over the last, you know, 12, 15 years.

And what

Dan Blewett: about just the game in general? Like you mentioned briefly that you guys use all the fancy tools and you’re using data analytics, um, How has that changed the game?

Dusty Napoleon: Yeah. I just think, you know, once the rise, the launch angle era kind of started a couple of years ago. Um, I know, I know. Yeah, I don’t, I don’t like the term either.

Um, but, uh, you know, I just think, I think people, um, Really started to become their own coach. Right. So they started to dive in, there’s so much videos out there. Um, and you know, I think it’s our job as coaches, right? Like we all coach these kids is to make them understand what they’re, what they’re doing, trying to do and have them understand.

And, um, you know, just some of the body assessment stuff that we’ve done. And, and, you know, we have some kids, you know, use an example. Someone on our team wanted to, I told him to come up with his mob comp and. No, it was Cody Bellinger. Well, I was like, I love it, man. Like, I want that aggressiveness, but if you don’t move like Cody Bellinger, I said, we haven’t like honest conversation.

Like he was more of a, like a tight mover. Right. So, um, and we had all those tools to help him with in, in him, like understand it, like, Hey. Just Cody Bellinger his numbers from like a body assessment stuff and all those things in like, here’s where you’re at. Right. So it’s just like, we’re not going to, I’m not going to teach you to hit like him because it just doesn’t make sense from a body standpoint.

So I think like, Having those kids, like our, our guys buy into those things have, has really, really helped. And over the last year and a half, two years, um, I’ve had to educate myself a ton on understanding, um, what I’m trying to teach and put out there. Cause I think it’s always changing. It’s always evolving into, um, the next thing, but it’s also, you start to add pieces together and come up with the best way to coach kids.

Dan Blewett: I was a, if I was a parent of a 15 year old and I walked up to you and I said, Hey, I have. $300 to spend this year on some sort of technology tool for my son. And he’s a hitter. What, what would you recommend code

Dusty Napoleon: man? Um,

Dan Blewett: or it could be nothing or it could be save that money and buy it by him, you know, whey protein,

Dusty Napoleon: right?

Yeah. No, I mean 15 years old, like, you know, I think that,

Dan Blewett: yeah.

Dusty Napoleon: Yeah. I was probably at the age where you need to start at least understanding, um, your swing at least a little bit. Um, but I thought at the same time, like you’re going to make a huge jump from a physicality standpoint from 15 to 18 two. So, um, I think the technology is important.

I don’t know if I would say there’s one thing out there just to like, Hey, you absolutely need this at 15 years old. Um, For me, I would say, Hey, go play some, some stick ball games in the backyard with you, with your boys and go at fall and go play wiffle ball and come up with, uh, you know, different stances, go hit like Griffey for an Outback, go hit.

Like, and that’s what we used to do. Right. Like growing up and, and, uh, that was fun. Right. And you just start to like, feel your body move and have fun playing. And I, you just, I feel like you just don’t see it anymore. Yeah, driving around, but

Dan Blewett: literally Griffey. He was the main graffiti, right? Yeah. It’s so awesome.

Dusty Napoleon: Yeah,

Bobby Stevens: I’ll go a different direction. Like what’s the best piece of, uh, I guess equipment that you guys use or they give all the technology. What’s the one that you like using the most that you find the most benefited.

Dusty Napoleon: Yeah, we really, we really dove in, I think this past year to two main pieces with blast motion, um, the bat sensor, um, and then the K vest.

Right? So that came motion technology. So I think pairing those two together, um, and we have a full at Northwestern, right. We have a full, you know, um, Analytical team to help us with it. But, um, you know, just, I think those two pieces pairing them together and understanding the swing and then, you know, kind of going back to what we talked about to start is a swing coach approach coach, right.

Are hitting coaches. Like once their swing is grooved up and it’s like, good to go, they’re sequenced properly. They’re gaining enough, no force. It’s like, okay, now let’s really start to dive into how we’re going to handle, you know, 92 sinking in on your hand. So, um, those two pieces have really helped us over the last year and

Dan Blewett: a half.

Gotcha. Yeah. And for those who don’t know much about KVS, cause that’s the one that’s pretty expensive. It’s probably not something anyone’s going to buy for themselves. Can you just explain a little bit about what it is and what it does?

Dusty Napoleon: Yeah. You have to have four different sensors on your body, um, on your upper body and basically it’s, uh, you, you end up, you set it up, it works better indoors.

And um, it’s just kind of going through the, the, the, the biomechanics of the swing. Right. So, um, Making sure that your sequence, right. And then, you know, going through the different forces. So it is expensive. Um, I know a bunch of colleges that jumped on board, you know, every MLB team, um, has it, um, I know some, some academies are starting, uh, starting to jump on board with that, but the blast motion sensor is, is definitely a cheaper version or it does different things, but cheaper product.

Um, it does great things, so it’s really, really good. It’s useful. Um, we use that, um, Couple of times a week, especially in the fall. And we incorporate it into our season this past year. And then, you know, really what the K vest is probably more of a monthly thing, just to make sure you guys are on track.

Dan Blewett: Just cause it’s like a tougher set up. You got to do it in doors. It’s just a lot more involved. Yeah.

Dusty Napoleon: Yeah. Yeah. And it comes up with graphs and charts and I’m still like learning more about toes and, and uh, you know, how to help our guys, but, uh, it’s good, you know, it’s, it’s fun. And, and that’s where, you know, being, uh, being active.

College coach. Sometimes I’m staring at a screen for, for hours. Um, and then I got to take a step back and be like, all right, tomorrow, we’re just going to compete and, you know, let these guys swing it and have fun. And then the next day we’ll, we’ll go back into the technology piece and develop them.

Dan Blewett: Well, do you feel like that?

Um, and Bobby feel free to jump in if you have something burning and I have one, uh, listener question from YouTube on pitching. I don’t want to do an ass, but do you feel like there’s some of the technology, like you said, you have to. I like what you just said, we’re may we’ll do with all the technology stuff today, then smartest go compete.

Do you feel like that makes it tough for kids to stay present? Because I got a call from one of my kids in central Illinois recently, and he’s like, Hey, how do you, like, he’s like stuff I’ve been working on and practices and translating to the field. I go out there and basically I was like, you just got to go out there and have fun.

And I’m like, well, look, I know you’ve heard that a million times in your life. Here’s what that means. At some point you have to go out on the mound. We’re in the box. Turn all that nonsense off what you did in practice, either sticks or it doesn’t. And you’ve got to go out there and just compete and get lost in the mid, get lost in the pitch.

Just like get lost in baseball. So do you feel like some of the technology stuff, do they feel like it hurts kids’ ability to be present and to compete like that? Sometimes when they’re too worried about their. Attack angle and all that stuff.

Dusty Napoleon: Yeah. Yeah. I think we, we really, he really had to educate the kids on, on what you’re trying and accomplish.

Right. So when we have, you know, hack attack, fastballs set up to 94, the top of the zone and they, and they have no technology on them. It’s like fellows, we are competing right now. Like, this is what we’re doing. And then the next drill, right. They go inside to the cage might be cave set up and it’s like, guys, we’re going to work on some mechanics though.

So I think just, um, and with the nature of the kid today is just, you have to explain everything. So we, we, we tell them like, Hey, this is a drill to compete in. Like you have to throw everything out the window from what you just worked on, maybe in the last station and we’re just going to compete or it’s like, guys, we’re breaking it down.

We’re going to do some, you know, top hand stuff. We’re going to work on lower half. We’re going to put a core velocity on, right. And just like work on mechanics. So we really tried to explain the drill to the kids and have them understand what they’re trying to accomplish before we get started.

Dan Blewett: Gotcha.

Dusty Napoleon: It’s definitely,

Dan Blewett: it’s definitely a lot

Bobby Stevens: of, a lot of information for kids. Like when you’re trying to simplify and get one point across maybe not necessarily for kids at 18 and 22, cause they they’re mature baseball players, uh, in that sense. But if you’ve got a young kid and he’s constantly looking at the HitTrax, like head whipping around, see how far he hits the ball and it’s

Dan Blewett: really.

Bobby Stevens: Like, I don’t care what the, what this computer screen says. You hit the ball 50 feet cages, 50 feet long. And about 50 feet. Like we can tell if you hit it

Dan Blewett: on this cruise or not,

Bobby Stevens: it’s like information overload to where they, they want their exit lot. Like there it’s a consistent, uh, attempt to improve that maybe the exit velocity number or canvas number or whatever, whatever they’re measuring and.

Like a disconnect from, okay, well, the guy out there is actually trying to get you out. He’s not just going to serve up one and see how well your metrics measure against is his normal fastball. Like he’s going to try and locate it. He’s going to try and get you off balance. Like how do you compete in the moment?

Regardless of what the numbers might dictate about your swing or string efficiency or your quick list for the ball. So it’s hard to, it’s hard to separate for younger guys, especially because technology is cool. They grew up on technology. I mean, they essentially were born with iPads in their hands. So to see something in real time, you know, whether it’s data or, uh, you know, ball, flight, whatever it is that is like, that resonates with them.

So you have to. You have to kind of use it to keep them interested, but at the same time kind of teach them like, okay, this is like the grassroots part of baseball. Like you need to be a good competitor. You need to actually try and beat the other guy. Not just beat the computer screen that you’re looking at.

Dan Blewett: Yeah. So dusty, I got two, two pitching questions from YouTube. Um, one I know the answer to, but I’ll ask it first. Uh, two kids were throwing the same speed and one kid six, five, and the other one’s five nine. Which one do you like better? Does the height matter? The

Dusty Napoleon: one, the one who throws more strikes,

Dan Blewett: Hey, there we go.

Dusty Napoleon: Or, or, or whatever, a better, better breaking ball. But yeah, I mean, Heights, right. I, you know, you can project Heights, but there’s, there’s five, nine big league pitchers. Who’ve had good careers too. So,

Dan Blewett: yeah. But if all things are equal, if they’re literally just two of the same human, but one’s tall, one’s short.

Dusty Napoleon: Yeah. I mean, if everything, if everything is the same, I mean, I think you’ll go with the, with the taller guy.

Dan Blewett: Yeah. That’s fair. Uh, and then actually, this is basically the same question. Um, all things being equal, grades, attitudes, size, et cetera. When you see a quality lefty versus righty, are you more interested in the lefty?

Has that changed over time? Where are you with that handedness?

Dusty Napoleon: Yeah, uh, I think it’s going to go down to what your team needs, right? What you have on the roster and when you start to build the staff, but, um, Yeah, definitely lucky in the pitching wins in all levels of baseball. Um, just cause you don’t see a lot of it growing up.

Right? So once you get to the high school level, college level and you have a dominant lefty, like those guys usually win. So, um, and being a left handed hitter growing up, I didn’t like facing them. So. I mean, honey lefties, uh, usually, you know, have a faster track to the big leagues if you are a dominant lefty.

Um, but again, it’s going to go down to all the other stuff with the command and strike the rows and all those.

Dan Blewett: Yeah. Well, even in the big leagues, it’s, isn’t it like, I do think just 20% of pitchers are lefthanded. So yeah, as a big leaguer, if you’ve gotten 10,000 a bats. That’s a lot of it. That’s if you’ve gotten, you’ve gotten a thousand of bats in the big, they still don’t really know how good you are off lefties for a good amount longer because your sample size, even a thousand bats of big leaves, which is a lot it’s two full seasons.

You only have 200 at bats against lefties. 200 bats is a small sample size for a bigly where they can’t really say definitively, whether you’re actually. Like struggling against lefties or really good against lefties. Something for perspective that I read in a, I think Tom Tango’s books, but, but you’re right.

I mean, hitters, they face them so infrequently. They just like, don’t have the book like of, they’ve seen as many pitches and they’re just not as good at it. So that makes sense. What percentage of your staff has lefthanded?

Dusty Napoleon: So I think I’m going to have about, I think this next year, I think we have 17 arms and I think we have six left-handers that’s pretty good.

Dan Blewett: is that about standard for the big town?

Dusty Napoleon: Yeah. Yeah, it’s probably right around there. I’m usually going to get one starter on the weekend. Maybe sometimes two, we’ve had two in the couple of years we’ve been here, but usually one for sure. And then, you know, uh, one kind of main guy out of the bullpen. Um, and if you’re lucky you get, you kind of have two of those guys, but, uh, probably, you know, usable guys who are pitching a ton, there’s probably four.

The five on a good, a good team.

Dan Blewett: And how many usable guys who were pitching a tongue make? What percentage of that is your total staff? So you have 17 arms. That was a weird way of wording it out of the 17. How many of those pitchers are usable? Getting a lot of innings, kind of pictures on a given

Dusty Napoleon: year. Oh, Josh went on their pitching coach.

He’ll talk about, you know, it’s usually eight and possibly 10 guys on a weekend, right? So it’s usually top eight arms. That’s when he always preaches, you need to be in the top eight, if you want to pitch on the weekends. Um, and then when he’s, I mean, he’s one, he says 10 it’s usually that the midweek starter with the piggyback guy and then you use bullpen.

So usually, you know, Uh, it’s it’s 10 or 11 guys, but on a weekend you try to keep it around eight with your three starters, you know, some bullpen guy. So, you know, for us, at least the way coach Reynolds talks about it’s his top eight arms. That, that, that’s what those guys are trying to get to.

Dan Blewett: That’s good.

That’s good. That’s good. I think for those of you listening to hear, because I think as too few players and parents realize I’ve committed to blank, college doesn’t mean you’re going to see the field. And out of 17 pitchers, nine of them are potentially not getting many endings at all, and they’re certainly not entitled to anything.

I’ll get, I gotta earn it. So I think that’s important to understand. And you’ve got just as many position players, right? You have more than a whole team sits on the bench too.

Dusty Napoleon: Yeah. Yeah. That’s what we’ve got about 15 position guys. And, you know, we’re, we’re probably looking at playing about, uh, 11 of them, you know, on a given year, you know, so.

Dan Blewett: Yeah.

Bobby Stevens: And that’s a striking number of your, if you’re sitting there thinking like, Oh, I’m going to division one or I commit, I want to commit division one. Well, it’s not, if you’re commit division one and you’re the, you know, the last guy off the bench, what, what good is it for you and how well, how much are you gonna enjoy your college experience?

I mean, it’s. Everybody loves the glory of division one. And it’s the harsh reality is yeah, you were probably a starter your whole life. Well, now it just got that much harder.

Dan Blewett: Everybody on the team and funnel

Bobby Stevens: everybody on the team as you. So how do you separate yourself? How do you get into that? Like you, like you said, there’s probably 11 guys that play throughout the course of the year.

Then catcher is two of them. Definitely. I’ve always got a backup catcher, so. There’s essentially what eight, seven spots. And you’ve got nine guys that are, that are going to play like you’re starting shortstop. I imagine there’s gonna be a 56 game starter. You’re starting center field. There’s going to be a 56 game starter.

Like they’re not, it’s not tournament. Style, you know, 16 new baseball where, Oh, maybe we’ll get to, we’ll get three or four games. Now he’s going to start every game of every conference series if we’re trying to win games.

Dusty Napoleon: Yeah. And then that’d be, you know, I know we, we talked about it a little bit, but that’d be my biggest advice to high school kids is don’t just, you know, set on.

You know, one school, this is where I want to go. Or, um, you know, I coached, you know, one, my best years of, uh, baseball was coaching my one year at Concordia, Chicago division three school, and there were division one players on that team. Right? Like we went to a world series and, um, really, really good players.

They’re division one guys like. But if they’re on the visual and roster, are they, are they getting 150 at bats that year? Like, I don’t know. You know, are they getting, you know, 10 starts on the season? Like probably not. Right. They went to division three and made it to college world series and had really good careers and all Americans.

And it’s like go somewhere that you’re going to play. That’d be my biggest advice. It go somewhere that you want to play. And, and, you know, definitely like have goals, schools have target schools, but, um, you know, also also have some other, other ideas and keep all levels open. Cause division three baseball is really good.

Junior college baseball is really good. Um, so that’d be my biggest advice to kids is don’t just narrow in on division one. Like there’s other options and you want to go play baseball, right? Not just, not just it.

Dan Blewett: Well, before we wrap up here, And, uh, I give you a chance to, to pick your school and where people can find you and all that stuff.

But my last question piggybacking off of that is if coach Napoleon comes and recruits to me, how do I know I’m going to play? How do I know I’m going to play your school?

Dusty Napoleon: Yeah. I mean, there’s no guarantees, right? There’s a, I’ve talked to kids all the time and you know, we never guaranteed playing time, but something you can’t guarantee.

Um, but you know, for us, right? Like w we hit pitching, pitching Northwestern here a little bit. Uh, we deal with, we deal with a four year scholarships. Okay. Where a lot of schools in the country the year to year. So when you sign your analy, um, you’re locking yourself into four years, right? So that money is not going to go away if you have a bad year or something happened.

So, um, you know, we’re in it for the long haul with guys, right? So it takes us a little bit longer to recruit you. Um, and then, you know, w w with our raw roster size, you know, we’re going to stay right, right around 30, 31 this next year. It will be a little bit different with some seniors coming back. Um, so, you know, there is.

No, we have, we had 12 position players on our team last year at Northwestern. Right. So everybody who was getting at bat, um, this next year we’ll have about 15 or 16. Right. But there’s other schools who carry more. So you know, your options to play. Right. Um, we traveled 27 with a 30 man roster. You want to go on those trips, right.

So, yeah. And Northwestern, right? It’s you get the best of both worlds. You get a top 10 education and you get to play in a power five conference, um, in the best city, in the world in Chicago.

Dan Blewett: And do you guys get online? Do you guys give them like they’re on a rubber boots? Do you give like, you know, outfit them to live in Chicago and the, in the winters?

Dusty Napoleon: Nah,

Dan Blewett: galoshes.

Dusty Napoleon: No, no, we, we, we, we get them there in the

Dan Blewett: summer, the goose Western jackets.

Dusty Napoleon: We do, we do give them warm gear for sure.

Dan Blewett: For sure. That’s awesome. Well, how can people follow up with you? Um, get in touch with you, reach out to your school. What do you got for us?

Dusty Napoleon: Yeah, my, my, my email would be on a new sports.com and then you can follow me on Twitter or Instagram at, at and welcome any questions.

Uh, DMS are open and, uh, happy to have you interact with, with anyone.

Dan Blewett: Yeah. I appreciate you being on the show. It was awesome conversation, really? Uh, I believe we covered a lot of really good topics and jumped around a bit, but we really appreciate your insight. Yeah,

Bobby Stevens: I’ve got so much catching Twitter stuff.

I have to talk,

Dusty Napoleon: man.

Dan Blewett: Yeah.

Dusty Napoleon: Yeah, I appreciate it guys. You guys are doing a good job, you know, keep up the good work.

Dan Blewett: Appreciate it. Appreciate it. Well, good luck. Um, this upcoming season and when you guys get back to the, hopefully in person recruiting trail, um, man, it’s been such a weird year, but like I said, yeah, appreciate you being on the show.

So if you’re out there listening, thanks again for being on the being here on the morning, brush back for Bobby. Uh, Dustin and myself. Um, we’ll see you here on Tuesday and be sure to follow up with him, uh, and use sports.com and follow me on Twitter at Dean apps. Oh three. Right? I got it. Yep. Boom. Cool. All right.

Have a great weekend. We’ll see you next time. .