In episode 60, we discuss the MLB partnership with the major Independent baseball leagues around the country. Dan posted a twitter poll (@coachdanblewett) asking about players competing for playing time. Should you take the road less traveled? We discuss. And should youth players ramp down throwing after the summer season? A lot of great conversation in episode 60, take a listen!
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Transcript: EP60 – Competing for Playing Time and Ramping Down Throwing
Dan Blewett: all right. Welcome back. This is episode 60 of the morning. Brushback Bobby. That’s a lot of numbers there. That’s a big, that’s five doesn’t even. How do you feel about this? I
Bobby Stevens: feel like we’re, I feel like we’re probably going to get to 600 episodes by the end of the summer.
Dan Blewett: Will we ever hit our stride. And that’s the question, are we, are we any better at this today than we were 59 episodes ago?
Bobby Stevens: I feel like
Dan Blewett: I’m
Bobby Stevens: probably back. I’m bogging you down and your, and your podcast, but me personally, I am killing the podcast game.
Dan Blewett: Hmm. Hmm. Uh, well, thanks for being here today. If you are new or if you’re a returner to our show, Obviously, if you’re listening on Twitter or a YouTube, you can leave a comment.
So if you’re interested in interacting [00:01:00] with us, feel free. We, I monitor the YouTube and Bobby monitors, Periscope. Uh, so Robert, what are our topics today?
Bobby Stevens: They were getting to the end of fall baseball season for a lot of players. So we’re going to talk a little bit about ramping down, throwing good, bad idea, a partnership MLB with.
Some of the new, some of the independent leagues. And what else did we got Dan? Anything we have an more
Dan Blewett: and more while we’re going to talk about whether it’s better to be a good player on a bad team or a bad player on a good team, or if you should leave teams, if you’re not getting playing time, et cetera, et cetera.
I think this is a very wide ranging and interesting topic. I did a Twitter poll about this. So we will talk about these are these fine results that we got from this poll. So first let’s talk about this animal, the partner organization thing.
Bobby Stevens: Well, we don’t know much about it other than [00:02:00] they decided to fight frontier league, Atlantic league and American association of all, those are the three main independent leagues in the U S have all partnered with MLB.
So by some of the stuff I’m reading, it sounds like. That will be to incorporate some rules, maybe some rule changes and test them out similar to what they did in the Atlantic league with the automated strike zone, the stealing of first base, um, what they’re currently doing now when we’re starting a runner on second and, uh, the California rule fracture ratings.
Um, what I did see is that the American association
Dan Blewett: is not a full partnership.
Bobby Stevens: Uh, it could be wrong about that, but they did push back. Uh, their, their legal lawyer actually tweeted out and said they won’t be doing any rule changes. It’s still a play to win league. So I don’t know if they’re trying to break the curve there and, and separate themselves a little bit from the Atlantic league or frontier league, but it sounds like [00:03:00] that they want to break away and be more of a instill like a true independent league
Dan Blewett: while still being able
Bobby Stevens: to send players to MLB.
Dan Blewett: Well, the Atlantic rules were hated. I mean, some of them were astronaut and the stealing first base thing is asinine. It was just ridiculous. Moving, moving, moving the mountain back two feet. Like those are all things like that. Guys who are released from the majors are triple or double line. They don’t want to deal with that nonsense.
They’re trying to get back to the major leagues, not being this carnival show, but stealing first base thing is ridiculous. The mountain moving back was ridiculous. Yeah. Not being able to pick the first base. Ridiculous. Like, so I applaud the American association for not wanting to get in that, that just load of nonsense.
Like, Hey, let’s keep our league. The one that of guys don’t want to do all that BS they’ll come to the American association. I think that’s, I think it’s a valid position to take
Bobby Stevens: and they have been, I mean, for all accounts, the American association has been the league that has been producing the most talent out of the [00:04:00] independent leagues.
As far as talent, going back to minor league baseball. They’re right in the middle of frontier leave for anyone that doesn’t know. So the Atlantic league, if you had a hierarchy of independent leagues, the Atlantic league is the most experienced league. Uh, the American association average age wise is the next most experienced league.
And the frontier league is the youngest league. So if you’re in the frontier league, you’re usually a guy right out of college or guys got your rookie ball that has been released American soul. I have some guys where it’s a mix. You have to have a certain amount of rookies on the roster. I believe it’s five
Dan Blewett: rookies.
Bobby Stevens: And the Atlantic league is basically like your veteran lady. Yeah. Guys that have usually at some teams have guys with big lead time, AAA time, AA time. So if we’re going by, you know, projectable talent, that’s less, some years left on their prime. American association is probably
Dan Blewett: that league. Yeah, that’s correct.
Uh, and I took issue with your saying, like producing talent. I mean the independent leagues don’t really produce talent. Like, but yeah, but to your point, [00:05:00] you’re right. There’s more. Like guys with years left. There’s more guys who were very talented from 25 to 27 years of age in the American association.
Whereas the Atlantic league is all, there’s a lot more of like 27 to 32 year olds where teams are just like, yeah, we know what that guy can do. He like got eight years in the minors already. We don’t, we’re not really interested. Whereas there’s some guys who are more on proven that like, like you said, here, if you’re 26 throwing 94 to 96 and American association, that’s different than if you’re.
30 throwing 94, 96 in the Atlantic league. Right. So, so yeah, that does seem like it’s the tipping point where it’s not as high, a level of plays yeah. League, but there’s again, more viable talent. I think that’s the way to put it. And of course there’s also the American or the, um, The Pecos languages. I mean, I know it offends.
People want to say it, but it’s a junk league. She said it is what it is. Like you make pay a dollar, you make $200 in salary and you play on like [00:06:00] high school fields in front of no people. And there’s some guys that will throw in the nineties there and like get signed, but it’s a junk leak. Let’s just be honest with each other.
So
Bobby Stevens: it’s definitely a pay to play league.
Dan Blewett: Yeah. I mean, you know, just cause you have some guys that get signed because they have a tool or, you know, a second tool or whatever, it doesn’t make it not a junk league. So anyway, uh, and of course there’s the, what’s the other one. It’s also with the Northeast.
It’s just like falls between the frontier league and the American association,
Bobby Stevens: the league. So there’s the like league, it’s not a bubbly, but there’s four teams out of Michigan. I think it’s an ASP
Dan Blewett: PBL. Right. No, not that one. The M does the Canem leaks still exist or is that no,
Bobby Stevens: can Emily.
Dan Blewett: That’s what I was talking about.
Yeah. That other league, I’m not interested talk about how to use it.
Bobby Stevens: So, you know, the can Emily made the American association, a 16 team league or an 18 team league something.
Dan Blewett: I mean, it’s a
Bobby Stevens: big league now. You’re talking
Dan Blewett: a lot of
Bobby Stevens: teams sprout over the, over the U S and some in Canada. [00:07:00] But if you’re, if you’re the American association, that’s a good move.
Not to, not to fully partner. I think if I’m going to incorporate rules and try and make baseball a little more different and fan friendly, I’m going to the Dominican to Taiwan and see what Japan see what these teams do that are drawn fans. Cause baseball is very popular across the globe as a.
Dan Blewett: As a spectator sport, like
Bobby Stevens: Chapin draws.
Well,
Dan Blewett: what are you saying right now?
Bobby Stevens: What other casting?
Dan Blewett: What other guy would it be?
Bobby Stevens: Did w MBA? Uh, just a sport. That’s a sport.
Dan Blewett: Okay. Just, but if you hated you at, on women Friday, good job, Robert
Bobby Stevens: w MBA’s not suspect take your sport. It’s tough to watch.
Dan Blewett: Okay. Uh, no comment, but, um, so the partner leagues, it doesn’t seem like there’s anything.
It just like gets a very vague nebulous thing at the moment. Right? Like they didn’t [00:08:00] announce anything. Like we were just scanning these articles and they really didn’t give any details. But what being a partner lead with the MLB means, I feel
Bobby Stevens: like there’s got, I think there’s going to be something coming down the pipeline that.
Dan Blewett: A
Bobby Stevens: lot of these teams, the 40 teams or so they got acts from affiliated minor league ball are going to somehow filter their way into these leagues and are gonna become like real, like larger,
Dan Blewett: independent leagues with maybe
Bobby Stevens: 16 to 20 teams. Cause Atlantic league right now is, is seventeens American association, I believe is 16.
I think the frontier league is 12 teams. I feel like these, these leads are about to get a boost and, uh, in teams. Which could be good. I mean, who knows? That’s the nice thing about the Atlantic league is the proximity
Dan Blewett: of all the teams
Bobby Stevens: everything’s really close.
Dan Blewett: Yeah. Yeah. And proximity to Wawa is strong in the Atlantic.
Like there’s, there’s a Wawa within 15 minutes of every ballpark. So that’s always a plus, but. Yeah, I think it’s going to also have something to do [00:09:00] with, because I think the Atlantic, we had some partnership with MLB before, like they did with all the nonsense rules. But before that they still had one, which was, it just made the transfer of contracts easier.
And that was all like legal partnership stuff that I didn’t really understand, but. They, it just was simpler for someone to buy an Atlantic league players contract and he’s just like quickly gone. So I know they had that contract transfer sort of thing going on. So I assume that’s going to continue and they’ll probably make it even easier where, you know, um, cause you know, they buy your rights and they have to pay the team to own you now.
And then, so then they get to, you know, do their thing. But, um, so let’s talk about this poll that I put on Twitter. So what’s best for an athlete’s development gave three options, kind of be the big fish in a small pond, tiny fish in a huge pond or fighting to stay alive in a big pond. So the three options that you could pick where the best player on a bad team, [00:10:00] bad player on a great team or fight for playing time on good team.
So before I reveal this poll, And I guess I can screen share. Let me, let me, well, I’ll screen share in a second. What do you think the results were? Robert?
Bobby Stevens: I got to imagine most people out of fear of being wrong, said fight for playing time on a, on a good team.
Dan Blewett: Do you think there’s a fear of being wrong on anonymous, Twitter polls?
Bobby Stevens: Yeah, I do. I feel like people, I feel like people don’t want to get the wrong
Dan Blewett: answer regardless of it’s anonymous. I was pleasantly surprised at the results. This is the result you would hope for. I mean, you and I don’t know that anyone that you and I know would without having like, you know, all the nuance and context of like everyone everyone’s situation is different, right?
Like we get that sometimes there are definitely times to leave your team. Find new team. Obviously there’s a [00:11:00] million scenarios, but on the whole. I don’t know. I can’t imagine anyone that I know, like a coach or a player who played at a high level, who would not choose the last option, which is fight for playing time.
One on a good team. So, I mean, I’ll,
Bobby Stevens: I’ll push back slightly and say,
Dan Blewett: yes,
Bobby Stevens: we’re talking
Dan Blewett: about development, right? Like how, how
Bobby Stevens: much, how am I going to get a lot better as a player, personal player
Dan Blewett: talking about overall in your career,
Bobby Stevens: because. If I’m. So I actually did this in high school, like I had the chance to go to, and there were other factors for reason I didn’t go to the best baseball high school in Chicago.
I went to a small school that was not good, but the big fish in a little pond, if you’re already a good player, if you’re looking for it, depends on what you’re looking for. I think in some, or in some regards, like, are you looking at. Get playing time right away. I mean, I also did that with college personally.
[00:12:00] It’s not that I don’t want to be around good players, but I D I want to, like, if you stand out, you have a better chance of, you know,
Dan Blewett: making a little bit of, I
Bobby Stevens: think that’s just my,
Dan Blewett: that’s just my opinion. Well, so there’s lots of different grades here, so. If you were playing on like a really good, and this was the context of the person that tweeted this thing.
That was basically, I someone’s stuff came on my Twitter feed and this guy was giving out advice and I don’t know what his playing background was, but I don’t think it was significant after high school, but he was just like getting advice, looking back on his time, playing ball, whatever. So one of his things was he said that he was on like some elite teams.
And put a lot of pressure on himself because he didn’t get as much playing time. So when he got playing time, he’d go out in the field. He puts too much pressure on himself, make a lot of errors and it got worse, blah, blah, blah. And then finally he said, you know, like my advice is to play on a [00:13:00] bad team so that you can get your chances and like not do that.
And I just absolutely hated that advice. I hate like the way that he painted that picture was I’m kinda mentally weak. I can’t handle competing on this team, even though it sounded like he belonged on the team. Like he got a chances, uh, but he just like choked on pressure consistently and put pressure on himself.
And then it was like, Oh, I don’t want this. I should have just like been on the easier team. So for me, that seems like the wrong thing, because it’s like, okay, well, Why don’t you fix your mindset and do some other things, find a mentor and maybe that’s the root problem rather than the fact that the team is too.
Cause it doesn’t sound like the team was the problem. It sounds like he was the problem. Um, I don’t know the way I described that. How does that, how does
Bobby Stevens: my taste based on the way you describe it, feel if I feel like the guy we’re talking about couldn’t hang on that team.
Dan Blewett: I feel like you ran from that team
Bobby Stevens: and, but [00:14:00] you know, I have.
Well, I’ll relate it to basketball where you’ve got like back when LeBron left the calves to go team up with a better, with better players to win. I like the competitive side of me thinks don’t you want to compete against those other good players instead of. Teaming up with them and making it easier on yourself.
Granted, LeBron is obviously the best player there, but I see, I see if he would’ve framed it that way, like, look, I’m going to go. I want to compete against these guys. I don’t want to just team up and take the easy way out. Not that it would be an easy way out, but I also like the guys that are on teams that like.
Let’s not, let’s not say they’re the worst team, but they’re a, they’re a 500 team. You know, they’re an average team. Like I want to compete with guys that I know will go compete with me, even if we’re not as talented. Does that help your development? I mean, I think overall development wise, being around the best players makes you a better player.
[00:15:00] You can’t just be around you. Can’t just be around guys that aren’t as talented and. It’s like running sprints. Like if you’re the fastest guy and you, and you, nobody pushes you to be first in the sprints, you know, at the end of practice, you’re not getting any faster or any better, but if there’s always some guy who’s pushing you, pushing you like that makes you a better player, but I can see where being on a worst team and having the competitive mindset would be
Dan Blewett: beneficial.
But I don’t think, I don’t think other teams push you as much as your own team pushes you, especially in longterm development for a player.
Bobby Stevens: Yeah.
Dan Blewett: I mean like LA as long as the NBA. Yeah, go ahead.
Bobby Stevens: I agree with you. The word development here is,
Dan Blewett: is the
Bobby Stevens: separating factor, right? Like if I’m just trying to be the best player that I can be, I want to be around the other, really, really good players, because it’s either going to like a poop or get off the pot, right.
Like rise up to the, to the level of [00:16:00] everybody else’s or you’re just going to fall behind.
Dan Blewett: There. Yeah,
Bobby Stevens: I was trying my best.
Dan Blewett: Well, and I mean, so we’ve talked about like, you don’t like kids playing down a level, like you don’t want them to play in 14, you, if they can play 15, you and that’s kind of the same thing. Right. But I mean, the thing with baseball especially is it’s a preparation sport, and that’s why I think having teammates that push you, that you have to work harder.
Like if you’re on a team, if you go to Vanderbilt and you’re not on a full scholarship, Which, you know, most guys in baseball are not on a full scholarship anyway, but if you’re aware, like you go to a Vanderbilt type school and you’re not one of their top guys, you weren’t a fifth round draft pick you, weren’t a 10th round draft pick.
Like you’re just an undrafted guy, but you’re good obviously. And they gave you like, you know, a little bit of money, you know, that you’re not like in the starting lineup, you know that you’re not right. So what are you doing? You’re learning from all these other players. You’re trying to say, what does he do?
What does he do? What is he doing? All right. How can I build my skyscraper bigger than his. [00:17:00] Right. That’s I mean, there’s huge benefits to being in the mix, but having to be pushed by your teammates to, to break through. Whereas if that same player goes to a lower school, say like a Belmont, which is a good baseball school, like again, but they’re like not Vanderbilt, right?
They’re also in Nashville. Now that guy could maybe start as a freshmen. Maybe that’s good for him, but also maybe it’s not, you know, like he, if he could get on the field of Vanderbilt, And get to that level. That’s right. Push them higher than suddenly going somewhere else where he’s the best person. But then we’ve also talked about situations where, cause I had a guy I grew up with in high school or we played together through middle school.
He moved away was the North Carolina state player of the year, went to the university of North Carolina to pitch for the tar heels. Never pitched. Like he was there with Andrew Miller and Daniel Bard and all those other guys, he was legit and he never pitched. So
Bobby Stevens: that’s, I think that’s the separate, so, cause I do give a lot of college advice and my number one [00:18:00] advice outside of like choosing a
Dan Blewett: school that you’re going to be
Bobby Stevens: happy at schoolwise is.
Are you going to get a chance to get on the field? You know, we’ve got a lot. I’ve, you know, I coach I coach an all star fall team. A lot of these kids go to bigger schools like Louisville, Oklahoma,
Dan Blewett: and those are awesome baseball
Bobby Stevens: schools are going to be around tons and tons of talent, but are you going to get one shot to be on the field and then never get back on the field?
As much as you want to compete, sometimes it is out of your hands.
Dan Blewett: Yeah, go ahead. I’m sorry. And so the nuance of the term, I’m again there, as we’re getting to, there’s lots of scenarios, there’s a million scenarios. If you’re in the mix where you could get to the field, but you’re not there yet. Like you’re the sixth guy and you want to be a weekend starter, right?
You’re the fifth starter, whatever. Uh, you’re the backup shortstop. If you are in the mix to get playing time at some point. Then I think it’s good. It’s the right move for you to be in the pack. If you have no shot at being on the field, then you probably need a transfer. You need to find another team.
Like that’s the difference? [00:19:00] You know, if you’re just gonna get 20 innings, if you’re just going to get, you’re going to play every fourth game at shortstop and that’s that right. You’re going to be the backup catcher the whole season and never crack the lineup. But if you’re like, if you like. I’m pretty good as a shortstop.
And I could maybe take Bobby if I put in a little more work and like, I get my chances and Bobby slips up, I think I should stay there and let Bobby push me and chase him and be on his, beyond his heels. And again, it’s not just like one season, it’s like the scope of your career to like being on good play teams with good players that you learn from and you feed off of.
And there’s, there’s a benefit to that. It was
Bobby Stevens: definitely a benefit to get to. Should make to it, making you better to your, to your point of the Vanderbilt kid. If he’s good enough to go to Vanderbilt, he’s probably good enough to go to Belmont, be the starter for three years and then get drafted as opposed to [00:20:00] going to Vanderbilt.
Granted, I don’t know the situation at Vanderbilt and there’s so many different scenarios here, but I would assume Vanderbilt’s got an established, starting shortstop.
Dan Blewett: Alright.
Bobby Stevens: If he’s a shortstop, he’s good. They’ve got the established, starting shortstop. So is a benefit this kid to start three years at Belmont and play against Vanderbilt and all those other schools, or is it better for them to go to Vanderbilt and maybe sit two years and get a chance to start his junior year and then have a chance to get drafted?
Because if we are talking about getting drafted, you have to be on the field and similar to your gut, your buddy from North Carolina, like he’s probably his career path is totally different. If he goes to. You know, UNC Wilmington and is there Friday night guy every, every day. So there is something to be said about
Dan Blewett: opportunity every day, all seven days.
You’re the Friday’s guy, but you’re also the Tuesday night guy. That’s awesome.
Bobby Stevens: It’s we play? We used to play when Chicago state, when I played Chicago state in college, they used to [00:21:00] start their guy. They only had like two starters cause Chicago state was like a, just not a fully funded division one program.
They’d start the guy on Friday, then he’d come back and start Tuesday. Then he was started Sunday. Then he was started Friday. So he had like 15 starts in a college season, which is absurd. Excuse me, like 18 to 20 starts. He started like a third of their college games, but opportunity knocks,
Dan Blewett: I guess. Well, and of course like using Vanderbilt here is a bad example because when you get to schools like that, they will have like a Dansby Swanson.
Who’s like penciled in. And of course he earned that spot or, you know, whatever, but still you can get to the spot where it’s like, you essentially have a Derek Jeter playing short. You’re not going to play short no matter what happens, unless he’s here by train. So those are slightly different situations, but in most other colleges around the country tree below, like the product, the top, as you see schools like the top really top echelon, that’s not really going to be the case.
Like if you have two legit guys, they kind of get to Duke it out. I mean, would you agree with that?
[00:22:00] Bobby Stevens: I agree. But I also agree that. Outside of those big schools, you should probably seek out the app the better playing opportunity. Like I’ll use my college Northern Illinois as an example, as a mid major max school.
Right? So let’s use all Mac schools outside of Kent state. You probably have a chance to battle for a spot. So if it’s between Northern Illinois and central Michigan, I’m probably going to wait, which team has an established shortstop. And I’ll go the other way, just because it’s a,
Dan Blewett: it’s an
Bobby Stevens: easier path to playing time
Dan Blewett: agree.
And I think onset. Yeah. And I think the distinction here is that there is no, like we’re not taught this isn’t, this doesn’t really apply to picking which one D one school over another, unless it’s like a massive difference, right. Joining university, you know, sec versus like university of Buffalo or someplace that just the lesser, if you’re talking about picking Kent state over university of Ohio, And you get to play more at one than the other.
There’s no difference. Like they’re both mid-majors right. Like there’s [00:23:00] no difference there. You’re both going to be pushed. You’re both going to have the same level of training. Like you’re going to have good coaching. Like there’s no real difference. Right. But you are talking about something different.
If it’s like I could play low-level Dijuan versus otherwise my options are , I’ll start for all four years of D three or I might have to really scrap it out to get on the field of Dijuan. That’s the difference that I’m talking about. I think that if you really want to be, if you really want to see what you’re made of and like be a good player.
And like at the end, I look back and know exactly how good you could have been. Do you need to go to the Dijuan and be pushed even though it’s uncertain versus dropping a major level, but again, like mid picking between one mid tier and the other, Dijuan like, that’s not a, that doesn’t really. That’s not in this category, what I’m talking about, but I am talking about like high level travel ball versus junky travel ball, or, you know, 15 years versus playing down 14 year or, you know, travel ball versus playing in house.
Those are big differences. Like if you’re a travel minded player and you choose to play like for a really bad team, just to get [00:24:00] start all the time or to play in house. That’s not a good developmental move, like going down to play in house and hitting six 50 is not good for you.
Bobby Stevens: Yeah. I mean, the, the F the flip side of that coin is, you know, are you with a program that like, has good coaching?
Like you’re getting better, and you see, you see yourself getting better with those coaches, even though your team is a, is a modeling team. Cause there is politics and youth baseball as well. Like if you’re on a good travel team, There’s there might be a dad coach and that kid
Dan Blewett: might play the position in your, you might not get a shot
Bobby Stevens: to start
Dan Blewett: so true.
Bobby Stevens: I, if all things equal, right? Like
Dan Blewett: cost aside, no
Bobby Stevens: politics. Yet. If I’m going to put you on a field, like I would prefer myself to be put on the field with the 12 best players. And there are like, the best guys are gonna make, are going to filter through, into lineup. And, but not most in most situations in life,
Dan Blewett: things are not fair.
Bobby Stevens: Like [00:25:00] things are not
Dan Blewett: set, you know, set in stone like
Bobby Stevens: that. But you know, if you’re a parent and you want, and you’re looking at where should I send my kid? You know, the, a team a over here is, you know, it was 50 and five all summer. Like they’re unbelievable. And they’ve got an opening and they’re doing a tryout and my team was 20 and 20.
And, you know, we’re pretty good. And my son bats third and play shortstop every
Dan Blewett: game. I’ll
Bobby Stevens: bring him to that tryout, but you’re going to get a real good sense of the dynamic of the team. As soon as you go to the tryout, you’re going to see who’s running the trout. You’re going to see the kids on the, you know, the dads on the team.
Um, and you might be better off staying on that 20 and 20 team. If you notice your son getting significant. Uh, playing time and he’s,
Dan Blewett: you know,
Bobby Stevens: I also see the benefit of being on the field if you’re playing a lot of games like that,
Dan Blewett: as like, as a young player. Yeah. So here’s the Twitter poll. I’m pretty sure everyone can see this I’m screen [00:26:00] sharing, but I can’t actually tell,
Bobby Stevens: I can,
Dan Blewett: you can see it.
Uh, you can see it. I can see it. Okay. So yeah, 84% said fight for playing time on a good team. Uh, three, 3% said bad play on a great team. I think that’s. Makes sense. Cause again, like if you’re just not going to smell the field, that’s not a good situation. Like you’re just a cheerleader and a best player on a bad team.
Again, it does depend. I mean, I, and from my experience, when we start our Academy teams and my former town of Bloomington normal. We got like D level our first year because the, the political nature of baseball in our town was, was very strong. Everyone was afraid to leave the Bloomington normal baseball association, which was run by the.
Um, pretty much all the local high school coaches coached in that summer league, but they just did a piss poor job. I mean, terrible job. And yet they forced every kid to play it essentially. Cause everyone’s afraid they’re [00:27:00] not going to play at high school. So everyone pays their thousand bucks just to get a Jersey.
They don’t practice one time in the winter, they just show up and then they write a political lineup. Like that’s what everyone dealt with and they were pissed about it. And they’re like, guys, please, please make your own Academy teams, please, please, please. And then we finally did. And yet then, you know what happened?
No one came with us cause they were afraid. So we scraped together. Okay.
Bobby Stevens: Oh, I might’ve lost Dan here.
Dan Blewett: I’ll
Bobby Stevens: keep going. So to
Dan Blewett: Dan’s point,
Bobby Stevens: like when we started traveling teams, it was the same, same situation. Uh, people are afraid to leave their team. What have you. And you end up with you end up with poor teams, teams that have, you know, uh, they struggle a lot in their first year and parents are always looking for the next best [00:28:00] thing where if I’m a parent and my son’s getting a lot better, he’s improving, you know, that might be a place that you stay and you kinda, you kind of ride out the bumps and bruises and your team gets a little bit better, a little bit better, a little bit better.
And your son is a part of that. You know, if you’re, if you’re constantly jumping ship and we’ve talked about this on this show in the past, if you’re constantly somebody who’s jumping ship. Yep.
Dan Blewett: Uh,
Bobby Stevens: going through to a different team, you know, you’re on three teams in four years, four teams in six years, and that’s bad luck, you know, at some point you either, you’re looked at, you either need to compete for your spot on the team, or you need to stick it, stick it out.
And if you’re the best player on that team, like you need to try and lift up the talent. Of some of your other guys,
Dan Blewett: you know,
Bobby Stevens: Hey Dan, welcome back. Thanks for having me. They
Dan Blewett: had a, uh, yeah, little technical issue, but
Bobby Stevens: I just piggyback off of what
Dan Blewett: you, yeah. I heard what you were saying. And so my, but my story was [00:29:00] basically that, so we got.
Like D level players, like kids that like weren’t gonna play summer ball, but then they’re like, okay, we’ll do it. Uh, you know, kids that got cut from the other teams, but we were like, look like you guys know us, like, we’re really good instructors. We’re gonna like, coach your faces off. We’re going to practice more.
We’re going to practice like a lot. And we did all those things. And so if you looked on the surface, like it made sense to go with our lower level team, even though we weren’t like advertising a lower level team, we didn’t have a history. Right. So it wasn’t like you knew you were joining a bad team. It has ended up being a relatively not great team because we just couldn’t get good players.
But, um, so, you know, we were that team one year, I guess, is my point where it made, if from an outsider, you could say, okay, they’re not going to be strong. I know who’s on the team. Like I know these kids, but we’ll join because we know they’re going to get good coaching. That was a valid choice. Right. So there is that sometimes depending as well, but, uh, so yeah, I mean, it’s,
Bobby Stevens: it’s hard to, it’s hard to take [00:30:00] in like the development versus success,
Dan Blewett: uh,
Bobby Stevens: because kids mature at different ages, right?
Kids get the best teams at the younger levels are always. The most physically mature teams.
Dan Blewett: Yep. It’s not a secret.
Bobby Stevens: So if your son just is not
Dan Blewett: physically mature like that,
Bobby Stevens: but he’s got good skills. Just, I would, I would S honestly, I highly suggest getting them on a team where he’s going to get to be on the field, because if he’s on a team, if he’s a fifth grader on a team of other fifth graders that look like they’re in seventh grade, And he looks like he’s in fifth grade.
He’s just not going to, they’re not going to give him the shot because there’s no room. Like they’re physically overpowering every team you’re so your son’s not, he, he can’t do that. He doesn’t fit that mold. It
Dan Blewett: might be good for us to be around those good players,
Bobby Stevens: but if he never gets on the field, something you have to weigh, like Dan was saying earlier, like you have to weigh [00:31:00] playing, like being on the field.
Cause, uh, the, uh,
Dan Blewett: Be it,
Bobby Stevens: the, you know, the, the distance I’m drawing a blank on the word I want to use, but if you’re in the same room as all these other good players, yeah. You’re learning by watching. You’re getting a little better by that and pushing you. But if you’re not going to get on the field to actually try out some of these skills, it might benefit you more to be on a team.
That’s I’m not saying go from teammates to team Z, but. Go to team ADA team F and get on the field. And
Dan Blewett: actually
Bobby Stevens: as long as you’re being surrounded by a good instructors and, and someone that can, you know, help you along.
Dan Blewett: Yeah. I agree. And also, but again, that also presupposes that, like, there’s just no shot, like you’re going to compete because you’re too small.
I mean, there’s still, and it’s still like, again, baseball. The thing to remember is. You’re not being pushed by players during the season. Not as much, you’re not being pushed by your con, your opponent’s like, sure. It’s probably better. If you want to [00:32:00] play pro baseball, it’s a play for a bottom tier pack, 12 team, or a bad sec team.
Cause you’re facing all those sec teams, right. Rather than play like mid-tier D one baseball, if you had a chance. So that might be a spot where you level up. But again, like the difference between being pushed by your teammates on a mid tier Dijuan versus a bottom feeder, PAC 12 team. There’s not a difference.
So you’re not missing out on anything by, by just having a losing record in the pack 12 versus having a winning record and the Mac or something. Right. So that’s but, um, but the younger levels you do need slightly better competition. You can’t thrive facing in house pitching. Like hitting six 50 against inhouse junk pitching or against junk travel pitching.
Isn’t better for you than facing better competition, but that’s competition. Like you only like really rise to that level to a degree. And really you ended up in large part expressing [00:33:00] what your preparation was. So you don’t just get better being on a better team facing better competition. Like if you just didn’t spend all off season.
Preparing and hitting and hitting and hitting. And that’s part of my point is where if, you know, cause we’d signed a lot of kids at our Academy where we’re like, Hey, you’re going to be like fifth outfielder on paper. So you better work your butt off for the next eight months, if you want to be on the field.
And they’re like, okay. And they get to work. And that’s a, that’s a very real effect. Whereas you get a kid who knows he’s going to play. He doesn’t have to do that. Right. And so even if he still does get to play that next season, he didn’t spend as much time training because he had that fear cause someone was chasing him in the off season.
So anyway, this is a good conversation. I’m glad that you took kind of like a, you kind of. Let us butt heads a little bit, because I mean, it is, there’s so many scenarios, there’s just like a million scenarios and it is, there’s a lot of Tyrell.
Bobby Stevens: Yeah. I was on a, before we switch over it, [00:34:00] there’s a lot of times where I’ve got kids who are definitely going to be like the backup middle infielder or the, the fourth outfielder on the, on our, you know, our top team at a certain age level.
And the high school program and I’ll ask them
Dan Blewett: flat out,
Bobby Stevens: said, look, you’re going to get half of the at bats all summer. Like, that’s just how it’s going to go. I’m telling you right now,
Dan Blewett: you know, we know that we know these other guys,
Bobby Stevens: they’re going to get the majority of that bats. They’re the, they’re the premier guys.
What do you want to do? Would you rather be the starter on the, on the second team? Or do you want to be on the top team? And it’s honestly, it’s usually
Dan Blewett: split
Bobby Stevens: because there is something to be said for being on the field. I mean, kids don’t want to sit on the bench of watch.
Dan Blewett: Right.
Bobby Stevens: Especially if you’re competitive, if you’re competitive, if someone tells you like, look, you’re only gonna get half the at bats and
Dan Blewett: I
Bobby Stevens: don’t see any way you’re going to get more than that.
It’s like, well, screw it. I’m going to go get all the episodes and show you that I was
Dan Blewett: better than all these guys.
Bobby Stevens: So, I mean, there’s a, it’s 50, 50. I feel like too, when you make, let the kids make their own decision, like some kids just want to be on a good [00:35:00] team. I don’t care if they play, which is a, I feel like there’s another is a bad mindset as well.
Like I’ll be a, I’ll be a backup. That’s fine.
Dan Blewett: Yeah. And I had to scrap it. I mean, I was on a, just for context. I was on bad teams my whole life. I mean, we, I was on a winning team with, uh, the long Island ducks and I didn’t even make it the whole season. I didn’t pitch. Well, that was my last season. I got released, uh, other winning teams.
No, no, no. Half season with Lake County, we were 20 and 10. That was really fun. But I mean, every year in college we were 15 and 35. So it’s being on a losing team. Uh, but it does push you to like do more, but at the same time, you don’t also learn winning culture. Being on a losing team perpetually, or just, just like you learn a little bit to be a loser.
It’s hard. Cause you can’t [00:36:00] outrun a losing team as one player. Like it’s not basketball. You can’t just LeBron put everyone on your back and baseball just doesn’t work that way. Even if you’re a stud stud pitcher. I mean, mean my, my third season, I started the year with a wife before I blew my elbow out. I had a 1.06 era and 40 plus endings as a starter.
And I was, I think one in four or like one in three or one and two. I gotta, I gotta go. I had a losing record. Um, And like stuff like that, like you, again, it doesn’t matter how good you are. You can’t really pull and you see that in the major leagues, like Jacob deGrom, how many years does he have like a 500 record?
You can’t, you can’t win baseball games by yourself. So, and there is something to be said for learning how to win. Being around teams where guys are greater than the sum of their parts. That’s a very real thing. And, and Scouts appreciate that stuff too, where they see like, and I think swamp Dan’s response [00:37:00] is probably, yeah.
Good. I had a good example. I don’t know that much about them. I haven’t watched them that much, but yeah. He’s not like a guy that wows you. Not really. He’s like a, what is he slightly above average, big league shortstop, average bigly shortstop. I think so. I don’t know. I don’t know that he Wiles anybody. He doesn’t hit 40 jackets.
Yeah. I didn’t do anything crazy, but I think he seems like a S a greater than the sum of his parts kind of guy. You’re really high character makes really heads up plays like he made a heads up play. I saw on highlights the other day, but he’s just like a really smart baseball player. And I imagine that he was someone that like helped all the troops get better as you know, the right situations come up and being on really good teams where that, that atmosphere in that one season, when we were winning in Lake County, My team was like that.
We just like knew you almost couldn’t beat us. Like, it was just like, if it was two to one and we were down, like we were going to find a way to just push across around. Like, we just knew that we were and someone stepped up and there was like an energy that people who’s going to step up today. Who’s going to stop.
And we got so many hits from like the bottom of the lineup to win games. And, [00:38:00] and there is something to be said for that. And having spent almost my entire career losing games, being on bad teams. It’s very different. One than you’re suddenly on a winning team like that. And you’re like, wow, this is like a special thing.
And you learn to win. So winning is fun.
Bobby Stevens: I agree.
Dan Blewett: Yeah. But you have to learn to compete and you have to learn to whinge and guys show you how to win and you see it in your teammates. Like if you’re around some guys who. Refuse to lose and they really don’t like it. And, and that’s, that’s more uncommon than people realize you start to see it when they’re like, screw this.
Like we’re getting runs this inning, whereas bad teams, you just like go up and you have your bats and you just like accept losing to it to a degree. So, yeah. I don’t know. There’s a, there’s a lot of, a lot of stuff to cover there. Alright. What’s our next topic, Robert, let’s move on here.
Bobby Stevens: So last, last thing I want to talk about is we’re, we’re getting to the end of fall baseball, um, probably
Dan Blewett: the next few weeks for a lot of players [00:39:00] and
Bobby Stevens: there’s
Dan Blewett: always a discussion, you know,
Bobby Stevens: I’m shutting it like, so we’ve got guys, I’m shutting it down until January 1st.
I’m shutting it down for six weeks. I’m shutting it down,
Dan Blewett: you know, or I keep playing catch.
Bobby Stevens: So I guess my question to you as a pitcher is what, what did you do after the season was over? Did you completely shut down? Did you, did you just go into like your arm, put your arm into hibernation for a certain amount of time?
Do you see any benefit in that? Do you see the,
Dan Blewett: uh, so I talked about this on my, my personal podcast recently, and th there is also a lot of nuance to this. So if you go on the ASMs website, pitchsmart.org, that website gives parents all of the, uh, you know, info about. You know, safe piss counts. It gives you all the risk factors for injuries.
It’s a really good resource for what to do and what not to do, but there’s still context there [00:40:00] that’s needed. So number one, like they say, take three months off every year from competitive pitching, which is valid advice. But the thing they don’t explain is playing catch is not competitive pitching. Like you can still.
Go take ground balls and throw them across the infield. And like, do you have to completely not throw any object at any speed for three whole months? I think most people who are in the game realize that that’s not an unreasonable thing to do. Like you could still play catch. You could still, you know, throw flat grounds, have someone work on your off-speed stuff, but just not like really let it go.
And not really thrill, certainly not throwing games, but. Just like, I’m not going to like pitch for three months. I’m just going to still play, catch, still throw a baseball. Um, and I think on the surface, you see this effect with weightlifters, with runners. They don’t like taking a week off. Their body feels bad when they get back into it.
Right. Um, if you’re, if you’re, especially, if you’re a heavy lifter, like you feel like you need to. [00:41:00] Grease the groove is the, like the term where like your hips feel better when they’re, they’re consistently squatting. Even if it’s just like a lightweight, they just like, their bodies tends to stiffen up when they stop.
And I think there is something to be said for that. And so you certainly should stop playing competitively and stop pitching competitively. At least probably that three months of the year, it gives us a whole season off. But if you want to go back in the backyard and play catch with your buddies and play catch with your dad and like take ground balls with a friend and played backyard baseball course.
I know no one does any of it. Um, Hmm. I think those are all reasonable, valid activities. And I can’t imagine that’s getting anyone hurt. What’s getting people hurt is I play on three teams and I’ve pitched 120 endings a year and I never really give my arm a break from like going full bore. Um, So I think with that being said, I think that’s a personal choice.
So for me after pro ball, I needed time off my body. I was usually like literally in pain at the end of the season and not to mention, [00:42:00] you know, throwing 50 relief innings is a lot and we’re throwing 120 plus endings as a starter is a lot. So your body’s just like fundamentally different. So you shouldn’t take the lesson.
Like this is not a, what a pro guy does is different than what a kid does. Or a kid who might throw a 40 innings in the summer if they don’t get overused. And they had a pretty, you know, they played a lot different positions. They pitched a decent amount, but not a ton, you know, they can like continue to just like run around and play baseball.
They feel good and that’s fine, but just like probably stop pitching for awhile. But if you’re a high school and you played all, all a high school season and had like a really competitive summer season, your body just might need a break and you say, okay, I’m not going to throw it for a while. I’m just gonna play catch for a couple months and not throw.
But I think the difference between taking completely time off and just shifting to, I just get to play catch and keep my arm moving. I think either one of those are equally acceptable depending on how your body feels. And what do you think?
Bobby Stevens: I think unless you’re [00:43:00] hurt. You should
Dan Blewett: not stop playing catch, just playing catch whether it doesn’t mean that it does not agree with you.
Bobby Stevens: It doesn’t need to be like frequency wise. It doesn’t need to be every day. It doesn’t need to be five days a week. But
Dan Blewett: I mean, personally,
Bobby Stevens: I never stopped playing catch. Granted. I wasn’t a pitcher. So
Dan Blewett: the stress on my arm is different,
Bobby Stevens: but I. I would, I tend to see kids hurt more when they shut down completely.
And then as soon as they get back into it, it’s okay. Let’s long toss gate day one, let’s go 150 feet throw as hard as I can. And they come back and I was that guy too, because in high school I was, I played all sports. So we didn’t have like winter training. Right. We went, I went from basketball season to baseball season, March 1st baseball season in Illinois.
Well, we get outside. It’s 40 degrees and I’m throwing the ball. I’m long toss on
Dan Blewett: and
Bobby Stevens: every year in high school, freshman, sophomore, junior, senior year, I’d start the first week after [00:44:00] the first practice, I’d be at the trainer. Uh, we didn’t have trainers at the school. We had to go to like an athletic coach was new at the time and he it’d be like, he’d be like, dude, what are you doing?
Like ease into it a little bit. Cause I would just go full go. And it. Yeah, I’d be in pain. And I see it with kids a lot too.
Dan Blewett: Uh, so
Bobby Stevens: I can’t, I personally, if I, if I had a son who was 13, 14, 15 years old, and we got to the end of fall ball, I would still want him playing catch twice a week, three times a week, just playing catch, like, keep your arm at, uh, Like a, not quite boiling, like if we’re gonna, if you’re boiling water, like yeah.
You’re boiling water all summer and your arm is hot and you’re throwing hard. Yeah. Tone it back a little bit, but keep the water warm. Like, you know, we want to go all the way back down, try and revamp revamp up, especially as a younger player when you’re trying to
Dan Blewett: consistently
Bobby Stevens: improve. Like if [00:45:00] you have your arm in really good shape and then you just let it get out of shape, it’s kind
Dan Blewett: of a negative to your development.
I agree. And I think, uh, I think the people from modus tend to agree with that. Like I know we’ve had WellCare on the show and they, a lot of the stuff that they did with the motive sleeve was on acute versus chronic workload. And so what those two things are your chronic low? I think those terms are like, I think they could make better terms for the public, but chronic workload is your workload over time.
So if you’re a runner, I’ll just use that example and you run 20 miles a week. That’s your chronic workload, you know, 20 miles a week or 80 miles a month, whatever. And then. When you have big spikes in your acute workloads, your acute workload is the short term workload. So if your chronic workload is a month that you typically do, okay, 80 miles or 80 miles a month or 20 miles a week, and then your acute workload suddenly spikes.
So you do 40 miles a week, one, one week. So you’re like double your workload and you have spike [00:46:00] that’s right. Where they found that injuries occur. So that you always want to stay. They had this like 20% range, like you never want to go 20% above or 20%, 20% below so that you, so you don’t want to go below.
So you maintain your level of fitness there. You don’t want to go 20% above. He’s above that. You’re putting a lot of stress on your body above and beyond what it’s capable for. So then if you want to get to doing 40 miles a week, you go from 20 miles a week, 24 miles a week. That’s 20, you know, that’s a 20% jump then to 28 miles a week, then 32 miles, you know, whatever.
Obviously, as you get a 30 miles, 30 miles a week, then it’s a six. Mile per week jump is 20%. So you, it would take you a month to ramp up to getting to 40 miles for you. Would that be a safe way of doing it? Right? And of course, to your point, which is a good one, kids are like one speed bikes. They don’t know what the hell they’re doing when they throw.
So that again, they take all winter off and they’re just like long tossing and throwing bullpens two weeks later and they’re hurting and they hurt their arms. So. Pro guys. [00:47:00] So again, like using me as an example. Yeah. I would take two solid months off. Cause it’s like, get away from me. Like I don’t want to touch a ball.
My arm feels like physically hurting. Uh, I need to recover, but then when I start back up it’s all right. The first week I’m playing catch three days a week. And I’m making 75 throws and it’s legitimately just blank cash. Then the next week, it’s four days a week at catch. And then the next week, it’s five days a week of cash.
Then the next week, it’s two days that are like up to like 75% effort, you know, and three days that are 50% effort then it’s, you know, in the next week is two days of a 90% effort. And the other days are catch days and it’s slowly ramping up just like the same way all pro guys figured out how to do this.
And so I’m building up where I start throwing again in November. And I’m not throwing hard again until middle of December. And then I have a full month of January. You throw hard and then I can back off a little bit for a week and I have the full month of February to throw hard and then I’d be ready [00:48:00] essentially to go if I was, if I need to be ready to go in March or if I was ready to go in April, I’d probably just slow everything down.
So they don’t, I think most people don’t realize that it’s like a legit four month. Period to get in shape because you need essentially six plus weeks to ramp up to throwing full speed. And then you start kind of go back down to bullpens. And now you’re 75% off the mountain. 90% of the Mount, a hundred percent off the mountain.
Then you want the solid six weeks, I think, off the mound at full speed. So if you’re like backdating that if you need to be ready on April 1st, you need to start your full speed bullpens, February 15th. And then if you need eight weeks prior to that, that’s January 15th, December 15th. And then, you know, maybe you need a longer ramp up or just, we want to like work more on like developing a new pitch and you need more time playing catch, like get the grips.
So there’s that, I mean, it’s, it’s a long ramp up process, but most people listening to that are probably saying, Ugh, I really only take like one month to ramp up. You know, you start [00:49:00] putting catch first day of, uh, February and your full speed last day of February. That’s not long enough, it just doesn’t.
And it’s also not long enough to make changes to your mechanics. It’s not long enough to make changes to your, to develop a new pitch. Like if you want to develop a new pitch, you should be playing catch with it for eight solid weeks before you start to go faster with it, because you need that many weeks to just like, feel it and spin it and really like get the, get used to it at a lower speed.
And then you start to ramp that speed up too. And now you really understand that new change or that new, that new slide or whatever. So. That’s where people miss a lot of stuff as they, if they do go completely off from throwing their ramp-up sucks and they get hurt or they just don’t get anything out of their winter either.
Like how do you get anything out of your winter when you ramp up for one month? I don’t know. You know? So what do you got there, sir?
Bobby Stevens: I mean, you’re you’re right. It’s just. A lot of these guys, don’t [00:50:00] they, they don’t, they have one speed and that speed is full ago. And to, to like the development side, I mean, if, if we’ve got kids in November, December that are coming to like, get better, we need to have him play catch.
No part of that playing catch is probably long
Dan Blewett: tossing
Bobby Stevens: or throwing the ball hard. Like. Letting it go because we, you know, especially in the winter months, I mean, if we’re practicing three times a week as
Dan Blewett: a,
Bobby Stevens: as like a 15 year old travel team, that’s a lot of practice time in the winter, but it’s not a lot of time throwing, you know, it’s three days a week is not a lot of throwing
Dan Blewett: by, you know, any age.
It’s just not a lot of throwing.
Bobby Stevens: So
Dan Blewett: we
Bobby Stevens: have to have them throw like every day, almost like to keep them baseline, like ready until we can get them outside throwing four or five, six days a week.
Dan Blewett: To get stronger.
Bobby Stevens: Uh, it’s not easy to
Dan Blewett: balance
Bobby Stevens: time off, you know, kids always ask [00:51:00] about weightlifting time off as well.
And my answer was kinda the same. Like, I don’t know, what are you taking time off from? Like you’re not in, you’re not in like, you’re not a finished product where you can take a little time off and then come back and like Polish up. Like, you’re a,
Dan Blewett: you’re just a pile of a rock
Bobby Stevens: that we need to actually mold into, into something.
So you should be working out and hitting the weight room
Dan Blewett: hard. Like
Bobby Stevens: you have to develop your body before you can like
Dan Blewett: manage, uh,
Bobby Stevens: a finished product.
Dan Blewett: And pro
Bobby Stevens: ball is totally different. I mean, I never stopped throwing as a pro guy. I come back from the season and granted I’m a shorts. I was
Dan Blewett: a middle infielder.
So.
Bobby Stevens: I had a rubber arm to begin with, but at the same time, it’s like, I’m not stressing, you know, once or twice a week at 120 full max effort throws. So I can do that. Whereas pitchers, it’s a little bit different. And if you’re a young kid, who’s pitching a lot of endings in the summer, like yeah. You’re I see where your parents want to put you in [00:52:00] soccer for six weeks and just let you not throw, but still don’t, don’t empty all the water out of the pool.
Dan Blewett: No. Yeah, no, one’s getting hurt from playing catch. I mean, that’s, that’s the overarching thing. No, one’s getting hurt from playing catch and that’s probably the best advice out of the whole thing, right.
Bobby Stevens: Is you’re not going to get hurt, just playing catch, like throwing a baseball, throwing a Dodge ball.
That’s not hurting your arm.
Dan Blewett: It’s the, let’s not talk about dodgeball. Let’s completely leave Todd to pull out of that because I suppose a great way to blow out your arm. You go out there and throw the absolute piss out of it. Trying to hurt people. Kids hurt their arms, every winter throwing let’s just like Yerba.
You were good until you threw dodgeball on there. Let’s not. Talking about Dodge ball or
Bobby Stevens: even some PTSD on a Dodge ball incident. I’m unaware,
Dan Blewett: no one throws Dodge balls slow. You throw Dodge balls at 110% trying to,
Bobby Stevens: but you only throw them four
Dan Blewett: of them. Cause only one ball. That’s exactly your point that you’re just making that you shouldn’t just like go from zero to a hundred.
That’s what people [00:53:00] do. That’s why you’re armed with Dodge ball. No 49 shape. You’re just in. Bobby doing so good. You’re doing so good today. And then you threw that out there. Rarely like we should,
Bobby Stevens: we should end this
Dan Blewett: gym class blowing it out. Terrible thing to do. Don’t play Dodge ball kids, but do play lots of catch.
But again, catch two. A lot of kids is like, they’re trying to remind themselves how hard they throw every time they play catch. And that’s not a good thing. Either catch means up to 70% effort, like from at best. You know, so like you couldn’t throw it more than 120 feet playing catch. Like, it wouldn’t go far enough, but a lot of kids I know play catch.
And if the, like, I just didn’t catch it, it would just like continue to sail, like forever. There’s throwing them throwing missiles, like Andrew Miller in a, in a major league baseball game, throwing 98, the catcher stops it. Like he’s only 60 feet away, but if the catcher didn’t stop it, it would continue to go.
So, you know, a long, long way. So using the [00:54:00] short distance to say, Again, this is the thing that you learned from rehab. They do rehab programs for by distance. So like you go 40 feet and 60 feet in 75 and 90. And they do that with the understanding that like a 75, but throw means if you’re to throw the ball to your partner at 75 feet, it’s just firm enough to make it there where it’s not loopy, but it’s just like, just from enough where I didn’t catch it, it would go like 10 feet past me.
And that’s that right? It’s not like throwing them missile where if you throw it through me, it goes another a hundred feet. That’s like the reason they do it that way with a rehab warnings. But a lot of people don’t do it that way. Either guys are like doing their Tommy, John rehab and the throwing missiles at each other from 65 feet.
And it’s like, what are you doing, dude? Like, it’s a 60 foot throw 60 foot throw means it’s got enough oomph to get there on a, on a line, but not much more. That’s what 60 feet means. And that if you had a radar gun, that’d be like 55 miles per hour probably. But then you have guys an 82 from [00:55:00] 60 feet and like that’s not a 60 foot throw.
Cause 80 would go on. They would go 250 feet. So that’s the thing to remember when we say catch it’s like catch, right? Miss you overthrow your partner. It’s not going for forever. If you throw it and they miss it, it would only go another 10 feet past him before he hit the ground.
Bobby Stevens: Like they could, they could potentially catch it bare handed.
If they,
Dan Blewett: if needed, it’d be hard. It’d be a dumb thing to do. But yeah, I mean,
Bobby Stevens: that’s the speed light, right? Like throw it, throw it so it wouldn’t hurt their hand. If they try, if they snag it bare handed.
Dan Blewett: And I’d say soft line is the best way to describe it. Like it’s, it’s, it’s a, on a line it’s from, but it’s not like a BB it’s.
It’s got a little bit of like softness to the line, right? BB? No. Well, Robert, tell us a little bit about our guests for next week and then our format thereafter.
Bobby Stevens: So we’ve got a couple of good guests coming up next week. Uh, Tuesday, Ryan Spader, uh, Twitter, or [00:56:00] the ACE of spades. If you follow he’s a baseball analyst, tweets out a lot of like
Dan Blewett: interesting
Bobby Stevens: stats, you know, current stats, uh, historical stats, like guys that are on, you know, kind of record paces and stuff like that.
So he should be really good on Tuesday. And then Friday, we’ve got Sam panty out of it. Um, he’s a radio host, he’s in the, he’s in the gambling world based out of Chicago. So that’ll peak my interest definitely. But sports gambling is, is becoming the norm. Um, kind of all across the country. Fan duel, draft Kings Barstool, sports just opened up their, their sports book and Philadelphia.
Dan Blewett: So
Bobby Stevens: it should be some good conversation with Sam, uh, regarding all things gambling on next Friday. And then. We move into one day a week. Dan and I are moving to one day a week. Your favorite podcasts is going to get even more.
[00:57:00] Dan Blewett: I don’t know, elite.
Bobby Stevens: I hate
Dan Blewett: that word. What I do say, well, what we’re going to do is we’re not, we’re no longer going to be going to be live.
We’ll do YouTube premiers, uh, and it’s possible that we’ll stream it live. We don’t have all the details worked out, but we want production quality to stay the same or improve. And we just feel like this is a better longterm change. So we’re going to more consistently have guests, probably every, every show starting then.
Um, and just in general have a more high quality experience. We’re not sure that the twice a week, the way we marketed all this other stuff is best for the show longterm. So we think we put more of our time into marketing it to letting people know that, Hey, this is when it’s going on. I have a large email list.
All these things, we think one might be better than two, so we’ll see how it goes. And if it’s a train wreck, then yeah. Whatever we’ll reassess, but
Bobby Stevens: there’s no way it’s going to be a train wreck. Now with this now with this radio IQ, that’s [00:58:00] pumping through these
Dan Blewett: walls, radio IQ, but, but we appreciate you listening.
Thanks for being here, Bob. You want to send them off?
Bobby Stevens: Thanks for listening. We’ll see everybody on Tuesday.