Well, rock guess in the studio res Royalty, how about this? And obviously a big week at Red's Vest. It's back after being off for a couple of years renovating the Convention Center, but it's back with abandoned and we've got a couple of great players in the studio with us. Amelia Bagan, a great reliever, great closer, just signed a new two year deal to be back with the club this year and back for his third straight year on
The Eddie and Rocky Show. Andrew Abbott, a great pitcher, went ten and seven to eighty seven ERA one hundred and forty nine. K's fellas, welcome to the program.
Appreciate you having us.
Amelio, the gingers are overrunning.
It's here, son, Yeah.
This is.
I didn't know I need to dine my here before I came in.
Yeah.
So let's talk Amelia first, you were talking you lived down in Charlotte during the off season, Yes, originally from South Carolina, South Carolina. And let me ask both of you guys and Emelio you're first, you're getting charged up. I mean you were about three and a half weeks out now from reporting and yeah, that's got it. Do you get charged up now.
Oh you're ready to go. Oh yeah, no, the juice has been flowing. You get past New Year's and it kind of feels like, all right, I need to be at spring training now. And so my family's gonna come out with me this year at spring training. So they're getting excited, and uh yeah, I need to hit like the fast forward button and go ahead and get to work. I'm excited to see everybody and get this thing going.
Drew, Yeah, absolutely, I mean this is the last kind of big culmination redsfest. Once you kind of checked this off, then you're turning the page and next thing you know, you're at spring training.
So Andrew, I asked you this. I mean, both you guys are pitchers, So give me like the off season. Okay, so the season ends, you know what October? Like, how much time do you take off? When do you start getting back into working out and throwing and training and all that.
I took about two weeks off of running, conditioning, lifting, all that kind of stuff, and then I restarted. I was lightly throwing the whole time. I never really like stopped. Yeah, but you know, as you get further into the off season, it starts to build back up, and then now we're on the mound. We're getting ready for spring training, as we're saying, So it just comes in waves kind of, and the holidays are a good start. They tell you,
all right, let's start check that box. All right, let's move in next, same thing for you.
Yeah, so you know, we we get eliminated, get home. I generally take two or three weeks off, depending on what my body's telling me I need, And then around November first, I start doing some weight room stuff, some mobility stuff, and then start throwing the plyocare balls and then uh, you know, transition to a baseball and then
getting off the mound. So normally it starts about November first, getting off the mound starts around December first, and then like really ramping up the bullpen starts around after New Year's and so, like Abbat said, it's a transition, and uh, we're getting to the point now where I'm kind of tired of throwing by myself into a net and I need to get out Arizona.
Explain to the listeners what Hepplyo care ball is.
Yeah, so it's like a weighted or or under weighted rubber ball that you can use to For me, it's a it's a great shoulder program that that cleans up your delivery kind of without you thinking about it cleans up your arm path because with the weight it's hard for your hand to get in positions that puts your
arm at stress or in risk of getting injured. And so I've done Plowcare weighted balls now for a little over ten years, and it's a it's a kind of a great way to just get back into the throwing program before you start getting off the mound.
Andrew, what's your off season go to training regiment? I love this stuff. I've been in sports and football and training my whole life, so I always geek out of it. I mean I still kind of hit it.
It's whatever your body needs at that point, you know, if you need more rest, and it's more rest if you don't need as much, and then you can kind of start building blocks. You know.
Some guys start with mobility.
Some guys just go straight in the lifting, straight in the running kind of thing like they didn't take any time off.
For me personally, it's the same.
It's basically start moving around, start going to pull out he start doing like you know, yoga and stuff to like loosen up again. And then I go into lifting, and then you know, you start lifting four days a week, and then it's five days a week, and then now it's lifting around throwing because throwing becomes the number one thing.
Right and just can't bench press and then go throw? You could, but I don't.
I do.
I say that because I knew he did. But it just matters who you are, and like, just you know, that's the routine of baseball. It changes. You just start making little tweaks and then you just figure it out.
Andrew having to immediately you pegan or with us and guys, you're talking about last year getting eliminated. Uh no, shame in losing that Dodgers team the best money that the world economy can buy. But does that just make you hungry for this year? Guys, let me start with.
You, Andrew. Yeah.
I mean, you know, for one, I've never had a taste of the postseason. I've never played that long.
It's had to be.
It was amazing, you know, the clinching moment was special with the guys like you know, EP and all the veterans kind of saying, hey, like this happens like just go have fun like this is what it is. This is what we've been working with to the entire season.
This is what hard, hard working determination is. I know it wasn't what we wanted to happen, but for guys like me and EPs, well coming back, it just kind of you got your foot in the door, like let's let's go, let's go earn it and be even better than last year because we know what we did. We we know what we did last year to get there, right, you know all?
How about you?
Yeah, I mean, you know, people would say what they want about the Dodgers. You know they're they're tremendous team, tremendous run organization. We were right there with them. You know, we had we had uh, we were in striking distance in both of those games. We had bases loaded a few times, balls bounce you know the other way from
when they did. Obviously, those are all hypotheticals, though you don't get banters for hypotheticals and professional sports, and so we're not happy with how it ended, but there's a belief. Just there's a belief in that clubhouse now. And then you know in our conversations as a team that you know, we know we can compete with anybody, and we know that we can go win any game, any series on
any given day. And so the excitement and the hope that started back in twenty twenty three when all these young guys started making their debuts and getting up to this team for this fan base is now turning into a belief and an expectation in that clubhouse. And so we know we've got a special group and nothing's going to be promised or you know, honestly, there's going to be even more of a target on our back now because we were a playoff team. But we've earned that right,
you know, that's why we work so hard. We've earned the right to have teams come after us a little bit more. And we didn't. We didn't accomplish really anything any of our goals last year. We set out to win a division. We didn't. And so that's going to be step one, is to go win the Central and then and then make a deep run in the playoffs.
And Andrew, what about you? What is you most excited about this upcoming season?
Just the group of guys that are going to be there. I mean, you know what we're going to have going forward? In life is going to be relationships that we that we make here. It's going to be the friends and you know, the family members that all the wives hanging out together, all the girlfriends hanging out like, oh, that's
gonna matter way down the road. So just having like a good family oriented team and having that support system on the field with Tito on the field with teammates, as well as off the field with all the fans and and whatnot. And I know we're talking about Reds fests and stuff like we're just so pumped to see the crait the turnout that we're going to see the
city rallying behind us. So you know, I just think it's it's nothing but special that and it's just you can't tank take you know, I can't put in the words literally.
I think pitching, guys, and I know you will agree, is one of the premiere positions to play in all of sports. I mean, you're in command, that ball is in your hand, and how the game goes largely has to do with with how you do so in terms of preparation, and Millie, I'll start with you, what what goes into Okay, you're it's it's Wednesday and you're gonna you're starting tomorrow. To talk about the you know, the
game prep, talk about scouting reports, talk about film. What are some some of the processes that you go through to get ready for a start?
Well for you really, yeah, where if I'm starting the game, we might be in trouble because I'm not gonna be able to go very longer. But as far as preparation for each game, you know, we we've got our day one of every series. We have our scouting report meeting Arnie Kyle Arnsberg leads that he goes over every hitter
how we're going to approach them. You know, what we think their weaknesses are, what we think their strengths are, and then you know what we're going to try and do throughout that series against their team tendencies, whether they like to steal a lot, whether they like to bunt, whether they like to hit and run, or if they're just you know, sit back and try and slug us to death. All those things. So that's day one of
a series. As far as like individually preparing, you know you're doing you're doing your recovery stuff in the training room with ours, with our training staff. Any type of you know, weight room and trying to build the body back up maybe after a week of you know, three or four appearances for a reliever, you know, getting in there and getting in some making sure your mobility is still where it's at, because obviously, you know, as you lose mobility, that's where some of the injury comes, because
your delivery is going to change. Anytime your delivery is changing in season, you know, you're starting to use more muscles and ligaments that are not used to being used, and so just you're kind of hitting those those check marks and making sure, like you know, biomechanically, my delivery
is where it needs to be. And so all the goes into and then once the game starts, it's you know, all that stuff is great and the information is awesome and it can benefit us, but once the game starts, it's it's how well can I compete and how well can I execute? And you know, how how often can I remember the stuff that we talked about without that taking away from the competition's aspect.
There, And you also got to be in the moment. Sometimes the moment, hey I'm I think this picture right.
Yeah, there's absolutely sometimes where what we're seeing with our eyes is different than what we talked about in the video room. And so you know, a guy might be, you know, on the season, might be hitting three seventy five on fastballs and and well maybe the last ten at bats he's hitting eighty five against fastballs. You know, for some reason his swing is off or his timing's off, and so throwing him a breaking ball and that if your eyes are telling you that throwing him a breaking
ball is doing him a favor. And so, you know, as good as the information is and as prepared as we are because of our support staff, our support coaches, you know, once the game starts, it really just is you know, trust your eyes, trust the competition, and go and try and execute at a high level.
Awesome. Andrew, let me ask you this one. Do you ever just watch the body language of a hitter and know I got him like I got or or do you see the body language a guy and like, this guy's on one right now, he's hot right now? And is that how does that change your approach as a pitcher?
Yeah? I mean watch the hands, you know, you watch the placement of the feet, are they moving in the box? Watch where they filed the pitch off you can. There's a lot of information that's relayed just based off swings. I mean, like where where's the ball located? What is he trying to do with it? You know, what pitch was it? And then it's just a chess match. At the end of the day, it's like what can I do?
I got to.
Subtract, ad cut, slide, run, you know, whatever to do, and you're basically just trying to get him out, like that's what I'm there for. And at the end of the day, you just lay it all out like he's saying, execution is the big thing. You know, you're prepared, like
our support coaches get us prepared. We do our homework ourselves, and then we kind of just combine and then it's me and Steve O or like me and TRAVENO or whoever's like our battery mate back there, and it's it's you and him versus that guy in the box, and he's helping you just as much as you're seeing the stuff that you think you see. So he's like, okay,
I think that you know not. You can't communicate with him obviously, but you know, if he sees something, he might change the scouting important if his feet moved away or up or back or you know something like that. His hands moved down like we're not throwing that picture doing this pitch like it's just to get like it's
it's a chess match, and that's what's fun about it. Yeah, you can try to prepare, you prepare before the game, but like Meily said, at the end of the day, you go compete like it's you versus him, and.
So you guys, I think that's one of the things that everybody loves about this team is that you are a team. And it's obvious you guys get along well, you all love each other, you're all having a blast and stuff. But how much does Tito Francona mean to you guys? It has to be something else to have that guy in the clubhouse with you.
Yeah, yeah, it's it's it's awesome too. You know, anytime you talk about Tito, no matter kind of what you're talking about, whether it's college basketball, football, baseball, cards, anything, he wants to win and and it's really win at all costs. And so having that be the guy that is the head of the clubhouse, you know, the head
of the organization. Like this guy is all about winning and so to have that it makes in turn the us as players that like, that's our main focus is like, even if it's an ugly win, like, we just want to win. And so obviously there's certain processes you have to go through to win at a consistent level, and so you have to be mindful of those. But we're
never going to be upset about winning. You know, We're never going to not celebrate a win because winning at the major league level is hard and Tito's been doing it for a long time and we're very lucky to have him.
All right, Yeah, I mean he's Baseball Royalty. I mean, he's one World Series, he's got a lot of he's got a lot of wins. I mean, he's been there, done that. It's no better guy for like us, like me being a young guy to come in and have as a managers to kind of help you along, you know, learn the game and all that. And what a Mila said is true. I mean, it's the confidence in the players.
It's the traditional you know, hard nos coach that wants to win and his confidence in the players to keep guys out there, to give guys opportunities, you know, to continue to stay with guys that might be struggling that other guys might be like, oh, we need to do something else. Like no, He's like, this guy will get it done, and I promise you he will, and then that confidence goes a long way.
So reds Vest does kicks off tomorrow and Saturday. Will you guys would both be there?
Yep?
Absolutely, both days, both days both?
Wow, all right, we'll be there.
See everybody.
Love it all right, guys, thanks for coming in.
Yeah, thanks for having me.
You guys have a great series, Andrew, but immediately you'll put gone with us. With that, we had to tray of agun weather. What is going on