Andrew Vaughn reflects on Brewers trade + Cuse Mets naming contest

While we wait for Andrew Vaughn in a couple of minutes, let's show I think a former KP team.

Did you spend a minute with Syracuse with the Chiefs?

No, I played in Syracuse. I was never on the Syracuse Mets, but I did play in Syracuse.

And I just called him the Chiefs Syracuse.

I was a Syracuse Met for a second. You're in my career.

Yeah, okay, Well they.

Don't like the name anymore. Okay, well, they don't like the name. They want to rename it. So they're doing a community contest and they want help. Anyone have any ideas. They did this with Binghamton and turned into the Rumble Ponies, which is an A plus name.

Yeah, I've really you know what, I totally dropped the ball on this one.

All I remember. It was never really any fans there. It was always really quiet. I don't know, just the Syracuse soundless fans. I don't know.

It was about whenever I've gone up there, it's negative ten degrees and snowing eight feet.

There you go. I'm down with that.

I see a potential partnership here. When I think Syracuse, New York, I think Dinosaur barbecues. So how about the Syracuse Dinosaurs.

There you go? Cool mask impossible?

Yeah, I like that.

You could definitely have a fire mascot running around there. There you go. That would be hey, you know who? I love that.

You probably have a lot more families coming out, right, kids coming out. They would enjoy that, so and that's what they need. I just remember not a lot of fans. So, hey, the Syracuse Dino's. I like that, right, you.

Can go to end up with a name like the Rumble Ponies, Like did they just like everyone submitted their name and then they pulled them out of a hat and they're like, okay, let's vote, And someone just creatively was like, hey, Rumble Ponies, that sounds great.

There's maybe there's some story to it that we don't know because we didn't look it up.

But I like dinosaurs.

I mean you could do like a badass version of Barney and bring him out there, more of a devilish Barney.

Well, you know, you know, I don't know if you go, I don't know if you remember Barney Scotty, but you do you remember bj I think.

It was it was like the Yellow Dinosaur. Yeah.

I used to remember because.

I think like the Rockies kind of they don't they have a mascot that kind of looks like Barney a little bit. So let's go like with BJ and go with the yellow he had, like the cool sneakers, like that was my favorite, you know character off the Barney episodes was was that was that dinosaur character. So I think we could switch it up, maybe some yellow and something in there.

Orange orange fire.

All right, FT is back on TV's Across the Nation and Kevin Plar is going to welcome in his former teammate KP.

You want to do the intro?

Yeah, I mean I'll do a brief intro. I mean, former team of mine.

It was.

It was short lived, but very obviously very impactful. We played together in spring Train. I was with the White Sox for one month, but got to know Andrew Vaughn, got to know his wife, was just a great teammate. And obviously we're very happy to have you on the show now, Milwaukee Brewer. Uh, kind of We're obviously going to touch on, you know, going from last to first, but how you doing doing good?

I mean, you know, definitely a world win of a year for me, to say the least.

Yeah, Yeah, I want to stay awake a little bit from the obvious, because I know Cam wants to kind of touch on, you know, culture of you know obviously going from the White Sox to the Brewers, but I kind of just wanted to talk about a little bit about your journey. You know, everyone's path and the big leagues is a little bit different. Yours is much different than mine. I was a guy who's kind of up and down in the minor leagues, big leagues, Triple A,

Yeah, you know, it was definitely tough.

I mean, first two months of the season didn't go anywhere I wanted to, you know, the goals to go out there and help your team win, and you know, it felt like I wasn't able to do that.

You know, I was taking my best at Batch. You know, I always put.

It all on the line, no matter what, just not to see the results you know it's done, you know, getting the triple A. I think the biggest goal was just just get right, you know, get myself back.

To what I do in the box.

And you know I kind of I kind of felt like I was moving that way, you know, and then the trade happened.

Hey, hey, Andrew, I want to I want to piggyback off of that man, because I think that was a great setup for my question because most of us, you know, baseball players, we don't lose a lot coming through the rings, right the first time we really you know, get that taste of losing is in professional baseball, right, And I just want to ask you, like, was there any pressure, you know, you coming up to the White Sox as highly talent, as highly talent as you were, was there

Yeah, I think a little bit. You know, it's definitely tough losing. Nobody wants to do that. That's you know, the worst thing in baseball. So I mean me personally, I was trying to go out there and do everything I could, you know, worked my butt off, you know, went out there and was trying my best, and just you know, it didn't work out the best. And yeah, you know I came up pretty quick. You know, not

One quick fall on that too.

You had a brief stint with and when we gonna get to the fun stuff and the happy stuff, because I'm so happy for you to be able to play a winning Brandon baseball because what KP was talking about, you know, I mentioned earlier, people don't realize.

That, you know, bad baseball can be contagious, you know.

You know, even some of my you know, good years, it was a struggle on bad teams. You know, I thought I had a good year and they hit like two sixty and it was like, well, that was a.

Good year on the struggling team.

Can you talk about just on your way out, because I think he's done a great job.

Will Venable just a little bit on maybe.

The culture change he was my ex teammate. Can you just touch on him a little bit before we talk about the Brewers and and the kind of leader that he's shown to be earlier early in his teen yere as a White Sox manager.

Yeah, you know, his knowledge of the game is I mean, you've seen it.

You know.

He was also under Boti, who's you know, one of the greatest managers to exist. And I think he just brought the right energy. You know, he had the right mindset and you know, got the guys together. And you know, short lived that was with him, unfortunately, but you know, he was great.

I'm on my phone right now in Arena Club and I'm looking at the Emerald slab packs and I see in the grail a Bobby Wit Junior twenty twenty Bowman Chrome Prospect Auto Gold Refractor card. Give me that, give me your phone.

I'm gonna I'm gonna get you.

Well, you gotta buy it to me. I don't have it. You know, you have to get a slab pack. No, I don't have that, and give me your slab pack.

That card's worth you buy me slab pack, Scott, so I can get the Bobby Witt Junior Gold Refractor twenty twenty Bowman Chrome Auto because that sounds.

Awesome and it's worth a lot.

It's worth a lot.

He's a stud, he's not going down.

Get a grill.

Get a grill.

I want a grail, Scott, give me the holy grill. You do it.

To do that, you must get yourself a slab pack in Arena Club or if you want to get it for a friend, you can do that too. And right now you can get twenty percent off your first slab pack or your first card purchase if you're going on there and you're just like, hey, I want a specific card.

I find it there. I want to grab it for my showroom.

Arena Club dot Com slash foul and use the code fo U l Andrew. You know, I try and figure out Hey, are there any changes?

Right?

And a lot of fans do too. So when you go over to Milwaukee, you know, I'm looking at scattering reports. Did you move a little bit closer to the plate, and do you have a conversation with the coaching staff about you know, the way you've made contact right?

You've always hit the ball hard.

We talked about this for a while, right, and a lot of times, you know, you go opposite field seeing you pull the ball a little more right now, so you can describe it much better than I can take us through what you're actually seeing from either a stance and approach perspective, and then also the way the ball's coming off the bat for you.

Yeah, I didn't really think about the stance stuff very much. You know, kind of went over some film with the hitting coaches in Nashville, and you know, there was some some minor tweaks you looked at when I was going good and me compared to you know, maybe some rollovers, some ground balls orre not going so good, you know, and there was something that stood out and just you know, worked on those in the cage, and you know, I think.

That's you know, helped my approach big time.

Hey, now we got to ask about Pat Murphy.

I've been fortunate enough to be around a lot of guys, right, talk about a great leader, man, great energy.

One. Does he know your real name.

Or did he just immediately give you a nickname? And what's the nickname? Because everybody he gives everybody nickname? What's your nickname? Thus far, this early and.

With the Brewers, I ain't kind of nickname yet.

He ain't given you a nickname yet.

Bro, I didn't get a nickname. I'm gonna say it's not a nickname.

But you know, I was going up there, and you know, first couple of bats, I think, I think I hit a rollover, got jam broke my bat. And he just looked at me and goes, hey, man, just play like a Neanderthal up there, don't think, don't have any knowledge.

Just play.

And I was like, huh, I think Pat's calling. When you're raking, you get phone calls. That's what happened. Oh wait, come back, I think he's back. Yeah, Andrew, go ahead.

I'm sorry about that. Grandpa called me. I'll call him back.

You're good, You're good.

So he said hit like in Neanderthal, which actually leads to what I wanted to ask you about. So I saw today they announced that they're going to give out King Bond shirts on August twenty sixth.

Did you see this?

Is this right?

Yeah?

Adam?

So, Adam mccalvy covers the team. I'm sure you've met him there. He covers the Brewers for MLB. He said, how hot is Andrew baughd? The Brewers are adding a T shirt to the giveaway schedule on August twenty six against the Diamondbacks.

Cool.

So then we're breaking this to you. What do you think now? Might call you King?

No, I don't think.

Hey, yeah, what do you got on the te man?

It's exciting.

I mean just the energy in the clubhouse, the guys, everybody's together, you know, staff included, and just playing really good baseball. I mean that's kind of what brings everybody together. I mean, do an anyone can to win? I mean you see how I'm newer to the team, but the team runs, the face, just plays defense, pitches.

I mean it's just incredible.

Hey, I got to ask you some questions about things that you really really care about, things that you really love. I know you're new to Milwaukee. You find a good fishing spot.

Yet at five o'clock. I'm going my first time. So we'll see.

You can get it from anyone else, or you know, you go to one of those like chat rooms or like blogs Milwaukee fishing spots, or you know, someone on the team kind of give you a little secret fishing spot in Milwaukee.

Yeah, d'e hall on the plane yesterday, it's like, hey, you want to go fish in the morning.

I was like, uh, you know, we land at one o'clock and he was like, no, We're gonna go in the afternoon.

And I was like, all right, I'm in.

He's there, you're there, and I'm there.

I'm going fishing.

Hey, I want to ask you speak okay, fishing, right, that's something you love to do, That's something you would you you you know you enjoy doing. Is there any possible chance that you're gonna send Sabali a Christmas gift, maybe some fishing rides or something, because he's the one who want, you.

Know, requested to trade and here we are now you you're playing winning baseball and playing with the guy.

You know, a group of guys who really love playing for each other.

Do you have any plans on senning air Sabali.

Maybe a Christmas gift to get you at Chicago and over to Milwaukee.

I'm just saying.

I mean that trade was crazy.

I mean I saw it happened, and then you know, the next morning, I got a phone call and I was like, oh, I'm getting traded today.

You never think it's going to happen to you. I mean, it's part of the game.

But it happened, and you know all these things, is what I said.

Yeah, that's beautiful.

I love it. I just want to ask one more.

I want to ask one more seriously, because you you know, you went through some ups and downs and a lot of scrutiny. Seriously, how much fun is it waking up every day and driving to a ballpark knowing that you're going to play some meaning for baseball down the STRETCHS Like, how much fun is.

That for you?

I mean it's so exciting. I mean, you know, you wake up, you got that little bit extra energy, just ready to get there. I mean the clubhouse open at twelve thirty, I bet every guy's in there.

Then you know, it's just a special feeling.

I love it.

Hey, I wanted to ask you off of the SIVALI question. And first of all, he pitched money on the weekend for the White Sox, so that's working out for them too. But do you look back, like how crazy it is that so many events need to lead up to this moment where now you're in the thick of a playoff race with the team that's got the best record in baseball, right,

The rest of them are desperately looking for them.

That turns into a starter wanting a starting spot, that turns into him going to the White Sox and you ending up here.

Yeah, you know, definitely crazy. Like I said, it's been a world win. You know, get sent a triple A Charlotte, end up getting traded, get sent to Nashville, you know, unfortunately to reach but you know, got my opportunity and my biggest fote was just get here and help the team win. They were already rolling. So it's like I just want to plug in and do what I can.

One more for me, Andrew, do you notice anything different or unique about the way that the Brewers organization runs. I know you've been there quick, right, But a lot of our guys, and I'm the only non player, most of the guys on this show play the game for a long time. They'll tell me how they see something different. Cam can speak to this too. The Brewers are playing a style of baseball that's very different from many other teams in the game. It's not all exit velocity of session.

Yeah?

I think it's just everybody buying in, you know, that's the biggest thing.

Guys just putting.

It out on the line, just doing any during that game to win, whether it's a bond, whether it's a hit and run, you know, making a good play, just all aspects of the game.

And I feel like everybody here bought into that.

Yeah, I was gonna touch on something kind of off topic, here that maybe a lot of people don't understand. You know, I was traded a couple of times in my career. It's very difficult the first time. It gets a little bit easier the second time. But for us, it's just playing baseball. But behind every player is a great wife. Lexie, your wife. How is she making the adjustment to Milwaukee? I know, you guys had a you know, a big footprint in the city of Chicago. You guys did a

Yeah, you know, it's been a world win for both of us. You know, she's loving it. She's excited. She's meeting all the wives and you know, getting connected, because that's a big part of it too. I mean there are families, but you know, our goal is we have to go play baseball. But what goes on behind the scenes, Like she's finding us a place to live, moving furnit sure, shipping cars, doing all this stuff, and it's I mean, we can't do it without them.

I mean, you guys can attest to that.

Yeah, I love that.

Man.

Shout out to all the wives out there who, like you said, people don't know what they really do.

They really become our personal assistants at time. They really do. And I sacrifice so much.

I don't want to keep it on the high note because just like KP, I was traded quite a few times. Uh, And you're always trying to you know, you know, buy into the new culture and fit in.

Who's been the guy? Early on you said you're going fishing today? A five? Like, who's been the guy.

That you connected with pretty quickly in that clubhouse that you're like, Okay, this is you know, I'm bobbing with everybody, but like, this is my guy.

Who's who's welcoming you with open arms? And who you really vibbing with right now?

Yeah?

I think the only guy I knew off playing baseball was I met Terrang a few years ago. You know, he got a brand new puppy and it was a great day. Brought it over to my house in Arizona when I used to live there, and just kind of had that little connection, you know, went and talked to him, asked him some questions like what do we do here?

What we got?

You know, gravitated towards him. But I mean the whole group, man, they just woke me with open arms.

It was awesome.

Hey, real quick the off of that, real quick? What did he tell you?

Because I remember getting going to the Astros and I kind of the same thing. I asked George Springer. I'm like, hey, like, you know, I was a big workout guy, and I'm you know, I go in the weight room and like nobody's going really in the weight room, And I asked George Springer, I'm like, hey, like, what what do we do here?

Like what's the like, what's the flow?

He just goes hit or get left behind, dude, Like, we don't really overthink anything.

We just played baseball.

Like what did he give you on the Brewers when you ask like, hey, what what to expect?

Be ready at seven? I mean, that's that's the biggest thing. I feel like, that's that's.

The most important thing.

Not going out checking boxes, just getting in there as soon as the lights come on, just play ball.

Play like in the end of the all.

I like that line a lot.

That's good.

That's good. They might have to give you another T shirt in September with that one on it.

Keep breaking breaking.

Yeah, stuff, man, thanks for joining us. Have an awesome day off. Hanging out later there on the trip.

With the l Make sure you post whatever you cant. We need to see it man, or see the KP. He'll post it.

Hey, he's a master. He's a master. I know he's not. He's not getting shut out. I've been getting shut out every day. I stink it fishing.

Need some lessons. I'll come show you something.

Thank you.

Yeah, private tutor. You got to hire him in the off season. Andrew, thank you. Appreciate you. Keep crushing it man.

Thanks, guys, appreciate it.