Best Bullpen In Baseball

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Hi, everyone, welcome to Guardian's Weekly. Jim Rosenhouse along with you from Target Field in Minneapolis where the Guardians are taking on the Twins this weekend. Good show lined up for you. Today, we'll have another edition of at the Ballpark with Bobby de As he talks with former Cleveland third baseman Brooke Jacobi. Also a minor league report with Rob Serfolio, the director of player Development, and we'll hear from Victor Martinez, who was in town last weekend for

I mean, I don't think we ever, you know, thought about it that way. I think we just show up every day and give it our best, and it's the results have been good. And I don't think we're trying to change anything. I think we're trying to go out there and do the same thing we've been doing.

And you personally, did it take a little while to get comfortable working in relief, especially at the end of games, or did that click in pretty quick? Maybe even as far back as spring training.

I mean, I would say last season even there was a couple of times where I came out of the bullpen and it was kind of weird then, but at least I got that like, you know, first experience out of the way last season. But then spring churning, it was there was a couple of just hey, go get your one inning, and I mean, I think it was it was much easier for me to what my name is called, go get ready and you know, four or

Do you ever think that maybe you would start it again, or that you were a starter at one point in time, or do you just consider yourself now, Hey, this is my role and this is how I'm going to get it done in the big leagues.

I'm really enjoying it right now, you know. I don't you know, if they maybe ask for something future down the line, maybe, but you know, I'm really enjoying it right now.

And here we are in August and you've pitched a lot, but it seems like everybody who has pitched a lot is doing just fine with that workloaded. And explain some of the things that that the staff is doing it to keep you guys in a good place even with a lot of work.

Yeah, I mean, you can't say enough about the staff here. They're you know, of course, the training room, the strength and conditioning side, of course, the pitcher coaches, you know, vote they're always like watching out after us, always like hey, how you doing, and checking in day by day if there's anything you need help with or you know, get some soreness out you know, great staff here. Yeah, you

Out there, it's been pretty consistent in terms of who's been out there was some changes every now and again that you'd expect over the course of a long season. But what is it about the group out there that helps each other have success along the way?

I mean, I think we just worked together really well. I mean we're like one group, you know. It's it's it's hard to say enough about the guys out here. You know, they're all, you know, supporting each other, helping us, you know, try and get ready for each and every day. But I mean, I just feel like we're a bunch of dogs out there and we really enjoying it.

All.

Right, let's finish up with this, uh, your entrance song. It's unique. It's I feel like it suits you when you come in and as a kind of trying to look intimidating if you can. Where does it come from? What is it?

I mean it comes from you know, some TikTok Instagram videos. It's uh, it's uh. It would be like some videos about the North Sea, like men working on the North Sea and the song is always playing, you know, like fifty four waves with a giant ship like almost falling over and that song is just playing in the background. So a couple like the Boys who would send videos back and forth and I was like, I gotta make this my walk out song. It gets me pumped up.

So it's nice.

Yeah, what goes through your head when you hear that walking in from the bull Nothing, It's just like pure adrenaline. It just like I feel like it just sets the tone, just that it doesn't even really say too many words.

It's just like get after it. You've been setting the tone all year. Hunter, thanks a lot for coming. I appreciate it. Yeah, thank you. And is Hunter gaddis part of the best bullpen in Major League Baseball for much of the season, and it's under the guidance of a

Yeah, probably the consistency of everyone, to a man, whether it's guys that are coming up and down to help or our mainstay. We all know that, you know, class at the back end is such a force. But the guys getting the ball to him, no matter their experience level, whether it's Scotty Barlow with a bunch of time or it's you know, the three rookies we have out there. We're asking a lot of them and they're a resilient group.

And we talked to Carl Willis a lot. We talked to Joe Torres as well. Your role, how can you impact what's going on with that group of eight on a given night, regardless of who's coming and going, but that group that particular night, how do you impact them to make sure they're the best they can be.

I think it starts the beginning of the series going over all their hitters, going over our guys almost like an audit of you know, what are you doing well? Where you need improvements? And then their lineup, whether it's scouting report or where our matchups.

Work best.

So if we see a strength and a weakness or something you've been doing really well you feel, or just like the everyday check ins, the banter back and forth, the culture down there, and just trying to put the guys in the best position.

To succeed in one of the areas they succeeded for most of the season inherited runners leaving them out there. So I'm thinking preparation before they go in has to be extremely important. How far back in the game does that go if say Nick Salin comes in in the seventh with a couple of men.

On, So again it starts before the series, and then you know, our guys do a really good job being diligent of where their pockets fit. You know, is it a lefty coming up to you know, Tim and Sam have their ears perked up. We try to communicate as much on the front end of here as where you're gonna most likely fit in. Now, does everything work out that way? No, it's baseball. But the preparation and you know what pitches missed the most amount of bats and

Brad Goldberg's joining us. He's The Guardian's bullpen coach and Rad when when we talked to you after you got the job, your first opportunity to work on a big league staff, but it just felt like you had done a lot of things to prepare yourself for this particular season and beyond what was especially helpful to you so that you could hit the ground running with this group.

Yeah, there's a good mix of things.

I think.

One it starts with my playing career, being out in that bullpen for a long time and kind of knowing what that culture is like. You know, when the phone ring, what it feels like, I guess being in their shoes, being nowhere as good as any of these guys, but at least having the routine down. Say, another thing is having you know, Voter and Albe were in a bullpen

And you mentioned that and and maybe part of culture. It always seems like the Bullpen as a group has a certain personality. Any Shenanigans out there that keep these guys loose? And how important is that part of it too?

Yeah?

I think that's you know, it's a huge part of it is is the Bullpen in general is a pretty high stress environment. Right you come in with runners on, it's late and close. But our guys, you know, a lot of them have good experience and they treat the young guys extremely well.

Things they do.

One thing I know is they.

Are elite at trivia.

There's someone that always has trivia every day and they compete with each other. So it's fun to have like a low heartbeat group that is super competitive.

It has been fun to watch it develop as the season has gone along. Brad, thanks letter come by. I appreciate it.

Go Guards.

That is Bullpen coach Brad Goldberg, and he has done great work in his first season in that role. Stay tuned, we'll have more to come after this now.

The set by Gaddis and the Pittston. Nick Castianos swings and sends a routine fly Aright, Noel is camped under it. He made the play on all three outs under Gaddis gets a done in Cleveland Leeds, Philly four to three after seven.

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Welcome back to Guardians Weekly. Jim Rosen House along with you from Target Field in Minneapolis, where the Guardians are taking on the Twins this weekend. Last weekend back home, it was Hall of Fame weekend, a great celebration at Progressive Field at CC Sabbathia former longtime equipment manager Cy Bainack, and longtime member of the Cleveland organization both on the big league level and in player development, Johnny Gorel. They were all inducted into the Cleveland Baseball Hall of Fame.

Well, first of all, it was an honor to come back here. When they called me for me, it was a no brainer. You know, special when he comes to cis he comes way back. My first season here in ninety ninety Mahunting Valley. I got to catch CIZI there when I, you know, come a guy coming from Venezuela that you know, used to catching guys Train eighty a ninety so, and then I came here to catch c

Both had tremendous careers and and some of those careers were with other ball clubs, but you grew up together here in the big leagues with Cleveland. Tell us about that time as that team developed into the team that it was in two thousand and seven.

Well, I always remember the special team in our seven. You know, I tryan tosplain my daughters and my son that he was pretty young by then, that we were just a bunch of young kid that we had the opportunity to make it to the big leagues, and you know, we we make it. We make it happen. And you know, I don't think anybody give anything for us that year in the playoff when we had to face the Yankees in the in the first round, and you know, it took a lot of people by surprise when we beat them.

It was. It was part of a great time in my career.

Here two thousand and seven, CC wins the Cy Young Award. You were behind the plate for thirty two of his thirty four starts. You caught him a bunch. What made that year special for him and maybe took his game to another level.

You know what, I think it was just experience since he broke into the big league really young. I don't know, I was nineteen twenty when he came to the league, and you know, he started feeling you know, comfortable and comfortable. And I think when he find out that, you know, he knows what to do to go to the mountain every five days, I think it made it easier for him.

You know, I understand, you know, what.

He needs to do, and I think For me, it was just a I was just trying to take, you know, the workload out of his mind and just trying to make him believe in mean and trust me. I don't want him to or any pitcher overthinking on the mound. So it took me a little bit to kind of get the trust from from him and you.

Know, all the pitchers.

But you know, thank god I was able to, you know, get into their minds and you know, they all start following. But as he's especially, you know, he wasn't afraid to pitch it to anybody. I mean, that was something that I really loved. And Ceci, you know, it doesn't matter. He was Jason Yambi there year a rat. You know, when he decided to go in there, he was going to go in there. You either back up the plate or he was gonna hate you. So that just speck by by himself. With the career, he ended up.

Having Victor Martinez joining us. A fine major league career that started with Cleveland, All Star games with Cleveland for the fans who don't know what are you up to now? Baseball wise and also family wise, well, I.

Took a job with the Toronto Blue Jays, last year for a special assistant. You know that I can go there for you know, every like ten days fifteen, ten days a month, and I get to see sometimes the minor leaguers too.

But you know, yeah, I still busy at home.

You know how I got four kids, my auldest nineteen and then three daughters which is seventeen, eleven and seven.

So I'm not.

Ready yet to be on the field every day as a coach, but I'm you know what.

I enjoyed it last year.

It was my first year doing it with Mark in Toronto, so I really enjoyed it. And you know, I'm having fun with it.

And I know you came back here and to this building as a member of the opposing team, coming back now that your career is done, when you walk into this place, still some great feelings for the times that you spent here.

Always always even when I when I left and come into this ballpark as a visitor. You know, I can say this now for me sometimes if I if I didn't if I didn't here, or if I didn't do good, it was a big deal for me because I mean this I call it it was my house.

It was everything for me here.

Then it was the only place that if I can go for ten for eight in a series, I'll go somewhere with us and do some damage on somewhere else. But you know, for some reason, I'd like to hit here then.

You know. But I always enjoyed it.

I always enjoyed coming here to Cleveland, even coming as a visitor. People still show me the love that it meant a lot to me and my family and you know, and I'll never forget that.

A lot of great games, not Cleveland uniform for sure. For Victor Martinez, great to see you, thanks for coming.

Back, great to see it, Thanks for having me here.

Man.

I was great to see Victor Martinez last weekend, and hopefully we'll see him around more as time goes by. Stay with us when we come back. It's the Minor League Report with robs Or Polio, the director of player Development, that comes your way shortly on the Cleveland Clinic. Guardians Radio Network. Welcome back to Guardians Weekly. Jim Rosen House along with you from Target Field in Minneapolis, where the Guardians are taking on the Twins this weekend in a

Yeah, well, you know, it was really fun to be able to watch just the whole environment, honestly, you know, the Lake County fans and the front office group over there really you know, put on a show. And I give you Travis a ton of credit for you know, I think the first game on Tuesday was rained out

To play from a high.

Speed, running throwing volume. He had been hitting a lot, so we felt good about just where he was offensively in terms of swing volume. But you know, a lot of it is preparing his body for the physical load that is playing multiple times a week, which is different than college and college you know, usually your your best players play three.

Games on the weekend and then maybe they d h midweek.

And now you know, we're trying to get him ready to play five six games a week and hopefully more than that when when he you know, hopefully gets to the big leagues and impacts our major league team. So it's really been building that foundation, kind of onboarding him to the organization almost like onboarding him, you know, for for someone that's going through a new job and how

He's gotten the results early on, got his first home run out of the way. All those little markers that you check boxes on, but from your standpoint, what have you seen swing wise? That's really encouraging and impressive.

Yeah, you know, it's you know, it's it's funny.

I was actually talking about this with him of you know, he only has twenty five played appearances, and you know, we want to overreact to small samples. But I think the thing that's great with Travis and just his mindset of being really processed oriented, and you know, right now, like I said, he hasn't played in a month. So some of the first markers we're looking for is is.

His batspeed there?

Like does he feel like he's getting his best swing off consistently and that in the training part of the day he's able to find that with with the drills and you know, start working with a.

New hitting coach and kind of each person.

Are are getting to know the other and learn how they work best and what they need to do to prepare themselves to have success that night. So it's a lot of a lot of learning and adjusting to just the pro environment. But you know, this guy's performance in college spoke for itself and the type of hitter that he is with you know, just a really impressive ability to control his own make make contact when he swings, and really put the ball in play at good angles

On the fly, and maybe a tribute to his background. We saw it here when shortly after he was signed and he worked out here for a couple of days, and as you mentioned, obviously a heavy attention in Lake County, but all of the things off the field don't seem to face him at all. He seems very comfortable.

It's impressive, and you know, he's obviously had to deal with that for the last year, so he's had some good reps from winning you know, MVP and the CAPE and all the attention that he garnered at Oregon State. So it's just a really impressive mindset. And you know, I think one of the things that was most fun. You know, it's hard to be a new guy on a team that you know has been playing and working together side by side for four months and just you know, one credit to the rest of the guys.

On that team.

It's a really fun clubhouse, and you know, they kind of accepted them and you know, giving them, you know, some fun, some fun teasing moments as well, which has been great, and Travis has handled that awesome.

And you know, just a.

Really cool environment from from the staff and Travis's new teammates in Lake County, and then Travis's willingness to to really build relationships with his new teammates and and show them and show them what he can do and hopefully help them continue to play well and win ball games.

Obviously, He's not the only player on that team, and you've had players, as you mentioned, who've been there all season long. Sure, how much of a benefit can this be for them to be around that type of player as they try and and reach the major leagues as well.

Oh, I think it's great.

You know, I think it's it's a It's one of those great reminders in season, especially in August. You know, this is this is the time of year where guys are tired. A lot of a lot of these guys were in the draft last year, especially the college players, and you know, this is the biggest workload of their

In August, Rob Sirfolios joining us. He's the director of player development for the Guardians, and he joins us this week from the Guardians complex down in the Dominican Republic. And Rob, I know you try and get down there on occasion to see what's going on. And when you talk about their season, are they in a different spot than the full season teams are here States side?

They are? You know, obviously these are really young kids. So you know, for the average fan that has probably never watched a DSL baseball game, I think, you know, maybe the best comparison in the States is almost like watching varsity high school baseball. So you have a bunch of sixteen, seventeen, eighteen year olds that are anywhere between their first ever game as a professional to maybe a guy that's repeated this level two or three times. But

Of our full season affiliates.

So their first game is in June, they play all the way through the month of August and they do their own version of spring training on the front end of that, but then a lot of the rest.

Of their calendar is about you.

Know, continuing to develop physically and from an athleticism standpoint, but also some of just like the foundational baseball, all skills of building routines and you know, having some of the right mechanics and movements that we think are really important to have long term success against you know, much much higher talents.

At different levels.

So it's a it's a really fun player group, and I think, you know, a huge a huge credit goes to just our staff down here, and you know, especially jose Mahea, who's our who's our coordinator, that kind of you know, helps run and facilitate a lot of the things we do on and off the field. But you know, those training windows with the guys out planning games and working on their skills from about you know, nine o'clock in the morning to two pm when the game wraps up.

And the facility that uh, not that old, it was a new facility not that long ago. Explain how that has changed the dynamic down there and what are we looking at in terms of the facilities.

Yeah, well, yeah, I certainly had nothing to do with that, Rosie.

It was I think all the credit goes goes to mister Dolan and Chris and Mike and a whole bunch of others that helped work on that, you know, several

Come out of this level.

And you know, we've started to see that, you know, when this I think this facility was finished in twenty seventeen, and now you have guys like John Kenzi, Noel and Angel Martinez and.

You know, Jose Tana was in a recent trade.

But that first wave of player group that really played and developed tiers has started to touch our major league team, which is a credit to a number of people in the organization, but I hope continues to be a competitive advantage for us developing players and winning players from from this level.

All Right, you tossed out some recognizable names for Guardians fans. I want to throw out a name or two to maybe keep an eye on a very long way away from from eventually getting to Cleveland, but impressive at least already.

Yeah, you know, this is this group really is has been fun to watch and in a lot of ways, it kind of reminds me of that twenty seventeen group where we felt like we had a lot of players that could eventually make it to the upper levels in the minor leagues, and that's really rare for you know, just for context of you know, I think if you look at an average team in the DSL, there's maybe one or two player that get to double a triple

All Right, the next step up is Arizona. And we know what summer is like in Arizona. How about the Dominican Republic? What are we looking at? Weatherwhy's down there?

It is also hot here.

I think I go through about eight pairs of clothes roughly on average for a day and three showers. But it's you know, someone from the southeast part of the States. It reminds me of home a lot of the humidity, and but that sunshine is hot, so it's a it's a good introduction for what these guys might face and the toaster out in Arizona next year.

All right, Well, you somehow try and stay cool and we'll catch up with you real soon when you get back to the States.

I appreciate it.

Rosie as always, that's Robsorfolio, the director of player development for the Guardians. Stay with us. We're back with our final segment after this timeout.

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Jim Rosenow's back with you. It's Guardian's weekly from Target Field in Minneapolis, where the Guardians start taking on the Twins this weekend night game tonight, and then a Sunday afternoon contest to wrap up the series and the road swing for Cleveland.

Well.

As always, we like to check in with Guardian Senior Vice President Bob d Viascio, and we have another edition of Bobby D's at the Ballpark as he catches up with former Cleveland third baseman Brooke Jacoby.

The perfectly manicured field, It's the unmistakable aroma of a ballpark hot dog and the electricity celebrating another victory. This is at the Ballpark with Bobby D.

The ballpark is home to many stories, many memorable moments, and colorful personalities. Joining me now on at the Ballpark is former third baseman Brook Jacobe, who enjoyed a long major league career and also a career as a hitting instructor for a number of different teams in the Big Leagues. Jake, great to see you, sir. First, let's talk about one of my previous at the Ballpark's feature Frank Mancini in

Well, I think I did, Bobby, And it started out by just borrowing somebody's bat. I was struggling and I got a couple hits, maybe hit a homer. It was Tony Bernasard's bat was an S two. Still remember once I got going again, I just suck with it and I had Cy our clubhouse man. I had him order Tony burners Ard model bats for me.

He said, you can get to your name put.

Do you remember what the length announces were?

Yeah, I think it was like thirty five, thirty three, thirty five. Wow guys back then shut even being a smaller guy. You know, then there's times you switched to a thirty four thirty two, you know, just kind of the feel.

Well, you had a short swing, right, I mean you were got long long so sometimes yeah, but you were. But as a hitting instructor, tell me about some of

The first thing that comes to mine is Joey Barto. When I was over and since Natty, there were times, being honest here, there were times he would come up to me and say, I've got this guy. I'm going to get him this at bat and he go hit a home and the first time I said, okay, you got lucky on there. He did it probably five times.

During the season, and by you going to the on deck circle.

We'd sit and go back and forth and he tells me, he says, hey, I got this guy, I'm gonna I'm gonna get him. And every time he did, I was waiting for.

The time that he did.

But my goodness.

And then you know, then there's you know, you got Donaldson's MVP year, just Slrontald. Yeah, you know, Batista and carnasci On, those guys were you know, they were good hitters. They were professional hitters.

Didn't matter what was thrown at him.

No, and I just try to stay Yeah, I just stay out of their way.

Mann.

So as as a hitting coach, how much dialogue conversation goes on in the dugout? You're you're watching the guy at the plate, but then other guys are siding up to you to pick your brain or how does that work? Or you don't want to really do a whole lot during the game.

For me personally, I didn't do much mechanical talk. If it was a timing thing, hey just get ready earlier, or maybe it's a hey just turn your field a little bit. But you get two technical during the game and then they start thinking, you know, we had enough to go over the pitchers and what's their repertoire? Are we trying to eliminate what pitches and that type of thing. But for me personally, that's how I did it. I don't know if everybody else does it that way, but that's how I did.

Yeah, it really is an incredible thing. I mean, you were a thirty homer guy for US.

I think the year that Corey had thirty homers, Joe had thirty homers. You had thirty homers. That was a fun, fun season at Cleveland Stadium. What do you remember most finally about those days?

Well, I know one thing that I'll never forget was my rookie year in Cleveland, living in California, growing up in California, going to Tucson for spring training it's ninety plus degrees and then coming out here with my wife, driving by the stadium and looking out at the Lake erie and it's front frozen.

You never seen anything like that.

And then going driving downtown and the manhole covers their steam coming up out of them. You know, no leaves on the trees. Always called for a couple months, but no, it was home and uh gosh, I'm just thankful for the opportunity of playing the big leagues and it happened to be here in Cleveland.

So well.

You treated us some incredible games over at the Hot Corner at Cleveland Stadium in that Cleveland uniform. Man, I can't thank you enough for spending some time with us. And here's hoping you enjoy today's stories with Brook Jacobe.

We look forward to sharing more at the ballpark on the Cleveland Clinic Guardians Radio Network.

And that's going to do it for this week's edition of Guardians Weekly. Thanks as always to Brian Bonse for his help and putting together our show each week until next week when we join you from the road again. We'll be in Milwaukee next weekend. This is Jim rosen House reminding you that you've been listening to Guardians Weekly on the Cleveland Clinic Guardians Rady Don't have work.

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