- 2 years ago
Reid Brignac
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🎈
FunTranscript
00:00First playoff appearance in 2017, first playoff series victory since 2014,
00:05getting to the Eastern League Championship Series.
00:09Last time I saw you, Ryan Clifford had one home run through, I don't know how many impacts,
00:14and he hit one in Lehigh over the pool, and you came up to him, and I told you he was going to find it.
00:20Since then, he's been on a tear. What's the adjustment he's made? What's different about him?
00:25He's never varied from his approach.
00:28He's still doing a very good job of his play discipline.
00:32He's not chasing. He's taking his walks.
00:36And then there's just a couple of mechanical movements that Jeff Albert and Darren Everson,
00:42we've made with him more focusing gap to gap, and he's eliminating that hook into the dugout,
00:50which we've seen whenever he got to us.
00:53It's just credit to the work he's put in with our hitting department,
00:55and we've seen a vast improvement.
00:59How far, I mean, how much longer do you think until he gets that hook to AAA, potentially?
01:04I think he's still a little bit a ways away.
01:08He's working hard every day.
01:09He's doing everything that we're asking him to do.
01:11It just takes time.
01:13And, you know, he's got to clean up some swing and miss that we have.
01:16But, you know, there's definitely been improvement since he's been here,
01:20and we just need to keep pushing until he's ready.
01:22And then Brandon Sprott just got called up to AAA.
01:27What's different about this kid?
01:28Comes out of college and just flies through the system this fast.
01:32What's he doing that's really dominating the minor leagues at least?
01:35Well, throwing 101 doesn't hurt.
01:39You know, not too many guys in the minor leagues are popping the mitt like that.
01:43But he's, you know, he's a high-character guy.
01:46He came in with really a professional approach already.
01:50You know, elite makeup.
01:53So, you know, when there's something that needs to be adjusted,
01:55he was right on it, changed it right away.
01:58But, you know, just his attack was relentless for us.
02:00It was really great seeing him, you know, first pitch strike,
02:04and he would, you know, get the two strikes within the first, you know,
02:06couple pitches, which we preach and we really like to see.
02:10And then when you have that type of stuff, a sweeper to combat, you know,
02:14a high-velocity fastball and his ability to locate pretty much the whole time he was with us.
02:19He had a couple innings where, you know, he lost it, but not totally lost it.
02:23You know, a batter and then got right back in.
02:25So, it was a lot of positive there that we like to see.
02:30He does a great job of not getting rattled when things don't go his way.
02:35That, you know, leads back to the makeup and, you know, what he was able to do in college.
02:39And then, you know, to be able to turn around and get to AAA as fast as he has, it's impressive.
02:45Sorry, with you being a former MLB player, do you have a comp from him?
02:50Like, is there somebody that you would compare Brandon Spro to?
02:53You know, a lot of – I haven't thought too much into it,
02:57but, you know, he's got, like, Verlander, you know, stuff.
03:00I can see that being a comp for him.
03:03The ability to light up the school board with the V-low and also have, you know,
03:09some off-speed pitches to go along with it.
03:12I'd like to throw in some thoughts on Kevin Perotta and his progress.
03:15Obviously, this organization's stacked on catcher.
03:17Just your thoughts about what he's been able to do so far this year.
03:19I think he's done a great job of improving from where he started at the beginning of the season
03:24and to where he's at right now.
03:27You know, throwing runners out has improved.
03:29His receiving has improved tremendously.
03:33Got to give a lot of credit to Juan Loyo, our development coach.
03:36He was a former catcher in the Mets organization that's working with him.
03:40With Bob Nadel, who's our catching coordinator,
03:43they've done a great job of creating a plan for him.
03:46And, you know, he goes out and attacks it every day from a defensive standpoint,
03:50from an offensive standpoint.
03:52You know, swing and miss a little bit.
03:54You know, some strikeouts in there that he's trying to cut down.
03:57But he's, again, has made some mechanical adjustments.
04:00He's keeping his head still, which has allowed him to pick up the ball better,
04:04which has allowed him to, you know, make better decisions, swing decisions on pitches.
04:08So he's improved in all categories.
04:10He had a really good month last month.
04:12He hit 300 on the month.
04:13So, you know, that's what we want to see.
04:16You know, as long as they're getting better, they're improving,
04:17and they're, you know, getting ready for that next step.
04:20You guys are chasing these guys across the field here in the standings.
04:24You know, what does that mean?
04:26How does that add to the rivalry here?
04:27Obviously, Subway Series gets thrown in the mix.
04:29You know, what's the focus right now going to this?
04:32It's great playing against Somerset, you know, and, you know, they're always competitive.
04:37They always have good teams.
04:38Raul does a great job getting his guys prepared and ready.
04:41But I just love the support that we get here from Mets fans.
04:44You know, they really come out.
04:45We see a bunch of blue and orange in the stands as well.
04:48And we can hear it whenever we have some success here.
04:51It's just a fun series.
04:53It always has been.
04:55You know, I played in the Subway Series with the Yankees against the Mets.
04:58So, you know, to be on the other side, just know how important it is to the fans.
05:03And, you know, we love the support when they come out and watch us play.
05:08How do you think playing in games like this where, you know, you're in the middle of a heated playoff race,
05:11I think that helps mold some of these guys into future big leaders and successful ones at that?
05:15Well, I think it's crucial to be in this situation and, you know, to learn how to win.
05:22It's part of development as well.
05:24So, you know, we had a great run last year, you know, made it to the championship series.
05:29That's the focus is trying to get to that point and play those extra games where there's, you know,
05:34a little bit more pressure applied and, you know, see how our guys respond.
05:38So, we definitely want to be in those situations and not miss out, you know, obviously.
05:43But it's a tough division.
05:44Portland's playing really well.
05:45They have a really good team.
05:47Eppie does a great job with those guys as well.
05:49And, like I said, Roe does a great job with his team.
05:52And it's going to be tough down the stretch.
05:54Yeah.
05:54And, you know, last year you had a team where you, at the beginning, it's not necessarily off to the hottest start.
06:00But in the second half, you get a glutton of talent.
06:02And then you guys just take off, get all the way into the championship round.
06:04So, what are some things from that season that you take away as a manager that you've been able to apply this season?
06:09Just the fact that, you know, you might not always have the best talent all the time, but you find ways to win baseball games.
06:15And I feel like that's what we did last year in the first half.
06:17We had a, we were over 500 winning percentage going into the All-Star break.
06:22And guys were battling, you know, our pitchers were doing great.
06:26You know, Dom Hamill, Mike Vassell, Christian Scott, those guys were really pitching well for us and keeping us in ball games.
06:32And, you know, then you get Acuna and you get Gilbert and you get Jeremiah Jackson.
06:37And they just bring an insurgence of energy to the ball club.
06:40And, you know, they really helped us take it to the next level.
06:44And it was great for those guys that experienced playing in postseason ball.
06:47And I hope to do it again this year.
06:49Yeah.
06:49And last question.
06:50You know, that transition from player to manager and what goes into being a manager, how has that transition been for you?
06:56How do you feel like, you know, what perspective do you gain managing that you didn't have as a player?
07:00Um, it's a good question.
07:03You know, I've always tried to be a student of the game when I was playing.
07:06But more so now I'm more involved in the pitching and the pitching, the bullpen, running the bullpen.
07:14And being more involved with the, you know, the way these guys operate on a day-and-day basis.
07:19The position player, I mean, I lived that for 15 years.
07:22So, you know, I'm more involved in trying to, still trying to learn, still trying to grow as a coach and really try to be as best as I can for my bullpen
07:33and my starting pitchers that I'm making the right decisions and who to bring in and what situations to,
07:38and either it's high leverage situations, which guys are getting those opportunities to see what they have and see how they respond.
07:44And so that's probably the biggest thing.
07:47Obviously, you guys won the first game of the series.
07:49What's been the biggest focus so far that you guys really focus on on the Somerset side to kind of handle the series the right way?
07:56You know, they like to run.
07:58They get on base and they like to create havoc on the base pass.
08:03So, it's something that we're aware of.
08:05If, you know, if we pitch well and play good defense, they can't steal first base.
08:09So, that's a focus point is trying to end bats early, get weak contact, get outs, play good defense behind our pitching.
08:16But, you know, that's not going to happen every night.
08:19They have a good ball club.
08:20They can swing the bats.
08:21So, trying to minimize the amount of stolen bases and, you know, letting them gain in 90 feet and trying to eliminate that.
08:30There's a bull in the plains growing tonight.
08:32What went into the decision to get them to eliminate the hitting side of this game,
08:36to just make them a one-way player as opposed to a two-way?
08:40It was a decision that we made together.
08:42Nolan had a lot of say-so in that department.
08:46You know, he felt like his body wasn't responding in time to be able to go out and pitch from, you know,
08:52DH-ing four days a week and running the bases and then having to pitch two days later.
08:56You know, it was very demanding on his body.
08:58And remember, this is his first full season.
09:00He was in college last year.
09:01So, you know, the demand of a professional season, it's tough on the body and the mind.
09:07And it's something that every player has to go through and have to learn how to handle all these things.
09:11So, I thought it was really mature of him to say, listen, I think I need to step back from hitting, focus on pitching.
09:18And that's what we did.
09:19A couple of those big pitching presences go away at the deadline and go up and down in the system.
09:24How do you handle the vibe in the clubhouse and the energy of the guys?
09:27Yeah, you know, it was a blow losing Stu and Paul Gervais.
09:32You know, we love those guys.
09:33They're a big part of the culture that we have created here and the atmosphere that we have in the clubhouse.
09:39But we have such a veteran presence in the clubhouse as well.
09:44Guys were down for a little bit, but they realized they had to pick it up and go out there and do their jobs.
09:48And that's the mentality.
09:49It's the next man up.
09:50We're going to win with who we have and we're going to go out there and continue to work on what we need to get better at.
09:56And, you know, hopefully win some ballgames.
09:58Is there an under-the-radar player on your squad that you feel like people aren't talking about?
10:04You know, we've got a couple guys that are picking it up.
10:07And, you know, we like to see, you know, Matt Rudick, he's starting to swing the bat better.
10:12He had a really good half of a year last year.
10:15Obviously, he had labrum surgery and had to go through that process.
10:18So it's just taking him some time to get back.
10:20I felt like he really did a good job last year putting himself on the map and, you know,
10:24hoping for him to finish these last six weeks strong and get his numbers where they were close to last year.