00:00We've got Jake Lass right here on 105 Through the Fan.
00:02Jake, excuse me, Lass right here on 105 Through the Fan.
00:05What do you think about the trade to DJ Moore?
00:09My friend group's blowing up. They love it.
00:11Okay.
00:12Yeah.
00:12Yeah, I thought that was really good value,
00:15and we're not paying a bunch of the contracts, so I love it
00:18because Burden, Loveland's really good.
00:21I think even some of the younger guys that they got.
00:24So DJ Moore probably underperformed his contract with us.
00:29He had a couple good moments this year, but as a whole,
00:32it's like, I don't know, those plays where he kind of let off a little bit.
00:36Especially in that last game, yeah.
00:38It was tough to watch as a fan, so I'm happy they got the value that it did for him.
00:42Did you like when Luther Burden hadn't really done anything all season
00:45and then he caught a pass for like 6,000 yards against the Cowboys?
00:49Yeah.
00:50That was really heartbreaking.
00:51That was really heartbreaking.
00:52In case you guys didn't know, he is a Bears fan.
00:55And so we talked with Jack a little bit about just some of the differences
00:59of maybe coming into camp, feeling secure in your spot
01:02versus fighting for your job and everything like that.
01:06How do you balance, I'm trying to work on specific things,
01:09versus I still got to put up good numbers in a, let's be honest,
01:12competition for spot number five?
01:14Yeah.
01:14I mean, personally for me, I'm obviously in the competition for the starting role,
01:18which is enough motivation for me.
01:22But, yeah, it's nice that you can treat spring training a little bit
01:25as a true buildup, which I think is very healthy for every player
01:28because we all put in a lot of off-season work.
01:31And then you get to test out some of the things that might work,
01:34might not work in camp here that will stick in the season.
01:38You know, Jack's working on a cutter.
01:39I've worked on kind of different grips with some of my off-speed pitches,
01:42so getting real feedback from the hitters.
01:45But I think also, like, you should never get comfortable in the game.
01:48I mean, of all these, like, the perfect example,
01:51he's, like, as hungry as it gets, even in year 14.
01:54So it's that balancing act.
01:56But, yeah, to your point, really just trying to get feedback
02:00from the hitters of the things I worked on.
02:02Okay, I'm glad you said that because the other day I was watching the Grom yesterday
02:06and I saw a couple foul balls.
02:09And my question there is, is foul balls, is that information?
02:12Did you learn from each pit, every one of those?
02:15Yeah.
02:15I mean, well, reading swings is a huge thing.
02:18But, yeah, you get feedback on foul balls.
02:20Like, we have an idea of when the ball leaves our hand.
02:23And ours, I test of how the ball is moving,
02:25and then the hitter will tell you if either it's good enough
02:28or you need to sharpen that pitch up or go to a different pitch, rather.
02:32So, yeah, little things like that always are sticking out to us.
02:36And whenever they shake their head and look at you like,
02:37what the hell was that?
02:38That's whenever you're just like, I got him.
02:40Like the first Brazilian hit.
02:41Or, yeah.
02:43I think the biggest tell is, like, when they look up at the board
02:45and they try to see either the pitch type or the velocity,
02:49they're kind of like, ooh, what was that?
02:51They don't know.
02:52So that's a really good tell.
02:53What precipitated some of your ideas for maybe changing some of the grip spots
02:57for some pitches?
02:57Um, strikeability with the curveball in particular
03:03and the velocity with the slider.
03:05It was just, you know, my speed change.
03:08If my curveball was 80 and my slider was 83, that's not enough separation.
03:11So I wanted to get that pitch more of like a cutter, if you will,
03:15just to get four true V-low changes for a hitter
03:18so that they can't key in on one or two different speeds.
03:21Ideally, would it be closer to, like, seven on the V-low change?
03:25From the fastball?
03:26Yes, yeah, yeah, five to seven would be ideal.
03:29If physics didn't exist, what pitch would you want to throw?
03:32If physics didn't exist?
03:35Would you do football?
03:38I would love to be a knuckleball pitcher.
03:40Man, a rise ball?
03:43I mean, I got, yeah.
03:45I don't know, a knuckleball, though.
03:47One that does this is what I'm going to say.
03:48Yeah, it just moves in any direction,
03:51and you don't know which way it's going to go.
03:52The last year, sorry to stop.
03:54No, no, no.
03:54Last year, I mean, Kevin and I became big fans of you last year
03:58because it just seemed like we started in this business,
04:00kind of like whatever it takes, whatever you guys need, we'll do it.
04:03And then watching you, it just seemed like every time you were called upon,
04:06you're like, this is a different role, but whatever it is, I got it.
04:09Is that, like, just, is that the same mentality all the time?
04:11Yeah, I think it's always been something that I thrive on.
04:15And, you know, I was, I guess, highly touted out of high school,
04:21but, you know, went to LSU and then kind of got a little taste of adversity from there on out.
04:26And so I just naturally had this something to prove on my shoulder that I kind of just love that
04:33it's more of a natural instinct of mine.
04:37And I just don't want to lose sight of that feeling, yeah.
04:40I know it might feel wrong because versatility is so important, but can that ever work against you?
04:46Because, you know, the discussion of, well, it'd be great if he's a starter, but if not, he could be
04:50a long man.
04:51Like, does that ever oddly work against you?
04:55I honestly don't think so because I think the goal is to try to get wins, right, as a team.
05:01And if I add value in multiple areas, it's better than just being one-dimensional.
05:07In this era of baseball, you've got utility players, you've got two ways now.
05:12So I think more versatility is definitely a plus.
05:15One of the, when Cliff Lee was here, one of the things that he suggested to Derek and CJ was,
05:22is don't adjust too soon and getting into that third part of the, that third time through the lineup.
05:28You know, maybe now you have something else to do with them.
05:30Do you, are you in that, like, mentality of, oh, I've got to stay with this until it's not working
05:34and then switch?
05:35Or are you always constantly adjusting?
05:37Yeah, I mean, Mike was huge on, like, the hitter will tell you when you need to adjust.
05:41Okay.
05:42So that definitely sticks with us.
05:45But it's interesting.
05:47Like, there's no saving your arsenal anymore in today's game.
05:50Like, you kind of just, you've got to give everything you've got from pitch one to the last pitch.
05:56So that's the cool part about scouting reports is you get an idea of what a hitter's weakness is
06:02and you can match them up to your strengths and then just go to the well more often than not.
06:07I know one of the things you said, I believe it was after your last start,
06:10was one of the big focuses is obviously getting ahead of every hitter you possibly can.
06:14Yeah.
06:15It's early still, but what have you thought about your progression of getting ahead of those hitters so far?
06:19No doubt.
06:20Yeah, two starts, but love the way that the zone rate is picking up this year.
06:25And I want to continue that, even improve, and constantly stay on the attack there.
06:29And, yeah, just keeping the hitters in a defensive mode.
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