- 12 hours ago
When Caleb Durbin was slumping at the plate, he looked outside the organization for help. Lorenzo Garmendia joined the show to talk about his work with Durbin, Mookie Betts, and other MLB players
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00:00And what a scandal we had the other day with your Boston Red Sox.
00:05Caleb Durbin, I mean, we all can agree that he is under-delivered as a Red Sox, correct?
00:13Not anymore. He's hot. The guy's on fire. 6 for 13?
00:16It is very interesting when you hear that a player is frustrated with his swing
00:21to the point where he looks around at his own organization and says,
00:25they do not have what I need. I am not getting the help that I need.
00:28That he goes outside the organization and finds an independent batting coach
00:32and somebody that apparently has helped out even Mookie Betts
00:36and several other Red Sox players.
00:38But it is a strange thing that's going on.
00:42Why does the Red Sox not have the help that they need?
00:45Well, you know what? It looks like Lorenzo Garmentia of Gratom Baseball.
00:48He is the one that Caleb Durbin went to go find.
00:51And as I said, this is somewhat of a scandal, but good for you, Lorenzo.
00:55Thanks for coming in studio with us.
00:56Thank you, guys. Thanks for having me.
00:57Hey, no problem. So, first of all, how did Caleb reach out to you
01:02to have you help with his swing?
01:04So, Carlos Narvaez is one of my clients also.
01:06Okay.
01:07I used to work with his cousin, Omar Narvaez, all-star for the Milwaukee Brewers.
01:11Do me a favor, Lorenzo. Get right into that mic if you don't mind.
01:12Sorry, guys.
01:13There you go. No, no problem. There you go.
01:14And so I've known Narvi now since he was with the Yankees in low A,
01:17and he's worked with us.
01:19And I saw that he was kind of not doing well this year.
01:21He had a very good year last year.
01:22And I reached out to him like two, three weeks ago and said,
01:25hey, I see some issues with the swing.
01:27I'm going to go up and take care of it.
01:29And we flew up.
01:30And within those two days, he started hitting very well in the sense of
01:34he wasn't getting the ball in the air to left field.
01:36And I saw that in his sinkers that are killing him.
01:38So we made the adjustment.
01:39He had two good games.
01:40And then I saw that Durbin was just getting killed.
01:43You guys had his head on a platter.
01:45I mean, I imagine he couldn't even leave his apartment.
01:49We're ruthless.
01:50We're the nice ones.
01:51We took it with a grain of salt.
01:53I'll tell you what.
01:54Love Boston.
01:55You know, I love coming here.
01:56You're ruthless, but it's an intelligent, classy, ruthless.
02:00So, yeah, it's good.
02:01It's all good.
02:02Love it.
02:02If you hear our show, classy is usually the word that describes it.
02:06Intelligent.
02:06Intelligent first.
02:07That's the second one.
02:08So when Caleb spoke to you about his swing, did he express any frustration that he wasn't
02:16able to get the type of help that you were able to give him within the Red Sox organization?
02:20I'm going to answer this with an analogy.
02:22I just can't.
02:22I don't know what the big deal is.
02:24Obviously, I'm from South Florida, a little bit of a different feel.
02:27So any of you guys have kids, by the way?
02:28Yeah, sure.
02:29One daughter.
02:29Okay.
02:30So they go to a great school.
02:32They got a good teacher, great teacher, whatever you want to call it.
02:34It's a math teacher.
02:36And for whatever reason, they're not doing good in math.
02:37So you would take them to a tutor.
02:39Would you?
02:39I've got four kids.
02:40I know I did that.
02:40Would you take them to a tutor?
02:41Yeah, take them to Russian math.
02:42Not if I was, like, sending them to a school where I was paying $100,000 a year.
02:47Like, the Red Sox are a world-class organization.
02:49How do they not have good batting coaches?
02:51Great point.
02:52Great point.
02:53I'm going to just leave it at a great point.
02:55And so you take your son or daughter to a tutor, and all of a sudden they start killing it
02:59in math.
02:59Yeah.
03:00Why would the school or the teacher get mad that the student's doing well?
03:04I can't believe the uproar.
03:05Because it puts a spotlight on how poor they have helped their batters.
03:10How poorly.
03:11Because, I mean, what has been their biggest problem this season?
03:15It hasn't been the pitching.
03:16The pitching's been great.
03:17They delivered on their promise.
03:19Do better.
03:22But, first of all, do you consider yourself a hitting coach?
03:24Is that the right way to phrase it?
03:25That's a great question.
03:26I don't consider myself a hitting coach.
03:29So, just so you know, I never played baseball.
03:31So, I had three kids that are very good at baseball.
03:34And one pitched for the Royals, cup of coffee type of deal.
03:37And my other two kids were position players.
03:41And hitting fascinated me.
03:42So, while everybody was sleeping at 2 in the morning, 3 in the morning, I was dissecting
03:46the swing every which way.
03:47And guess which was the first book and person that I looked like upside down, sideways?
03:52Ted Williams, Science of Hitting.
03:53There you go.
03:54Why don't we read that book?
03:55Yeah, it's hanging around the Fenway.
03:57I don't know if they're reading it.
03:58I don't understand.
03:59I mean, not the only place that they don't read it.
04:02But, so, obviously, great hitter.
04:04Had a great head for hitting.
04:06I know Manny Ramirez very, very well.
04:08Did he go to you, Manny Ramirez?
04:09I worked with Manny.
04:10Not when he was playing, but after.
04:12Manny still hits.
04:13So, after he played, he said, I want to get...
04:15Oh, man.
04:16Really?
04:16I built a cage in his house.
04:18Wow.
04:18Oh, wow.
04:19Which house?
04:21Florida?
04:22Yeah, Florida.
04:22Florida, yeah, okay.
04:23Yeah, I mean, Manny's great.
04:24Like, how about this?
04:24The most surreal hitter.
04:27You could speak eight hours with him about hitting and just super intelligent in regards
04:32to hitting.
04:32Great work ethic.
04:35Phenomenal guy.
04:35Him and A-Rod, because I had the pleasure of working with A-Rod very shortly.
04:40Very smart, smart, intelligent hitters.
04:42Why have you not been hired by a team?
04:45I was offered...
04:46So, I'm here.
04:47I've never worked for anybody since I was 19.
04:50And I won't name the team, but they called me.
04:53And they interviewed me for a hitting job.
04:55And the first thing was like, well, what's your philosophy of hitting?
04:58I'm like, when the guy doesn't hit, I get him to hit.
05:00What philosophy is there?
05:02Like, why would you need a hitting coach if you're hitting?
05:03Okay, so that's, it sounds so simple, but like, what was wrong with Caleb Durbin's swing?
05:09His swing.
05:10So, sinkers in, we're killing him.
05:11He's coming around the baseball.
05:13He wasn't letting the ball travel.
05:15Everything was, like, not good.
05:16So, if you can't let the ball travel and you're coming around the baseballs, the sinkers in
05:20are going to kill you.
05:21And then the sliders away are just going to put you away.
05:23So, you know, in the jargon of the business, in for show, out for go.
05:27So, he's a ground ball machine.
05:29He was at 60-something percent.
05:31Name me a good ground ball hitter.
05:32Like, oh, hell, this guy hits ground balls.
05:34Let's pay him $5 million.
05:35Yeah.
05:35You don't hear that.
05:36Yeah.
05:37So, obviously, as you know, he knew that he was hitting a lot of ground balls.
05:39He just didn't understand how his swing path and direction and certain things that needed
05:43to be done.
05:44And I'm just really good at that.
05:45Are you video or is it more hands-on?
05:46Everything.
05:47I'm at a, how about this?
05:50I'm okay in math, I would say.
05:52I didn't go to college, but I'm very good at math, I would think.
05:54And so, I look at analytics left and right.
05:56So, before I fly in, I already know what the problem is.
05:59I already know what they're doing to them.
06:01I already know how to fix them.
06:02I already know everything.
06:03So, that's why it's...
06:04Just by watching video, you can figure all this out.
06:07Well, have you ever heard, like, you know, and again, I'm not an Einstein or anything,
06:10but you heard that he invented electricity because he found out how not to do it.
06:13I've seen so many swings, you know, in my lifetime.
06:16And I'll think about 15 years of eight hours a day just working.
06:20Yeah.
06:20And I can see three swings and I already know if it's right or wrong.
06:24And the more important part, diagnose the problem.
06:27Yeah.
06:27Okay, this is the problem.
06:28And then the fix.
06:29So, if you have a headache, I'm not going to give you an Alka-Seltzer.
06:32If you have a stomachache, I'm not going to give you an aspirin.
06:34And that's where a lot of the industry still is kind of like backwards.
06:38Now, how many big leaguers come to you or somebody like you?
06:40How rare is it?
06:41Are you?
06:42Yeah.
06:43How many come to you?
06:43So, I've trained personally over 55.
06:46I haven't trained.
06:49I could train big leaguers all year round if we wanted to.
06:52I stopped, I think it was two and a half years ago because now we just open up locations everywhere.
06:57We have 30-something locations in 11 states.
06:59We're franchisors.
07:01And I think we make a bigger impact with kids.
07:03So, anybody from nine years old to high school to college that are trying to get drafted,
07:07they're trying to get a scholarship.
07:08We have impactful relationships.
07:11With the major leaguers, I get calls all the time, but I don't do it because I kind of like
07:16live out of a suitcase.
07:17So, for instance, I just flew in last night, got in at 1 in the morning.
07:19I was in the cage with these guys in the morning.
07:21And you're going down to Fenway today.
07:22I'll be at BP.
07:23I take a look at BP and see what we worked on is what it's supposed to be doing.
07:26What do they say to you?
07:27I mean, because I know that some of these guys have their own batting coaches and they've had them before.
07:31Always.
07:31But you're somebody that, like, I mean, it caused somewhat of a stir that he went outside the organization,
07:37especially on the heels of this article coming out where they basically are complaining
07:42how there's no decent help when it comes to any sort of batting coach.
07:45Like, how do they look at you when you show up?
07:48Good question.
07:49Let me just think about how I'm going to answer that.
07:53I don't – see, I don't have – think about it.
07:55I don't work for a club.
07:57I don't have an agenda.
07:58I'm not worried about getting fired.
08:00Yeah.
08:00And so my whole thing is I'm here to help the hitter, whatever it takes.
08:05So that's all I focus on is helping that hitter.
08:07So all the other stuff is noise to me.
08:09What they think or what they say or what they feel, even though we got ripped, by the way,
08:13because supposedly we took credit because it was too early after two games, three games,
08:17but the numbers don't lie.
08:18Yeah, I mean, you know, Caleb Durbin started hitting really well after he saw you.
08:21I mean, you know.
08:21You did put the video out.
08:22You took credit for his success.
08:231,000%.
08:24And did Caleb mind that at all?
08:26Or was that kind of supposed to be like a secret?
08:28I'm still working with him.
08:29He's like, he didn't mind it.
08:31Yeah.
08:31You know, I couldn't understand why we got ripped.
08:34Like, you know, when you go to a doctor and let's say he can't make you feel better in
08:3748 hours, you probably say, God, this guy is terrible.
08:40Yeah.
08:40Yet we did it with your hitter.
08:41And by the way, this was last Tuesday, Monday.
08:44Everybody wanted his head on a plate.
08:45Yeah.
08:45Yeah.
08:45And then Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, we work and we're killing it.
08:49And now we're the bad guys.
08:50How did Mookie find you?
08:52Through Vasquez.
08:53The guy that put us on the map.
08:56And this is what we figured out.
08:57Like, I think we're pretty good at what we do.
08:59Let's go find the worst hitters.
09:01Like, where do we make the most impact?
09:03Let's go find the guys that couldn't hit it.
09:04What was wrong with Mookie's swing when he saw you?
09:06Because I don't remember there being a period of time where Mookie was.
09:08Oh, yeah.
09:08I'm trying to remember.
09:09I'll give it to you.
09:10So let's go back to Vasquez.
09:12He had five home runs in his whole career up to 2018.
09:162019, I think he had 20 or 19 home runs.
09:19And he had a great career after.
09:21If you guys remember, Blake Swihart was supposed to be the starting catcher in 2019.
09:26Vasquez was supposed to be, you know, Arrivederci.
09:29Yeah.
09:29Because of the hitting.
09:30And, you know, he was smart.
09:32And he said, hey, you know, I'll never forget the phone call.
09:34He says, hey, we just won the World Series.
09:36But if I don't get better, I'm out of here.
09:37They're going to get me out.
09:38And so I'll give you the series.
09:41Remember London?
09:43Yankees versus Red Sox?
09:44Yeah, the international series.
09:45Yes, yep.
09:45So the Red Sox got, you know, a little bit of an ass whooping to put it in a better,
09:51in a nice way.
09:52And Mookie, I think at that time, was hitting like 230 something.
09:55And I got a call.
09:56So, you know, they saw Vasquez hitting going, well, wait a minute.
09:59This guy's never hit in his life.
10:00And all of a sudden, he's doing very well.
10:02Common sense.
10:03Like, okay, who are you seeing?
10:05Yeah, yeah.
10:05And so I got a call from Mookie.
10:07I'll never forget.
10:07And he's like, hey, I need, you know, I need to get better.
10:09I'm going into my free agent year.
10:11And I met him in Detroit.
10:13So that was June 29th.
10:15Look up the stats.
10:15June 29th, 2019.
10:19And I was with him every day until August 30th of 2019.
10:23Take a look at those two-month stats.
10:25Yeah.
10:25And then the people that ripped us last week for being two days or three days.
10:29Go take a look at Mookie's stats for two months.
10:31I'm not going to lie.
10:33Telling one of the better baseball players of our generation how to swing better just seems intimidating.
10:39It seems like, you know, I've told the story about how Francona, you know, Ortiz was going through a slump.
10:45And he asked Francona, what am I doing wrong?
10:47He goes, dude, you're David Ortiz.
10:48I'm not going to tell you what you're doing wrong.
10:49Like, it just seems like it would be intimidating for Mookie Betts to say, fix my swing.
10:54Well, I'll give you a perfect one here.
10:55Every single PGA golfer has a swing coach on salary.
10:59Yeah.
11:00How do they make their living?
11:01By hitting a little white ball.
11:03How do position players in baseball make their living?
11:05By hitting a little white ball.
11:07It seems like a wild thing.
11:09I mean, it's almost like, do you feel like a therapist sometimes?
11:12Almost as much as like an actual structural type of instructor?
11:18Great question.
11:19And my wife's on the other room.
11:21She says, hey, man, you're like Dr. Phil sometimes.
11:25Listen, it's very stressful.
11:26Think about it.
11:27I always put myself in somebody else's shoes and say, okay, what are they going through?
11:30So you look at, let's take Durbin, for example.
11:32He's been getting hammered since the get-go.
11:35Yeah.
11:36Think about it.
11:36You think he doesn't want to get better.
11:38You don't think he wants to work.
11:39You think he wants to, you know, what's been happening to him happen.
11:42Yeah.
11:43And so a lot of it starts becoming, it starts mechanical and then it turns into mental.
11:48What do you say to him to get the mental part out of it?
11:52You're asking for secret sauces now.
11:54Just give me a taste of the secret sauce.
11:57As you can see how my attitude is, like, I think I bring good juju.
12:01If you ever heard that term.
12:02Sure.
12:02When you come hit with me and you're in the cage, you leave saying, damn, I just got
12:06fixed.
12:07Correct me if I'm wrong, though.
12:08The Red Sox have not always felt this way.
12:10Has there been some pushback?
12:12Like I said, 2019 or even recently?
12:15Everything has been noise.
12:16I don't know.
12:18Nobody's ever called me to say, hey, don't work with our players.
12:20Okay.
12:21Yeah.
12:21Interesting.
12:22If I get that call, then I'll call the player and say, hey, by the way, you know, they
12:25told me not to work with you.
12:26Your call.
12:27Well, I mean, listen, to your point, if Durbin's hitting again, I would welcome you.
12:32I would give you the golden ticket.
12:33I would have somebody like a valet your car, walk you down like on a red carpet.
12:38If you can get that guy to perform the way that everyone thought he was going to, hell
12:42yeah, I wouldn't have a problem.
12:43Now, it would be embarrassing if I was the Red Sox.
12:46I'd be very embarrassed that we don't have in-house the type of facility, the type of staff
12:53like you who could reach these guys.
12:55That would be embarrassing to me.
12:57But at the same time, I'd be like, man, if it works, it works.
13:00Get him in here.
13:01And again, I think it's a different role.
13:03I'm not a hitting coach.
13:04Like, how about this?
13:04If you put me in the clubhouse tomorrow, I'd be lost.
13:07Like, what are we doing, guys?
13:08What do you want me to do?
13:09I just wait for it.
13:10Who's the guy that's not hitting?
13:11Give him to me.
13:13I don't care about game plan.
13:15I don't care about what else.
13:16I don't know what they do.
13:17I've never been in a clubhouse before, but I don't know what hitting coaches do.
13:21And I know they got a game plan.
13:23They got to do things with, you know, remember, they got to deal with
13:2511 or, what, 12, 13 hitters.
13:27Yeah.
13:27You know, I get the benefit of working with one, two guys.
13:30Yeah.
13:30And so I don't know what they do per se, so I don't want to say, you know,
13:34like, I don't think it's the system.
13:36I think it's a specialty.
13:38Here, you go to your general doctor.
13:41There's a problem.
13:42Sends you to the specialist.
13:44Yeah.
13:44For lack of a better term, I'm the specialist on the swing.
13:48Real quick, will you talk to the doctors over there,
13:50John Sotteropoulos and the hitting coach team,
13:51or do you just stay away and you stay in your specialty zone when you're over there?
13:55So I don't, obviously, I don't want to step on anybody's toes.
13:57I'll tell you what, I had a great relationship with Timmy Hires and Andy Barquette.
14:01And they're still in the game and doing pretty well.
14:03Yeah.
14:03Yeah.
14:04It was very collaborative back then in that sense.
14:06Like, they were okay.
14:07Like, how about this?
14:08They came to see what I was doing with their players in the offseason.
14:12Trying to steal your secret sauce.
14:14It's okay.
14:15I mean, they're good.
14:17I'm just saying, like, I just think that we're a specialty.
14:20You know, we're very strategic and surgical.
14:23What's the problem?
14:24Fix the problem.
14:25And if you guys look at Narvi, so you guys traded for Narvi last year.
14:28Yeah.
14:29Had a really good year.
14:30Go back to his numbers.
14:31He wasn't a good hitter in the Yankee system.
14:33We started working with him, started doing really well.
14:36I think you guys did the right thing by each other.
14:37I think he's a great catcher.
14:38I think he's going to be phenomenal.
14:40Here, I think your players are really good.
14:42I think Mayer can be a superstar.
14:43I think Raffaella reminds me a little bit of a kind of Mookie talent.
14:48I think the young guys are really, really good.
14:50I think they just got to learn a little bit more.
14:52That's it.
14:52Can I ask you one last thing?
14:54And I know we've gone over time, but I find this very interesting.
14:56When you see Roman Anthony and you saw about his injury, like, what do you think?
15:00Like, when you hear about that, how bad is that type of injury for a batter?
15:04Above my pay grade.
15:05Really?
15:06Yeah.
15:07If it doesn't affect his swing, then I could get in.
15:09But I don't, in regards to injuries, obviously I hear about him.
15:12I ask him physically.
15:13I don't need limitations.
15:14But that's above my pay grade.
15:15Awesome.
15:16Well, I mean, listen, the story that's going on with Caleb Durbin right now is interesting,
15:19but your story is even more interesting.
15:21This is Lorenzo Garmandia.
15:22Gradham Baseball, correct?
15:24Listen, I got great partners in, I got the Gilbrides in Waltham.
15:27I got Ira Lair in Middleton, Andover.
15:30I got great partners here in Boston.
15:33You know, we train hitters.
15:34That's all we do.
15:35And Boston, love you.
15:36Love your fans.
15:37Love everybody.
15:37You can rip.
15:38I'm good.
15:38I'm from Jersey and Miami.
15:40I can take it all.
15:41But, you know, I understand how you guys are thinking.
15:43But listen, you know, we fly in.
15:45We know what we're doing.
15:46And that we got them fixed in a couple days is nothing new for us.
15:49Well, I know that they're waiting for you over at Fenway.
15:51Hopefully, Caleb Durbin continues on the somewhat of a sky ring if they win a World Series.
15:55My God, Lorenzo gets a ring.
15:56Listen, if it ends up performing the way that everyone thought and hoped he would, then hell yeah.
16:01Then they should hire you.
16:03They should at least.
16:04Or give you the Wally mask or something.
16:05Just sit over there during the games.
16:07I'll take some good seats.
16:09The drink water seats.
16:10We'll get you behind there.
16:11Maybe they'll hook you up with that.
16:11All right.
16:12Well, Lorenzo, thank you so much for coming in.
16:13Thank you, gentlemen.
16:13I really appreciate it.
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