Transcript
Speaker: What's up, everybody?
Speaker: Welcome to the Primal Baseball Podcast.
Speaker: If you have not done so already, go follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter at Primal Baseball, P-R-I-M-A-L-B-S-B-L.
Speaker: Today, I'm very excited.
Speaker: We have Jason Foley.
Speaker: He is a relief pitcher for the Detroit Tigers.
Speaker: He just got down to Lakeland, Florida, and they are starting up spring training, so they are
Speaker: in their third game of spring training, and Jason's scheduled to throw tomorrow in relief.
Speaker: So without further ado, I'm going to let Jason introduce himself so it's not me talking.
Speaker: Yeah, thanks for having me, brother.
Speaker: As you said, yeah, Jason Foley.
Speaker: I grew up in Long Island, New York, in the Northeast.
Speaker: I've been playing baseball my whole life, kind of like I'm sure most of you guys, most of you listeners, and Jordy, you probably have been as well.
Speaker: I went to college.
Speaker: I played college ball at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut,
Speaker: Um, uh, I played 14, 2014, 2015, 2016 were the three competitive seasons I played there.
Speaker: And then I signed as a free agent.
Speaker: Uh, I was a free agent signed my junior summer going into my senior year, um, in the summer of 16.
Speaker: And I was signed by the Detroit Tigers and yeah, I've been there ever since.
Speaker: Um, I, uh,
Speaker: Yeah, my first year of the Miners went well.
Speaker: I got Tommy John in 17, battled back from that, and then made my debut in 2021.
Speaker: And yeah, and now I'm here in 2024, third, fourth big league camp, or heading for my fourth big league season.
Speaker: So yeah, excited to talk about it, and thanks for having me on.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Well, we really appreciate you having on.
Speaker: And I think where I want to start off is you growing up in New York.
Speaker: Obviously, Northeast baseball is looked at as, you know, sometimes it's looked at as there's a smaller talent pool or there's not as many players.
Speaker: players that can produce, whether you're a pitcher or a position player.
Speaker: But I just wanted to get a little background on what it was like growing up in New York and playing baseball in New York.
Speaker: You could go from youth to even up to high school, what it was like talent-wise.
Speaker: Were you always the best?
Speaker: Was there adjustments throughout your younger levels?
Speaker: How was that growing up and playing baseball in New York?
Speaker: Yeah, I would say, I don't know.
Speaker: I wasn't always the best.
Speaker: I always had a lot of talent, I felt like.
Speaker: At least that's what everyone told me, right?
Speaker: I was always the kid with a good arm.
Speaker: I always had a really good arm.
Speaker: That was kind of my thing, right?
Speaker: I always, whether it was baseball or football, or flag football or whatever, I'd always have a good arm.
Speaker: I was always able to throw the ball hard.
Speaker: Talent and work ethic, I don't know if I had that going for me, but I was always pretty good, right?
Speaker: I was always a pretty good pitcher.
Speaker: Hitting not so much.
Speaker: I was...
Speaker: I went to a PO pretty quickly as of, like, I think junior year in high school.
Speaker: But I was always pretty good.
Speaker: But we never took it, you know, I never took it too seriously, right?
Speaker: I was always playing ball.
Speaker: Like, it was always kind of a just do it recreationally thing for me.
Speaker: Like, it was play travel teams with, like, my buddies.
Speaker: Like, play on, like, the local travel team.
Speaker: It was never, like, go to these, like, crazy places.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: You know, I don't know, like the crazy travel teams up in up in Boston that are, you know, we're going all these tournaments.
Speaker: It's never anything nuts like that.
Speaker: So I was put local.
Speaker: I played I played for my middle school team.
Speaker: Well, actually, that's another story.
Speaker: But I played for my school team and then I'd play with like a travel team, like a local team with my buddies.
Speaker: And.
Speaker: And we do local tournaments and like fall ball and stuff.
Speaker: Um, but I never did anything crazy like that in terms of like these, these teams that went all over the place, like these nationally ranked teams.
Speaker: So I was always pretty good, but I never would say I was like the best.
Speaker: I never thought I really could, could get to the position I'm in today.
Speaker: Um, but yeah, then, uh, middle school, I actually, the reason I said, let's get to that is I actually didn't play in middle school.
Speaker: I got, I got cut from my seventh grade team.
Speaker: So, like, yeah, again, like, I wasn't, I couldn't have been that talented, I guess, right, if I got cut from a seventh grade baseball team.
Speaker: But I guess not.
Speaker: That crushed me actually a lot.
Speaker: And I actually didn't want to, I was, like, on the verge of quitting.
Speaker: And I didn't want to try out in eighth grade.
Speaker: And I didn't.
Speaker: I didn't at all.
Speaker: And, like, my mom convinced me to, like, my mom convinced me, like, all right, ninth grade back in high school, like, you'll try out again.
Speaker: You'll get back on it.
Speaker: And, like, she did convince me to play.
Speaker: And I, like, kind of gave myself an ultimatum.
Speaker: I was like, if I, I'll try out again.
Speaker: But, like, if I get cut again, I'm just going to.
Speaker: chalk it up as like, I'm not that great and I'll go just do whatever and be a normal high school kid and party or do whatever.
Speaker: But I did make the team as a freshman, luckily, thankfully, or else I don't know if I'd be here today.
Speaker: And then played all four years of high school and then I got recruited by Sacred Heart.
Speaker: But growing up in the Northeast was cool, man.
Speaker: I liked it.
Speaker: I do kind of agree with you.
Speaker: I do think the baseball pool talent is probably not as
Speaker: as talented, I guess, for lack of a better term is for other places around the country on the coastline that are a little more warm climated, but I don't know.
Speaker: What do you, what do you probably think the same way I'd assume, right?
Speaker: I think it, it might be misconstrued that, that the Northeast doesn't have as much talent.
Speaker: I think maybe it's just because we don't play year round that we, we don't get to be showcased all the time.
Speaker: Like, you know, now it's different.
Speaker: Like when you were in middle school and high school and when I was in middle school and high school,
Speaker: I don't know if you experienced this, but we didn't have a lot of indoor facilities like that.
Speaker: We were going to, to do these showcases.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And now you start to see on Twitter, on, on Facebook.
Speaker: Now you start to see the indoor facilities that kids are driving to.
Speaker: And now people are starting to see, Oh wow.
Speaker: Like there's a dude out of master or 95 or, you know, 98.
Speaker: So it's, it was just a different space.
Speaker: There wasn't as, as much exposure, especially with social media now blasting out, you know, everyone's going to get found.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So it's like, you know, when we were, when we were in high school and we were in college,
Speaker: It just wasn't as prominent like the exposure and the reach of one video wasn't the same value that it didn't have the same value that it has now.
Speaker: So I think that Northeast and New England definitely have good baseball.
Speaker: And I think luckily it's starting to swing where people are starting to realize that now.
Speaker: But definitely when you and I were in that process, it was, I mean,
Speaker: it was few and far between.
Speaker: So, but that's, you know, one of the things that you touched on was just like you enjoying growing up in the Northeast.
Speaker: And I think one of the huge things that you spoke about was just you, you playing recreationally, like it wasn't this stressful thing for you, like you were just chilling and having a good time playing.
Speaker: And I'm curious on if you think that, you know, that environment, like the laid back,
Speaker: hanging out, just enjoying the game for what it is.
Speaker: If you think that, you know, having, if that benefits, you know, being from the, if being from the Northeast and having that culture benefited you as opposed to being in one of these either down South, like you said, or Boston environment where it's like, you need to be the best.
Speaker: You're like, you're getting cut if you, if you suck.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So I'm curious to what you think, if you think that that benefited you at all.
Speaker: Uh, yeah, I, I think there's a lot of truth to that.
Speaker: Like playing, um, I think you hear it a lot more now, right?
Speaker: Like not playing that one sport year round.
Speaker: Like I, I actually wish I didn't play baseball as much.
Speaker: Like I, um,
Speaker: I mean, I played a lot.
Speaker: My dad pushed me pretty hard.
Speaker: Like my dad, like it was right.
Speaker: It was school ball, which was like spring and then summer ball.
Speaker: I'd always play summer travel team.
Speaker: And then you'd play fall ball team or usually that travel team would have like a fall ball league.
Speaker: And then they'd do like winter.
Speaker: We do like lessons or something inside or indoors.
Speaker: And,
Speaker: I kind of almost wish I didn't play as much and kind of dip my toes in other sports.
Speaker: I don't know whether it's basketball, football, or whatnot.
Speaker: Because I do think playing other sports gives you a pretty good skill set or helps you with a well-rounded skill set.
Speaker: Teaches you different fundamentals about different sports, right?
Speaker: Like football or maybe like...
Speaker: Football can teach you a good bit about toughness and discipline that baseball probably can't do as well because there's a little more physical aspect to it.
Speaker: So I do think it's important to play other sports and whatnot, but there does come a time where obviously a certain kid is exceptionally good at baseball and just ridiculously talented.
Speaker: You're probably going to want to hone in on it.
Speaker: Because I remember our draft pick this past season, Max Clark, who's the third overall pick in the draft, or third or fifth or something.
Speaker: And we got to meet him.
Speaker: He came to Comerica Park and he was talking about he was running like two a days, like one lift, one training session before school, like one after.
Speaker: And I was like, dude, I didn't even like touch the weight in high school.
Speaker: I didn't even know what that was, dude.
Speaker: So like for someone like him, it's probably important because he's obviously insanely talented and he's expected to play at the highest level.
Speaker: But I think for a lot of kids who are
Speaker: maybe not at that insanely high, like nationally ranked or nationally prospected type players.
Speaker: Like I do think it's important to spread your, spread your toes around other sports and like have some fun and not take it insanely seriously.
Speaker: Cause the unfortunate truth for a lot of kids is you're, and I hate to say this, but like you're not probably, most of them are probably not going to get that level.
Speaker: So like try to have as much fun as you can and like try to play other sports.
Speaker: And I do think it'll actually probably help you in the long run.
Speaker: Yeah, and I think – so that's something like, for instance, for the listeners that don't know, I'm finished with my baseball career recently as of the last –
Speaker: two months or so, but, but it's not about like, and I think before sometimes, you know, there's this stigma or, um, you know, idea and belief, like, well, if you're, if you're not going to make it like, or, or if you're thinking about not making it, then you're not going to make it.
Speaker: Or, you know, it's, it's all or nothing.
Speaker: Like you don't, you don't have to
Speaker: For me personally, obviously it's always a dream to be an MLB player, but for some kids, it doesn't have to be that.
Speaker: If you don't want to make baseball...
Speaker: that it's okay not to, not to want to be an MLB baseball player and still train and love the game.
Speaker: It's okay to be, you know, not wanting to be an MLB player, but if you do, you know, obviously it's, it's hard sometimes to look at the, you kind of almost like for me, I put that, like you said, like that realistic, like, oh, you're not going to make it or you are going to make it like the small percentage.
Speaker: You almost have to put that behind you when you're in college and just pretend like,
Speaker: just keep dreaming.
Speaker: But at some point it is okay to like look at that and say, you know, let's be realistic with my talent level.
Speaker: So I think that that's important.
Speaker: Like it's a hard thing to talk about and think about, but at some point in your career, like that's a discussion that you should have with your coaches, with your family.
Speaker: Like that's definitely an important thing to think about when you're thinking about how much time and effort you want to put into the
Speaker: the whole, the whole baseball thing.
Speaker: Like, like you said, you know, if you're a nationally ranked guy going once in the morning, once at night, you know, maybe it's worth it.
Speaker: But for a guy who, who might not, you might just be, you know, grinding yourself down a road for, for not a lot of reward.
Speaker: So it's, I mean, it's, it's tough and it's never a linear path.
Speaker: There's no right answers or wrong answers, but it's just taking information and, and, you know, trying to make the best decision with what you have.
Speaker: I don't know if that made any sense.
Speaker: I probably rambled a lot, but, um,
Speaker: Yeah, that's my thoughts.
Speaker: And, you know, as you're talking about showcases and lifting and working out and doing those things, I was curious on how you got recruited.
Speaker: Like, if you weren't going to the showcases, right, you said you were pretty laid back.
Speaker: How are you getting recruited to Sacred Heart?
Speaker: Yeah, it's kind of a wild story, I guess.
Speaker: I didn't really do it.
Speaker: I was, like, really close to not playing baseball in college.
Speaker: Like, again, I didn't.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: A lot changed for me, but growing up, I didn't necessarily, I only wanted to go play ball at school in college if I was, I wanted to make sure it was a good college, like from an academic standpoint and like also a good school, a school that I wanted to go to because again, I was like, I was like, look, playing in the MLB would be sick, but it's also like a pipe dream.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So like, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: I was like, I don't want to sacrifice what could be like the four amazing years of my life just to go play at a school that, you know, I don't really want to go to.
Speaker: So I had a lot of these showcase, you probably got them too, like these bigger schools from the Power 5 conferences or bigger colleges, they'll host these showcases and then let lesser schools come because they obviously want to be the biggest school at them to get the best players.
Speaker: They don't want any other competition with them.
Speaker: I would ignore a lot of them.
Speaker: I got some from Virginia Tech and some pretty cool schools that I would have maybe wanted to go to and kind of ignored them because I don't know.
Speaker: I didn't know if I wanted to play.
Speaker: And then I kind of went to this UConn showcase because I was like, I really wanted to go to UConn to begin with.
Speaker: Cool basketball school.
Speaker: They're winning national championships.
Speaker: I was like, this will be sick.
Speaker: So I went to a UConn showcase with hopes of getting recruited by them.
Speaker: And Sacred Heart is like an hour or two away and
Speaker: I went to one of those and the coach kind of reached out to me and was, you know, pretty much said, you know, I saw you there.
Speaker: I liked you.
Speaker: We'd love to have you.
Speaker: And like, I was really excited.
Speaker: torn with the decision.
Speaker: Cause like I did not want to go to Sacred Heart University.
Speaker: Like it's a school that most people never heard of.
Speaker: Like it's a tiny little Catholic school, nothing wrong with it.
Speaker: But like, I wanted to go to a school with like a big sports program, um, like a football team, basketball team, you know, the schools that you grow up watching on like sports center every Saturday and the Sacred Heart was not that school at all.
Speaker: And it was a decent academic school, but it wasn't, I don't know.
Speaker: It wasn't like, it wasn't like Northeastern.
Speaker: It wasn't like exceptional by any means.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: So I was really close to, like, really, really, really close to not going.
Speaker: And I remember I was playing pickup football with my boys.
Speaker: And I was like, you know what, I'm going to do it.
Speaker: So I called my coach and I was like, yeah, I'm coming to Sacred Heart.
Speaker: And the rest is history.
Speaker: But I'm happy it worked out the way it did.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And, and when you got there, like, you know, for, for, I'm assuming most of the listeners know, just cause they're, you know, in, in the know of college baseball, but Sacred Heart is, is it's not one of those big schools.
Speaker: Like you said, it's a mid major, you know what was that like, you know, adapting to college baseball?
Speaker: Was it, was it a little bit easier because of the conference you were in or, you know, was it, was it still a big jump and how did you, how did you,
Speaker: you know, counteract those, those changes and what, what were some things that you did like mindset wise and, and physically that, that you needed to do to, to be successful there.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Sacred Heart was almost kind of like, I felt like the hardest part adapting to school was, was just adapting and living on your own for the first time and like getting pretty much getting like your life together from like a, you got to balance school, you got to balance your social life.
Speaker: You got to balance your baseball life.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: And like, those are the three things I feel like, you know, they're really like the three driving factors of college, right?
Speaker: You got your social life, your academic life, and if you're an athlete, your athletic stuff.
Speaker: And like, balancing that was tough, I thought.
Speaker: From a baseball perspective, it was kind of like, obviously the competition was better, but it was more or less like glorified high school.
Speaker: Like there wasn't any like of this external pressure coming from, like, you know, you go to like, I got buddies now, obviously a lot of the guys in the clubhouse with me are
Speaker: you know, from like LSU and Florida and like SEC.
Speaker: And, you know, they're like fans are legitimate.
Speaker: Like a lot of those sports fans are like crazier than NFL, like professional teams.
Speaker: Like they're bought in, they're diehard.
Speaker: So there wasn't any like external pressure in that regard, but like getting my life together from just like a figuring out what to do standpoint was kind of tough.
Speaker: But it was cool.
Speaker: I mean, it took me a while to realize I liked it there, but at first it was a bit of a culture shock.
Speaker: Honestly, a lot of kids will think that, and, and, you know, I had similar experiences.
Speaker: I went to Southern New Hampshire out of, out of high school, Southern New Hampshire university, um, and then transferred to Babson after, and finally ended up at Northeastern.
Speaker: But at each school, like when you, when, when you start out from high school, you think that the biggest transition is going to be that baseball transition, but realistically, like it's still the same game.
Speaker: It's getting played a little bit faster and the guys are bigger and stronger, but,
Speaker: you're recruited for a reason, like you're good too, but, but you're right.
Speaker: Like the biggest transition that not a lot of people think about is like, you're on your own.
Speaker: It's not like, like, you don't get, you can call your mom, you can call your dad, like you can text them.
Speaker: But like, if you got an issue or like, it's, it's on you, there's no teachers holding your hand.
Speaker: Like you got to get your homework in on, on time.
Speaker: You got to get,
Speaker: what you got to get to class on time.
Speaker: Like it's, it's, nobody's holding your hand through it.
Speaker: Nobody's, nobody's helping you out.
Speaker: I mean, you know, there's your friends and your teammates to get you through it, but you got to grow up a little bit.
Speaker: And that's probably the biggest factor that not a lot of people or not a lot of athletes will,
Speaker: we'll think about before getting to school is just that whole being, you know, more independent on your own.
Speaker: And, you know, you gotta, you gotta figure out what to eat.
Speaker: You can't eat McDonald's every night.
Speaker: I mean, you can, but it's not gonna, not gonna come out too well.
Speaker: Um, and, and same thing with, with the social life, like you, you can go out every night and party and,
Speaker: do what you need to do, but that might take a little bit of your baseball performance away too.
Speaker: So it's, it's, it's the biggest thing is just balancing out everything together, figuring out, you know, how to live life alone.
Speaker: And, and it's, it's hard.
Speaker: Like that first couple of months is going to be hard figuring out, but once you get in a, once you get in a routine and everything starts to slow down a little bit, then you, it feels like you kind of hit your stride and, and then the next, the next four years are pretty sweet.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: So, yeah.
Speaker: Did you feel like it was tough for, do you feel like it was tough for you?
Speaker: Cause I didn't know you went to three different schools.
Speaker: I, I, I knew you went to Northeastern, I think.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I think I knew you went to Snoop.
Speaker: I didn't know about the middle.
Speaker: Did you find it tough to like just constantly adapting to new programs and players and whatnot?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So the first, the first one was like, just new for me, like I'm from Vermont.
Speaker: So going from Vermont baseball, like we didn't really practice.
Speaker: We didn't really, you know, do a lot of things.
Speaker: We not weight training.
Speaker: We're not doing any of the baseball pitching stuff.
Speaker: Like it was literally just me playing shortstop and throwing every once in a while.
Speaker: Um, so getting to snoo, the biggest thing was just adapting to like a pitcher lifestyle and, and also just the academics and, and the social life and being alone.
Speaker: But, um,
Speaker: The biggest transition for me was actually going from SNHU to Babson, which was my second school.
Speaker: I was only at Southern New Hampshire for a year and Babson academics kind of ticked up.
Speaker: So I got in a little bit of I got in a little bit in the dome, like scared, like I wasn't going to be able to cut the.
Speaker: to cut the GPA minimum, but like that was just for the first week.
Speaker: And after that it was, it was fine.
Speaker: So the biggest transition for every single time has been something other than baseball.
Speaker: It's been either academics going to Babson and then transfer into Northeastern.
Speaker: It was just getting adapted to the, to the D one schedule where you're going every weekend and leaving on Thursday.
Speaker: And, and I was taking online classes anyways.
Speaker: So it wasn't,
Speaker: Wasn't that big of a difference for me.
Speaker: Um, the biggest transition was definitely the SNHU to Babson and the academics and, and living on my own and, and having to deal with everything all at once.
Speaker: But yeah, it wasn't, wasn't crazy baseball wise.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: But now that we're on the baseball training kind of topic, I know – so for the listeners, a little background.
Speaker: Me and Jason met at Tread.
Speaker: I was training down there, and he was doing his off-season work down there in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Speaker: And we talked a little bit like we would – we'd be lifting together.
Speaker: One time I was doing some bench press, and he asked if I needed –
Speaker: He asked if I needed a little bit of a lift or a spot because I was struggling.
Speaker: I got it up, but I was struggling.
Speaker: It could have been bad.
Speaker: So that's kind of how we met.
Speaker: And, you know, luckily he's on the podcast now.
Speaker: But we talked about training methods and kind of some technique stuff when you were down there.
Speaker: You know, you were kind of in control of your strength and conditioning.
Speaker: And, you know, you talked about going to tread for more of the throwing and pitching stuff.
Speaker: But, you know, as –
Speaker: I'm sure you've seen like on social media, like there's just a million different techniques, a million different methods, a million different ways to like throw hard and get your velocity up.
Speaker: You know, are you, what is your ideology?
Speaker: You don't have to go deep if you can't, but you know, do you feel like some of this stuff is kind of getting out of hand?
Speaker: Like how do you simplify and how do you, how do you balance the simplification of throwing, but also the, the growth, like,
Speaker: from changing mechanics, right?
Speaker: Cause you can't go crazy deep into the mechanics all the time because it, you just can't throw, but you also, if you're too simple, it can, it can backfire too.
Speaker: So how do you balance that kind of thing?
Speaker: Uh, yeah, from, from like the training aspect and like the strength conditioning side, um, right.
Speaker: I think there's like, like you said, I think there's a million ways to skin a cat, right.
Speaker: There's like, I know everyone in my clubhouse, like there's all,
Speaker: I've seen people in different shapes, different sizes, different body types.
Speaker: They all train.
Speaker: They're in the same clubhouse playing at the same level.
Speaker: A lot of guys do similar stuff.
Speaker: A lot of guys do a lot of their own type of stuff, and it's different.
Speaker: So I think that's the beauty of sports, right?
Speaker: You can do a lot of different training methodologies and achieve the same goal.
Speaker: So I think a lot of it's figuring out what works for you, right?
Speaker: So I never...
Speaker: I never touched a weight in high school.
Speaker: Like I never, I mean, I, a couple of times, but realistically never worked out in high school.
Speaker: And then you get to college and you start figuring out about strength training and, and all this type of stuff and like Jager bands and all these different type of modalities to strengthen your body and like make yourself an ideal athlete and a better baseball player.
Speaker: So I think it's super important to try a lot of different things and try to figure out what works for you and try to figure out what routine works for you because, um,
Speaker: Cause that's going to ultimately like, I think a routine is super important.
Speaker: So, right.
Speaker: If you can figure out what works for you, then that's going to help you get to the next level or help you be the best athlete you can.
Speaker: So, um, yeah, like it's just a lot of trial and error, man.
Speaker: I've tried a lot of stuff.
Speaker: I've, I've been to a lot of like each strength coach kind of has different methodologies for you and different types of stuff, but you eventually get to the point where you know your body the best, like as much as anyone with all these degrees and all these, um, you know,
Speaker: they're coaches, they got all these degrees and whatnot.
Speaker: They can tell you what they think is best, but you really got to figure out what's best for you as an athlete.
Speaker: And being able to self-correct and self-coach yourself, I think is super important.
Speaker: So like, again, I've been strength training for since 26, 20, I guess 14 was my first year in college for like,
Speaker: I've just kind of like, you pick something from here, you pick something from there.
Speaker: Like you, you talk like me and you, like we, we talk it in the off season, you're talking to other athletes and other, other really high class athletes like yourself.
Speaker: And a lot of those guys at shred.
Speaker: So like you pick up on things, you pick, you add, subtract, and then you figure out what works for you.
Speaker: And it is hard though.
Speaker: You're right.
Speaker: With social media, there's, there's a ton of stuff out there.
Speaker: There's a ton of,
Speaker: Um, there's probably a ton of conflicting stuff out there.
Speaker: Um, but again, I think that the best is try things and see what feels the best for you and see how your body responds.
Speaker: Like if you do a certain movement or a certain drill and you think it's translating, I think that there are some, I do think there are some benefits like a placebo as well.
Speaker: So like, if you feel like it's working, I do think, um, it's, it's effective.
Speaker: So yeah, I think you got to try on her.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: And yeah, and I think one of the questions that I have off of that is, you know, when you're more on the mound and you're working with your arsenal or you're working on the mound, are you a big technology guy?
Speaker: Like, do you access, I know you obviously have access to the Rapsodo, to the Trackman, to all that kind of stuff being in an MLB clubhouse, but are you
Speaker: You know, are you more of a technology guide?
Speaker: Do you use it here and there when you need to?
Speaker: Are you like totally data based where you're just only looking at it?
Speaker: Like how, how does that play a role in your repertoire and who you are as a pitcher?
Speaker: Yeah, I think there's, I think there's a time and a place, right?
Speaker: I think it's hard because everyone wants to be like a tech guy and like the technology is great.
Speaker: Like the track man, it shows,
Speaker: You know, it shows you everything.
Speaker: It shows you exactly how your ball is moving, exactly how it's spinning, exactly.
Speaker: And then you pair that with like the slow-mo camera or the Edgertronic and it shows you exactly how you're releasing it.
Speaker: So like there's fantastic, fantastic information out there.
Speaker: But I also think.
Speaker: you need to learn like the fundamentals of pitching and the fundamentals of like learning how to compete, learning how to throw strikes, learning how to attack hitters, like learning how to execute pitches when it, when it matters.
Speaker: Cause if you can't do any of that stuff, then like it, you know, if you're throwing a 48 inch vertical, you know, like sweeper or like whatever, like, you know, it doesn't really mean anything if you're not throwing it for strikes.
Speaker: And so I am a tech guy.
Speaker: I do use it.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: But situationally, right, like I think – like in my pens in the offseason, I'll use it.
Speaker: But, like, for example, like, I don't know, during the season, right, there's – during the season, right, if I can get – if I succeed – if I do my job and I get three outs before giving up a run and I give our team a chance to win that following inning, like, I don't really care if my –
Speaker: slider moved this direction or had that vertical break on it or like whatever.
Speaker: Cause like when it comes, when it comes down to it, when there's like a man on second and scoring position and you got to get an out and the game's tied or something like, you're not going to care about that.
Speaker: You're going to care about how can I execute this pitch as best I can.
Speaker: And like, how can I compete as best I can to get this guy out?
Speaker: So I do think there's a time and a place for the, for the tech, for the numbers, like more in the off season, more when you're developing something, but yeah,
Speaker: At the same time, like when the lights come on and you're competing, you got to know how to like, you got to know how to compete and deal with pressure and execute pitches and throw strikes and attack hitters or else none of that stuff really makes a difference.
Speaker: Yeah, and there's, like you said, totally a time and a place.
Speaker: The time and a place to figure out your breaking ball is not in the eighth inning when there's a man on second and one out.
Speaker: You have all that time, whether you're training in a facility or practice or whatever, you have all that time to...
Speaker: to fix those things.
Speaker: And it's totally fine to have a time and a place where you're working on a specific cue or a specific, um, feel, but that stuff all takes place before.
Speaker: That's all a preparation thing.
Speaker: When you are on the mound and, and competing that that's not a time to, to think about like how your, how your back hip is rotating or if you're loading enough into your glute, like that's probably not a
Speaker: probably not a great time to do it if you want to do it and you can do it good on you but um definitely for some guys that can get them locked up and and a little bit in the dome so um you know you know sometimes there is beauty in that simplicity of just going out there and and competing and trusting the work that you you did in the did in the off season or or did when you were i think it's kind of important too you probably saw it but um
Speaker: like based on kind of what we were saying, like, like, like honing in on like the basics and whatnot.
Speaker: Like, I don't know if you saw the nationals spring training, like bullpen mounds.
Speaker: There were signs behind it that said like, I don't care how hard you throw a ball for.
Speaker: And like, so pretty much saying like, right.
Speaker: Like, I don't, you know, you could throw a thousand miles an hour, but like if you're not throwing strikes,
Speaker: It's not going to translate.
Speaker: And like, it's crazy to say this, but like the lessons you learn as like a little kid, like right, right.
Speaker: Get ahead.
Speaker: Like, I swear to God, I'm not like exaggerating.
Speaker: Like we'll have AJ Hinch, our manager will have, you know, we'll have meetings every morning before, before like the day of camp starts.
Speaker: And like, it'll be like,
Speaker: preaching like throw strikes throw strike one and like so it sounds so dumb and it sounds so like elementary but like the same principles apply from when you're in like little league and 45 foot mounds to like right now like
Speaker: Like he made a huge deal about our first spring training game and our starter, like throwing the first pitch for a strike.
Speaker: He like had a prize ready for him if he did it.
Speaker: Like I'm calling you, it's like, it sounds so dumb, but like the same principles apply from when you're a little league to now.
Speaker: So like, it really is super important.
Speaker: Yeah, that's, that's sweet.
Speaker: Um, that's awesome.
Speaker: And, and, uh, you, you know, both sides you, you like, I think that's an important, an important piece to touch on is, is both sides are right.
Speaker: Um, it's kind of a mixture of both, right.
Speaker: If you're throwing 103 miles an hour, but you're hitting every batter, it's probably not going to be great.
Speaker: But if you're also throwing strikes and you're throwing 75, like it's also probably not going to be great.
Speaker: So, you know, there's definitely a marriage of both and, um,
Speaker: And it's awesome to just hear stories, especially from MLB guys of their managers saying, like, get ahead, throw strikes, because that's what we, I mean, that's what you do.
Speaker: This game sometimes can be made a lot more complicated than it has to be.
Speaker: And that's really cool that, you know, even at the highest level, they're just simplifying.
Speaker: But yeah, I mean, I also, you know, going back to the transition thing, what was, you know, kind of the biggest adjustment for you from Sacred Heart to Pro Bowl?
Speaker: Yeah, that's a good question.
Speaker: I think some of it was just like mentally figuring out that you belong there.
Speaker: Because I came from a school that I think I was the third, I'm pretty sure I'm the third MLB player from my school.
Speaker: So like not, you know, again, not many people from mid-majors get to play after college and professionally.
Speaker: And luckily I had a chance, but
Speaker: I'm walking in a clubhouse of a lot of guys that are, again, SEC, ACC, Pac-12, these big-time schools or these super high prospects.
Speaker: I was a guy that kind of got... Again, I didn't even get drafted.
Speaker: I was a guy that was signed as a free agent and kind of just given a chance.
Speaker: I think some of it was going in there and trying to make myself realize that I belong.
Speaker: And then again, there was definitely a physical component of...
Speaker: Look, I came from, again, came from a mid-major, so our competition wasn't exactly terrific.
Speaker: We'd go play schools from the SEC and ACC and kind of get smashed.
Speaker: So there was a little bit of a like, all right, you're going to have to figure out how to pitch and get some dudes out.
Speaker: But again, it's trial and error, man.
Speaker: It's failing and learning from your failure.
Speaker: That's the greatest thing about sports, right?
Speaker: You're always going to fail.
Speaker: There's always going to be...
Speaker: there's always going to be points to learn from, and that's how you end up getting better because you're never going to be perfect no matter who you are, right?
Speaker: Like Shohei Otani or Garakol, like, you're going to – Garakol's going to have an audience where he gives up six runs, dude, against, like, the worst team in the league.
Speaker: And then – Yeah.
Speaker: So, like, you got to just learn from your failures and move on and learn from it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And that's, that's great.
Speaker: I was actually wondering, like how if you had any specific kind of like, methods or, or techniques that you use to reset after failure, I know some guys like have actual, you know, actions that they'll do, or like maybe routines and, and kind of processes that they go through.
Speaker: But is there anything specifically that you do after a failure to kind of reset?
Speaker: Um, that's a tough question.
Speaker: Um, that's, that's actually a part of my game.
Speaker: I'm like, I would say I really would like to improve at.
Speaker: Um, I think everyone could improve at is like the, the mental kind of like more of like the mental side of things.
Speaker: Um, one thing I've been toying with is like, um, right.
Speaker: I think, again, I was talking about like grab routine is super important.
Speaker: And so I try to, I try to go in with the mindset of, of right.
Speaker: Like, let's say most games are at seven o'clock or something, but so like,
Speaker: if I can do everything I can from when I wake up and I can check all my boxes of like I did, you know, I did my, my shoulder work, my, my mobility routine, my, if I need to get a lift in that day, I did that.
Speaker: I, I had a good like focused game of catch play.
Speaker: I, you know, got treatment done if I needed to, I fueled my body properly.
Speaker: Like if I can go to bed at night after giving up, having a bad outing and, and I realized I was able to do everything I could and I went out there and I competed and I,
Speaker: you know, I gave him 100% effort and I just got hit around or I just, you know, didn't have a good night.
Speaker: Then like, I try to think of like, all right, you know what?
Speaker: Like I did what I could.
Speaker: I did everything I can.
Speaker: And like, sometimes it's just not your day.
Speaker: Like, again, it's just sports, man.
Speaker: Like the other teams get paid a lot of money to hit the ball and they get paid to do the same thing you're doing.
Speaker: So sometimes you got to just realize it's not your day.
Speaker: And but it's hard, dude, sometimes.
Speaker: And then also sometimes it's like then sometimes maybe you'll go back to like we were talking about the technology and maybe maybe your stuff wasn't.
Speaker: necessarily effective that night.
Speaker: And then maybe, then you'll maybe start tinkering with, all right, well, why, why wasn't my slider moving that, that well, or, or what mechanical maybe insufficiency was going on or what, why was my, why was I throwing a lot of balls or something?
Speaker: So there's a couple ways to go about it, but I generally try to think of,
Speaker: You know, if I, if I, if I checked all my boxes that day and I, and I gave my effort, like sometimes you got to just be able to move on and focus on maybe any positive, right?
Speaker: Cause you're always going to have something that came out of that outing that was good or, or maybe at bad if you're a hitter, but like.
Speaker: you're probably not going to have just a 100% negative experience, right?
Speaker: There's going to be probably something you could pick out of that, right?
Speaker: Like I threw a really good, I threw a really good like 2-2 slider.
Speaker: I threw a really good this or that, or I made a really good pitch here when I needed to.
Speaker: So try to focus on the positives that you can get out of it and then just try to hone in on that routine that you did during the day and try to realize that, hey, I did it all I could.
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: And it's cool for the younger listeners to hear a major leaguer talk about the mental performance side because that's something that is often left off the charts.
Speaker: We think about the mechanics of it and the mechanical analysis of the delivery, but we often leave out the
Speaker: the mental performance side where, you know, once you have the delivery down, you still need to execute and, and handle the failure and handle the, the, the pressure, if you will, of, of going out there and competing.
Speaker: And one of the things I was, was wondering about for you is,
Speaker: you know, when you're out on the mound, especially in a situation where you now have thousands of people watching you and maybe that doesn't matter to you, but how do you kind of focus with all distractions that are possible, right?
Speaker: I mean, you have, you got sound, you got visuals, there's crazy amounts of things that you need to be blocking out.
Speaker: And how are you able to focus on your task, you know, when things get a little bit squirrely because, and also like, let me add, like there's,
Speaker: there's crazy other things going on too.
Speaker: Like you're, it's not just, you're not just a baseball player, you're a human being and there's other things that are happening, you know, around and, and in your life.
Speaker: So how, how are you able to focus and lock in when, when you get on that mound?
Speaker: Yeah, that's a good question.
Speaker: I mean, sometimes it's hard, dude.
Speaker: You're right.
Speaker: Sometimes it's really tough.
Speaker: I mean,
Speaker: especially when stadiums are packed out.
Speaker: But in a weird way, I think the clock kind of helps the pitch clock because you don't really have as much time to, like, kind of get buried in your own thoughts.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like, you kind of, like, really have to get the ball and just go.
Speaker: Whereas before, like, you could, I don't know, let's say you just, like, spike a slider is a horrible pitch.
Speaker: Like, you have time to just, like, sit in that and be like, damn, that pitch sucked.
Speaker: Or, like, now I got the fans, like, cheering because that pitch sucked or something.
Speaker: Or, like, the road, you know.
Speaker: Um, so it's hard.
Speaker: I think, I think trying to, you know, I think like breathing and, and, and like breath work and stuff is like kind of coming to the forefront, um, as like a new, like, you know, that's kind of like a lot, like a popular thing to be, to be doing right now.
Speaker: And I think any way to try to find yourself, um,
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Like a lot of guys do different stuff, but any way to try to find yourself in like the present moment, right.
Speaker: Whether that's like you breathing or like, I've heard guys like maybe looking at like a focal point on the stadium and realizing like, okay, like I'm here right now.
Speaker: Like I'm like, it kind of grounds you and gets you back to center.
Speaker: It's hard.
Speaker: I mean, sometimes you just, again, like sometimes you, you just hear it, bro.
Speaker: You hear the fans booing you, you hear like what's going on.
Speaker: But I generally try to, I generally try to take a deep breath or like a, a,
Speaker: a reasonably slow deep breath.
Speaker: Can't go too slow anymore, right?
Speaker: We got 15 seconds to throw the ball, but I'll try to take a deep breath and then give myself a little bit of just like, a little bit of pick-me-up, like a little bit of like, all right, let's go, like let's execute this pitch or something, just like kind of some little phrase of like encouragement or endearment before I take that sign and go.
Speaker: But yeah, I mean, sometimes it's hard, dude.
Speaker: It's when you're locked in, it's one of the coolest feelings.
Speaker: You're just on autopilot and then there's times when,
Speaker: shit, you notice everything else but the task at hand and it's hard and it's hard to get yourself back, but a deep breath or something to try to make yourself realize like, okay, this is where I'm at.
Speaker: This is what I'm doing.
Speaker: Sometimes helps.
Speaker: Yeah, no, that's sweet.
Speaker: And yeah, I mean, towards the end of my career, I definitely was
Speaker: or the last couple of years of my collegiate career was definitely more into the breathwork stuff.
Speaker: Cause I mean, that's, that's something that I struggle with.
Speaker: I think it's easy for, um, you know, people, casual fans watching or people watching to be like, Oh, like, why isn't this dude locked in?
Speaker: Like what, what's going on?
Speaker: Like, well, why can't he perform right now?
Speaker: And it's like, dude, sometimes like we're, we're human too.
Speaker: Like we get scared when, when you got, when you got that many people watching or when, when you got something else like going on in your life, like it's, it's sometimes it's hard to focus.
Speaker: So,
Speaker: you know, that's, that's a part where if you can do that breath work and do it, even do it, even outside of, of baseball and kind of work on, work on it outside of baseball, then when you're forced into those situations, you can have control over your breathing and yourself.
Speaker: And it's not easy.
Speaker: Like,
Speaker: in life and in baseball, it's going to be, there's going to be some stressful moments that, that you literally can't, like you can't focus.
Speaker: Like you said, it's just like, you're, you're hearing it all.
Speaker: Like you hear everything and it's, it's hard.
Speaker: Like it's tough, man.
Speaker: But I mean, I mean, you're just going to have to sometimes,
Speaker: play with it and do what you can with what you got.
Speaker: And I mean, that's pretty much all I wanted to touch on as far as, you know, the baseball stuff here.
Speaker: I do have some rapid fire questions that I can run through and you can give me quick answers if you want.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: All right, let's go.
Speaker: What's the coolest part about being a major leaguer?
Speaker: Yeah, I think –
Speaker: I'm going to go with the answers that I think you want to hear, but I don't know, like flying on a flying on a private jet is pretty tight.
Speaker: I mean, it's an experience that.
Speaker: I like, I never thought why I'd ever get to do it, but we get to fly private, which is pretty, pretty dope.
Speaker: Um, stay at some pretty sweet hotels, which is awesome.
Speaker: Um, so there are a lot of like materialistic things like that, that are sweet, like some really nice dinners that I've gotten to go to in restaurants.
Speaker: Um, but I do think one of the really coolest parts is that like,
Speaker: sometimes you'll have like, I don't want to sound like as much fun as playing baseball as it is.
Speaker: It does get to be like, it is a job.
Speaker: Um, but you do have, sometimes when you have those realizations of like, damn, I worked, I worked my ass off.
Speaker: Like,
Speaker: day after day, year after year, and it kind of paid off.
Speaker: And you have sometimes, I'll have these realizations where it's like, shit, like I made it.
Speaker: Like you kind of like all that hard work and all those sacrifices that you made and like, you know, you know what it's like to be a college athlete.
Speaker: And
Speaker: um, you kind of wake up sometimes and you're like, damn, like I made it.
Speaker: So like, that's a really cool moment.
Speaker: Sometimes you get lost in it.
Speaker: Um, lost in the busyness of the year and, and the, and the job ness of it per se.
Speaker: Like, but, um, the first two were really neat, but sometimes having those moments are, they're always really cool.
Speaker: So that's, that's a cool one too.
Speaker: Yeah, that's pretty cool.
Speaker: Um, what is, what is a book recommendation for some younger athletes?
Speaker: If you have any, if not, that's fine too.
Speaker: Yeah, no, no.
Speaker: That's a good one.
Speaker: I actually just read this book this off season called Chop Wood, Carry Water.
Speaker: I'm not sure.
Speaker: Yes, sir.
Speaker: Yeah, it's a really good book.
Speaker: I liked it for a ton of reasons.
Speaker: One, it's a super easy read.
Speaker: I'm not fucking Einstein over here.
Speaker: It's like 40 chapters, but they're like four pages each.
Speaker: And it kind of just runs through like a story.
Speaker: I mean, you've read it, but I guess it kind of runs through a story of this kid trying to be like a samurai warrior.
Speaker: And he goes to this like boot camp essentially.
Speaker: And, and he's like in touch with this sensei for the entire thing.
Speaker: And each, each chapter is kind of, it's just a different life lesson essentially about how to, how to work hard and the importance of hard work and discipline and kind of stay in the course and focusing on the process and has all these amazing life lessons in it that,
Speaker: that you could really open any chapter at any time and get something awesome from.
Speaker: And I don't even think it's great for, I think it's great for everyone.
Speaker: I'm going to definitely reread it.
Speaker: I only read it once and I feel like it's one of those books you can constantly go back to.
Speaker: It's going to be a book that I keep on my nightstand just in case I want to pop it open and just, and just get some words of wisdom, but it's a pretty sick book.
Speaker: Yeah, that's, that's a good idea.
Speaker: I actually didn't reread it.
Speaker: And I feel like
Speaker: I need to do that right now.
Speaker: I feel like this, this is a good time for me to reread, but no, definitely recommend that book for sure.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Um, that one came to mind just because I read it like two months ago.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Um, I don't know.
Speaker: If I think of one at the end, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll come back to it too.
Speaker: Um, what's your favorite memory from baseball?
Speaker: Um, it'd be tough not to say my debut.
Speaker: Um,
Speaker: It'd be tough not to say, professionally, probably like the 48-hour span of my debut because it happened so quick.
Speaker: I would say from a college standpoint, we won our conference tournament my sophomore year, so 2015.
Speaker: We won the Northeast Conference and went on to a regional, which was dope.
Speaker: We got to play at TCU.
Speaker: We did go to and out, but it was pretty sick.
Speaker: Those two were pretty, I guess, pretty top of the line, but yeah.
Speaker: Favorite food?
Speaker: I'm a New York guy.
Speaker: I think about this a lot, dude.
Speaker: I don't want to get dark here, but if I were to go on death row, I think it might be a pizza.
Speaker: I think it might be a big pizza.
Speaker: Not like a steak or something?
Speaker: Yeah, but steak is at least good for you, I think.
Speaker: It does taste, don't get me wrong, like a ribeye.
Speaker: Give me a six-ounce tomahawk, no doubt.
Speaker: If we're trying to feel like pizza, give me a buffalo chicken pizza or something, dude.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Best or most important life lesson that baseball has taught you?
Speaker: You can do a couple if you can.
Speaker: No, I think it's just a good question.
Speaker: So I don't want to like jump to an answer.
Speaker: I do think sports are terrific, like teachers, and there's a lot of parallels in life.
Speaker: I will say the one thing I do love about sports, we kind of touched on earlier, is that there's always going to be something to learn from.
Speaker: And there's always going to be a natural... Sports is one side versus the other.
Speaker: So someone's always going to fail.
Speaker: And I think failure is important.
Speaker: Although it's like... It doesn't sound great at the time.
Speaker: And it sucks at the time.
Speaker: And you get kicked down.
Speaker: And it feels horrible.
Speaker: Like failing is not fun.
Speaker: But I do think...
Speaker: if you're able to learn from that failure and that's how you really improve at anything.
Speaker: Cause if you're not failing at something, it means you're not trying at something.
Speaker: So I do think putting yourself in situations that you fail and you, and you can learn from and get better.
Speaker: And sports kind of naturally puts you in those situations, right?
Speaker: Like everyone, you're, you know, you, you were a player, you obviously, I'm assuming you had struggles in college at some point.
Speaker: It just happens.
Speaker: You go into ruts, you go into slumps, but the more you can learn from it and the more you can,
Speaker: get yourself out of those slumps and learn from it.
Speaker: Like, I think that, that parallels with life because life isn't easy, right?
Speaker: Life's going to, life's going to kick you down sometimes.
Speaker: Um, a lot of times.
Speaker: Um, so if you can, you can tell yourself like, look, like I have the confidence I can get out of this and I'm going to move forward.
Speaker: So I think that's a pretty good one.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Um, advice to your five-year-old self?
Speaker: Um, probably have more fun playing baseball growing up.
Speaker: take it a little less serious.
Speaker: Realize it's just a game and everything's going to kind of be all right.
Speaker: Because I think now, again, it's, don't get me wrong, I love playing, but it is a job.
Speaker: Whereas when I was a kid, like, you kind of don't, kind of don't get that feeling as much now.
Speaker: Like, again, because it is a job.
Speaker: So I wish I had more fun playing growing up and just played with a little more carefree attitude playing it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And, and that's, that's all I got for the, for the rapid fire.
Speaker: So you made it through, um, you know, again, you know, I'll, I'll wrap up real quick, but, um, you know, if, if you do not know Jason Foley, go check him out, go, go Google his name.
Speaker: And, you know, he's going to be he'll be pitching a lot for the Tigers this year out of relief.
Speaker: And obviously we we wish him the best.
Speaker: But before before I do the little outro, I just wanted to thank you, Jason, for coming on.
Speaker: Hopefully.
Speaker: I mean, I know I took a lot out of it and I know the the younger listeners will will take a lot out of it, too.
Speaker: So just wanted to thank you for your time and appreciate you taking the time out of a out of a Monday night to talk with me.
Speaker: Of course, brother.
Speaker: Thank you for having me.
Speaker: I had a pleasure chopping off about some ball.
Speaker: Hopefully some of those listeners got something out of it.
Speaker: Hopefully I imparted a little bit of wisdom there.
Speaker: I definitely had fun talking, so it was a good episode.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: If you haven't done so already, again, follow us on Primal Baseball.
Speaker: on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, PRI, MAL, BSBL.
Speaker: If you have somebody that you think would be a good guest, or if you want to be a guest, reach out to us at primalbaseball.gmail.com.
Speaker: And Jason, best of luck this season, and we'll be watching.
Speaker: No doubt.
Speaker: Thank you, brother.
Speaker: I appreciate that.
