Jay Crawford on the 2024 Cleveland Guardians rotation, new hitting approaches & Austin Hedges comedy

Jay Crawford on the 2024 Cleveland Guardians rotation, new hitting approaches & Austin Hedges comedy

With that let’s welcome in Jay Crawford from Sunny Arizona oh there he is no sunglasses Jay yeah no it’s I got to tell you I need them because I have light eyes so I’m very light sensitive but I’m GNA try to Brave it um the sun

Is high enough right now in the sky that I should be able to get away with it man I wish you guys were here I really do we’d have a blast just because a the weather and B there’s something about the smell of fresh cut grass and the

Sound of a bad hit in a baseball it just it really gets you into spring mode and bull I know how much you look forward to the start of baseball season too day four of all full team workouts um and the first spring training game starts uh it’s tomorrow actually so the season

Really will start getting underway and it’ll be fun to watch because there are some position battles this year guys mostly it’s going to look very similar to the team that was on the field last year but you’re going to see a couple of new wrinkles mixed in here and there

Jason you know that you just left here and those are really the exciting watches during spring training see who who emerges as the right fielder and where certain guys are going to fit in I I would think first base you know I’m calling Naylor the DH I would think

First base Short Stop center field and right field should all be up for grabs no Jay I don’t know about you um center field to me Feels Like Straw it just does am I misreading that yeah I I I disagree I think it’s I I mentioned at

The top of the show today Stephen yesterday Steven vote just slid in there there very strategically that oh yeah by the way Tyler Freeman is is they’re taking a look at Tyler too I think they want estan floral to grab onto that job I do do this spring I eventually but do

You think he’s ready at the start of the Season though I think that’s what they want now we’ll see W we’ll see with the next six week show but I think they want floral to be the C he’s done all he can do in the miners he’s killed the miners

He has and I think Freeman might actually get a chance at this we’ll see we’ll see what how many how many reps he actually gets out there uh but but I I don’t think it’ll be mil straw in Center let’s hope yeah yesterday uh we spent all day talking to players we’ve got

More player interviews lined up today but at 10:30 or 12:30 your time here as soon as I’m done with this I’ve got Chris antonetti and we’re going to talk to Steph vote in sit down interviews so we’ll really get into those specific battles but I don’t know I I do feel

Like and Jason I’m sure you picked up on this there is a clear shift in philosophy at the plate did you notice that in talking to guys because I was surprised some of the things that I heard go ahead and go deeper on that I mean they re they revamp basically a lot

Of their hitting instructors and they brought in a lot of new guys uh they’re I know they’re working on swing speed with a lot of guys and Quan in particular is looking for making harder com harder impact on the baseball and uh so Chris vake is back as the hidden

Coach but they have revamped a lot of their a lot of their system so I’ll go into we’ve got a sound bite that will help go into that too but um I picked up from several players just in conversation not necessarily in interviews although Will Brennan went

There on the interview that you know this whole idea of contact has led to them being in the basement in home runs and they weren’t just last place by a little bit they were like 26 or 27 home runs behind the 29th rank team and that Gap is just far

Too great they were like 175 home runs fewer than the top teams so you can’t continue to do that and expect to get different results you know what that leads to so uh some of the guys were hinting that yeah they’re probably going to be a little more aggressive at the

Plate this year but the one thing that we got out of the talks yesterday was Will Brennan was very specific and Mike I know you’ve got that sound right sound bite ready to go let’s hear what will was saying about how this thing is sort of moving in a different

Direction how was the mindset different this year from last year last year you’re coming off all the inertia and excitement of a little playoff run and then obviously this year things didn’t end or go really the whole season the way the team wanted last year what’s how’s the vibe different you know all

Those young guys that we have everyone has a year under their belt and that’s just a year of experience in the big leagues is different than any other level in baseball and we’re going to utilize that to the best of our abilities and we’re going to be really

Successful this year it’s going to happen obviously it’s a power game and everybody talks about the lack of Home Run production last year from The Outfield you guys have to hear that you have to I’m sure you work on it in the offseason what are you feeling in terms

Of uh what you have to do performance- wise do you do you feel that you have to become a home run hitter because that’s what the team needs feel like you have to evolve with the game and obviously what you just said is 100% on the on the

Head right there um you have to evolve you have to you know be able to to take some chances take some risks and we have that ability we we’ve LED Major League Baseball and and not striking out and we’ve you know the backside we’ve been

Last and home run so it’s we have room to take some chances and and make some some errors in that aspect in order to to hit some more home runs or hit hit for more slug do you think the philosophy has changed I mean obviously with a new manager but the hitting coach

Is the same have you seen a shift in philosophy and like okay look contact’s great but let’s take some swings 100% there’s a new theme around camp and it’s just every single day it’s going to kind of be beaten in our heads of of hey we

Have to slug you know that’s just the way the game’s going you have to hit home runs you have to hit doubles and you have to drive in those runs and I mean we lost 31 one run games last year you knock out half those and wins I

Mean we’re a 90 win team so it’s it’s a different club and it’s we understand that we have a chip on our shoulder it’s going to be a good year it’s interesting that you say that that the team has embraced this change in philosophy lot lot of times teams are slow to change

But I think this was so obvious it’s as a fan it’s refreshing to see that the team and the organization has said okay we tried it we had some success with it but you you got to keep up with the Joneses too 100% And you know are we

Going to be the Braves of the Dodgers and lead the MLB in home runs absolutely not but we’re going to take pride in hitting doubles and driving Those runs in and run the bases really well with some more Slug and maybe some more strikeouts just because can take that

Risk so again and you know I said in the interview it is refreshing to hear that they’re willing to go in a different direction you know they they gave that a shot and that’s that’s nice to hear and he’s right on the 31 one run losses if

You win half of those you’re walking to a division title now granted they also had a lot of one-run wins and they’re going to have to keep finding out a way to grind out those close games but an increase in home run production will certainly make it easier to win the

Majority of those one-run games let’s pivot now to pitching we talked on the show I think last week about which of these five starters is best positioned to win a Sai Young Award we didn’t talk to Bieber or Williams yesterday we’re going to talk to them here in just a

Little bit but we did talk to the other three and we talked to Austin Hedges who though he’s not the everyday catcher he knows this staff very well here’s what they had to say about the fact that all of these guys are sort of Sai Young caliber

Guys what a staff is what a pleasure you’re too young to remember the 90s Braves but Maddox glavin Smoltz they had guys they were going to win sa Youngs they were going to win 20 games we had a conversation on the show the other day about which one is most likely to win

The sa young and all five guys came up that doesn’t happen very often that’s it’s it’s what we do here it’s what we do here we pitch and we develop pitching at such a better rate than everybody else it’s not just what are we what’s going on here that isn’t

Going on in other it’s the people it’s the people and the people here allow the people that are also pitchers to be free enough to be themselves this is you you know Tristan doesn’t need to be Shane Bieber and BBY doesn’t need to be Gavin they need to be themselves and

This organization does such a good job like this is what makes you great go do that over and over and over and over again and when I’m watching our bullpens there’s seven dudes throwing right now I haven’t even heard of half of them and I’m just like that dude’s nasty that

Dude’s nasty that dude’s prepared that dude’s executing all his pitches I’m like I don’t even I don’t even know him yet but I’m like that’s what they do here and and I know also I know that all those dudes are great dudes because you’re not you’re not a Cleveland

Guardian if you’re a bad dude I mean it’s pretty awesome I mean I feel like we got a good good blend of like veteran leadership with Shane and I guess Tristan’s considered a veteran on our team because we’re all so young um and then you have like me Gavin Logan who

Kind of went through the ringer last year a little bit kind of got introduced um I think it’s awesome I think I think it’s all about healthy competition with us I think we all want to be the best we all want to be the ace but obviously we

Respect each other a lot and I think at the end of the day we’re all just trying to be the best and be in a good spot it’s it’s really cool like you said I mean all all five of them you feel like could could win the sa young or um Shane

Has obviously done it before but the other four could make a case for um but it it it is cool to kind of follow up that and be a part of a bullpen group behind that starting rotation because of how how dominant they are and it makes

It a lot easier on a bullpen when you got a good starting rotation like that so you’re not throwing in the second or third inning every other day um but yeah it’s it’s a lot of fun to kind of see the growth and the maturity of of the

Younger guys in the staff oh it’s a lot of fun I think we we definitely take a lot of pride in in that being our identity and being able to uh to do that do our part for for the offense for the vpin um I think we kind of have that

Internal competition like you’re always trying to not only compete against the other team team but we’re kind of trying to best each other and I think that kind of brings out the best in all of us and you know definitely leads to a lot of good things and we’re definitely excited

To have Shane and trist and back healthy this season I think that that’s going to bode well for us and like I said we’re excited ready to go who is most likely to win it I mean I the easy answer for me to be me to say me um but I would say

Shane probably to repeat right I mean he’s won it he know he knows what it takes he knows what it takes yeah um you’re too young to remember the 90s Braves staff but they had it was the same thing they had four guys that were easily capable of winning 20 and they

Always talked about how they slingshot one start into the next if glavin went and threw a four hit shutout complete game then Maddox felt like he had to come back and go the distance and give up three hits and no runs is there some sort of competition do you feel that

There’s a competition that way with you guys too for sure I think it’s all like in it’s all healthy it’s all in in good fun it’s never you know I’m hoping for someone to do bad it’s always like we want someone to do B do good and then we

Just try to do a little bit better you know and I think that just kind of does well for the team as well it puts us in a good spot to win a lot of games so that’s I think we have that for sure yeah it’s very refreshing and you

Know so young sa young these what’s really impressive is you’ve got the veteran in Bieber and it’s funny because the younger guys are kind of looking at McKenzie as you know he’s one of the veterans on the staff he’s still so young talked to him yesterday he said

His arm feels great psychologically he says there’s absolutely no worries of another injury remember he started with the shoulder and then it went to the Elbow so I know he’s not worried about it but fans and I’m sure the staff will be watching him very closely to

Make sure everything’s okay now I know we’ve got limited time so I want to get right to this obviously on our show we’ve talked a lot about Austin Hedges not just the impact that he has on the clubhouse but bull has been a big big

Critic of his we’re going to get to that in a second but the other thing we always talk to our audience about is how much this guy looks like ant and I actually asked him yesterday if um if he was aware that he’s got I don’t want to

Call him a stalker but he’s got someone running around Cleveland who’s kind of stealing his identity take take a look we got another guy on our show Anthony one of our producers he is your twin he bought a Hedges Jersey and wears it around town he’s pretending to be you

I mean if if that is the case then I got I got to meet him because we’re talking about the two best looking guys in the world now like the guy got be absolutely gorgeous he’s a pretty guy he must be I got to look into those eyes at some

Point I what’s scary is he has the same beard he’s trying really hard but is it the clean beard or is it the playoff beard no it’s the clean beard it’s what you’re wearing right now it’s cropped maybe in October he’ll let it go yes yeah he’s tell him he’s got to

Let it go here’s the thing he can’t spell his name’s Anthony we call him Anthony can’t to spelly he can’t spell bro he makes spelling errors on our Graphics all the time can you give them a little buddy spelling there’s there’s spell check like like I don’t when I’m texting stuff

Like I don’t even try and spell things right and serial fix it for me like spell check come on Come on Anthony be better I refuse to be better I won’t be better spell check is a scam invented by grammarly we don’t have the side by side

Graphic ready guys do you got that I do not have it Sor I I didn’t put it in tag picture yesterday I did hold on we’ll get it ready Jay set up this next one while we set uh set this in I can’t wait

To hear this one yeah so this one bull I want you to pay particular attention to this one bull you have been extremely hard on Austin Hedges and I can honestly tell you this if you spent one day here in Camp one day wow did you

Shave yeah he did oh my God he shave so if you if you spent one day here in Camp or around him or the guys and you talk to the players about him I promise you you would get it you would understand why he was such a huge priority to bring

Back and I did ask him to give you a message take a look I love what about politician AB me you’ve been mentioned a lot yeah you know what I see it you’re the man none of these these guys are too young to even know how to handle all

That I can handle all the comments all the all the e all the mean things people say about you I can handle it bring it we got a guy in our show who says mean things about you Adam the bull I’m like bro he does everything well he does all

These little things he’s like he doesn’t he doesn’t hit look in the camera and tell Adam the bull he’s nuts well I don’t hit you’re actually that’s accurate I’m working on it but we’ll get there I try and do other things hey he’s ski masking listen this is crazy this he’s ski

Masking this guy is so good he’s like yeah I can’t hit it all bro what you talking about I I love Austin hedges for that I love that he kept it real by the way I’ve made it clear I got zero problem with him being the backup

Catcher And I know he’s a good locker room guy I just don’t didn’t want him to be a starter here no and that’s fair and and I’m sure he understands that’s fair he knows what his role is here he’s here to help tutor Bo Naylor to teach him how to be an

Everyday catcher who by the way that kid is also great on the microphone um he was just tremendous in in the interview that we had with him but bull I again Jason you see it you’re out here I talked to 10 players yesterday I asked them about the clubhouse and the vibe

And how’s it different from last year and every man that was here last year brought one thing up we miss Austin Hedges his presence in the clubhouse how he keeps it Loose how he stays on us in a friendly but competitive way Jason his

Value to the team I get it now I totally get it his mouth is never closed yeah he’s talking the whole time he’s in there my only beef with Hedges back this year is that could they have used that 4 million for Randall gritch or Adam Duval

Who might be upgrades in center field it shouldn’t come down to that because they should I mean think about this team if you just signed JD Martinez and Adam Duval today as your DH and center fielder well who knows I mean maybe one of those deals will happen I wouldn’t

Hold my breath on it but uh you know I understand what you’re saying Bull and it does make perfect sense but when you if you spend any time around this group you really do understand it I mean I know it’s a roster spot and I know it’s

$4 million but I got to tell you I’m not saying it would have been different last year if he was here obviously the pitching staff being decimated with injury had a lot to do with that but the the atmosphere is loose everybody is focused everybody knows what the job is

And what the task at hand is and I got to tell you I know fans may have Lowered Expectations because you look at the offense and you wonder where the offense is going to come from but this team is very confident Jason I did you find that

Too I like they think the division is very winnable yeah it is I mean they should think that on February 23rd but there’s nobody good in the division so 85 wins might be enough nobody’s going to run away with it yeah no and and they should feel the pitching that they have

They should feel confident right and you know what as well as I do you if it doesn’t matter if you win your division with 80 games 90 or 105 everybody starts at zero once the playoffs begin and when You’ not the pitching staff that they have Jason can

You remember the time in Indians Guardians history where there was this kind of quality starting depth I mean all five of these guys had a lot of success at some point in their career and the young guys obviously all look great last year yeah I mean that’s what

They do I mean you go back to the the clubber Carrasco Bower that was probably the Heyday of the last years in cler and this has the makings to to duplicate could be as good even better maybe but step gav Williams needs to take a stepan

All needs to take a step he’s a little a step behind those guys espinho I’m anxious to see although I don’t know that he’s going to make the majors this year coming off that injury espinho may actually be the best of all of these young guys we Haven seen him yet see he

Hasn’t pitched to yeah fingers crossed on aino um yeah guys I know you got a run um I’ll see you back there on Monday

The Cleveland Guardians are opening up spring training in 2024 with expectations of competing for the AL Central crown, thanks in large part to a new manager & hitting approach.

Jay Crawford caught up with catcher Austin Hedges who is bringing some fun back to the clubhouse.

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