Zac Gallen On Fashion and His Pitching Prowess | Baseball Isn't Boring

bro listen never in my life Associated the word boring with baseball F we know we know what's up me yeah famous yeah and I'm like giddy over there there smiling like holy I mean we're about to win this [ __ ] did everyone give you crap give me a good like host story you know I'm like I'm not picking it up no we both love the game we talk about it every day baseball having some popcorn you're ping around your phone i' have to way in line for 3 hours hang on cuz it's about to be a wild ride all there's no human being I'd rather be talking to right now than Zach Allen it's a fact baloney call him baloney it's a fact it's uh I appreciate you taking the time before um enjoy the conversation congratulations on everything by the way your name came up on our on the baseball and boring Twitter feed the other day I don't know if you saw it no it was we we had a Best Rest um so we had MLB fits okay uh on and I asked him I said who is the best dressed and he was like that's a tough question right it's it's a lot to pick from I think he doesn't want to offend he I think it spur the moment he pick Bryce Harper but immediately another friend of the program Sarah Tiana who was on M Mo Network yeah yeah who also like one of the best comedians out there immediately responds yeah at Zach Gallen well I'm honored yeah yeah we uh yeah I met Sarah um last year at the allm mo Awards um um she was you must been you must have left up quite a impression I don't know what you were wearing I I don't know I guess I don't know we we had done um we were doing a thing with um Roy Wood Jr and she was there kind of writing helping him you know throw a couple one Liners in there and then uh was helping me with some stuff to kind of say um so we got to kind of hang out for a little bit and then I met her husband and her son at the dinner the following night with my girlfriend there and um yeah the the is great she's awesome she's funny so uh thanks s okay well there you go but I I have to like so does that I would imagine if you're in the conversation you probably are in the conversation right and you probably take some element of Pride and yeah I wearing good stuff I try to at least I that's how I've kind of always been as a kid um even as a kid like I cared about what I wore like how you present yourself I mean it's it's your first impression into a lot of people um and then now you know just um kind of having a little bit of a platform I guess to express myself and my style and the way it changes um has yeah just kind of when you did the allstar game this is cuz the the Showcase like the I don't mean to go down this road no you're all good yeah yeah but uh you know this is where this is where you can Define yourself on the on the allstar game right the and I can't I apologize I can't remember what you wore I remember what people wore this year I remember remember how Pete Alonzo were all black in 130° I remember jiren Duran wearing this Tangerine suit I remember I remember Adie rushman wearing a pirate outfit uh so what what did you mine was very like low-key like I uh I didn't know what I don't I don't think i' I'd been to Seattle once before but it was in like September so I wasn't really sure what the weather was going to be like I didn't know what it was going to be and even though it was 75 it still felt like it was 105 there I guess the humidity I remember it was yeah so I went with like a very just kind of lowkey I wore like dress slacks um like a white button down and a sweater like a blue Gucci sweater on top so it was like very uh school teacher I guess I don't know I was going for a very like clean like old money kind of just classic like I didn't want to do anything too crazy and I didn't want to wear a suit so like I went and kind of split the difference of like all right I'll still wear a Collard shirt but I'll throw some kind of you know extra you know whatever in there so when people ask if someone came up and say what are you wearing you would say Costco I have before I've said that but like people have asked me and they're like where do you shop like probably you know four or five years ago I'd be like oh I shop strictly at like Marshalls and like TJ Maxx I haven't I haven't been there much lately but yeah for a while I mean like half my closet was Marshall and TJ Maxx I mean when you're Min leagues are got a ball on the budget so you got to figure it out some yeah listen I mean and also if you get in on it early enough listen sponsors are sponsors man that's right yeah it's it's there's there's Brands to be like dominated this is true I mean there's a space for everybody so I was just like yeah I got no shame in being in you know TJ Maxx like I'm a bargain hunter so like I'm looking for deals so that was that was me now I don't the the time of going to TJ Maxx and Marshall and looking through every rack I've kind of like ah I'll just shop online like but yeah back in the day I was grinding like yeah I still have a lot of the jeans that I bought from Marsh do you really oh yeah like I mean I mean I probably gotten rid of some of them the last like year or so just trying to like Purge my closet but yeah I had a I had a lot of them for a good six seven years like yeah well first off like you said sponsors are sponsors yeah I don't know if if you're looking for sponsors we're here to help always always all right well we gave we uh we got James packs in the maple syrup ambassadorship for for Vermont um we we make dreams happen um and also speaking of of clothing like we just talked to Rich Hill who's making his comeback and he's you know 44 years old walking into 20y Old 22 yeah he's like I said yeah you got to do like the hey fell fellow kids with the skateboard he like nah I got like the tucked in polo shirt and yeah so so let me ask so before I get to the nuts and bols of Base B who is who is your pick who is who who is uh since you are now officially in the in the vortex of MLB fits in sarana for best dress yeah um I mean I the I'm going to see if I could pick a pull an underrated one out of the Hat I'll give my flowers to to Lindor and Harper I think they're usually pretty spot on what they do I want to see if I could an underrated guy that doesn't get a lot of oh man you know what you know what a big part of I think it's trying without trying that's true like you know who you know who was good that way we just saw I don't know if you know Dom Smith I didn't I didn't really see any of his outfits yeah when you're not trying when you just like put it together and you know like you just have an eye for like okay this is just very like that's kind of like what I want to do I want it to be like very just understated but then when you take a look at you're like oh okay it actually looks pretty good like it's not but like adding too much the like crazy stuff it's just not me um I don't know I'm you're trying to think of a non- teammate I know you are yeah I'm trying to think of a non- teammate because I see those guys all the time so it's like I will say like teammate though uh I think Merl Kelly's got pretty like good style really and his he's his style is playing right now like he was always in the oversized like that was his thing and now that the oversiz uh trend is coming back he's fit right in he's got yeah so um you can say him yeah I'm gonna go I'm going to go mer yeah I'll you know one of the things I noticed hanging out here is that you guys I don't know if I haven't seen a lot of teams do this you guys have like these sweatsuits yeah do you do that for road games we've been doing that for since I got here I think apologize this is probably like a storyline probably like like we were talking about but I'm like so I coach high school basketball and I thought like the biggest game changer like Hey listen we got to all look the but you don't usually see it yeah so they probably they've been doing it even before I got here so this is I mean coming on close to years uh I think it's Tory Hayes uh just kind of like I mean you got to think I mean you're on the plane all the time like there's no sense in wearing like very uncomfortable clothes especially about to do a cross country flight so we have two different um I think a lot of other teams like I don't want to say a lot but I've seen some other teams wear them and it's like it's just comfortable like and we'll pick like to for instance on this road trip we'll do I think we wore like a sweatsuit to the first city and then from Tampa to Miami we wore like jeans in a card shirt like and then on the way home we'll wear so yeah I mean it's it's cool that you know you don't have to like dress up and be uncomfortable for a 4our anyone warn it out I'm sure they have yeah yeah I'm sure they have you always see like somebody will like forget it and like wear jeans in like a t-shirt or jeans in a Collard shirt and you're like like I left it at home you're like mine always stays in my bag take it out wash it and then put it right back it's me it's it's a quality like I don't know you call it what do you call sweat suit like yeah it's like a track suit this is I think this is the sole reason why you guys are so good you think outside the box yeah um all right let's talk to baseball uh so we um you know there's a couple things I want to talk to you about you pitched uh a lot of innings last year um over 240 and I you know I like talking about I think that one of the most underrated stats for position players is games play I do because it shows the ability to actually be good enough to play and then play every day and the grind of this season is isn't like it was back in the day it just isn't then to pitches money you just don't see pitchers pitch over 240 Innings overall um I think that's a testimony you and I think that guys are chasing it like I talk to guys pitchers who are trying to crack through that barrier for you having done it having gone through that Gauntlet now looking back what would you say to Pitchers because it seems like a lot in this day and age and also like when we we see a lot of pitchers get to 140 150 they can sort of hit the wall because again in the minor leagues you aren't doing this you so what would you say to um I mean the one thing that I've noticed about the like stamina of it like just like to your point of hitting the wall there's no way to train or practice for it other than just doing it really like yeah that's so like I remember so my first year of pro ball I got to I had gone you know three levels and it comes about the All-Star break in like July or whatever and I get a call from one of the guys in my agency he's like how you feeling I'm like I feel great like I never felt you know better in my career was probably at I don't know 90 to 100 Innings something like that sure enough the next week my legs felt like just cement blocks and I'm like he's like he said on the phone he said just wait right there just wait I'm like all right so I didn't think it was going to happen so middle of July hits me I'm like grinding for the last month and a half or whatever it is then the following year I'm like all right this will be the year I'll feel good all the way through the stretch middle of August it gets me and I'm like I can't there's nothing I can do not until I had gone two maybe three years the following year of like throwing a full season's worth was I like okay I'm good by like the end of September and then last year being the playoffs was different I think you know the playoffs you're just kind of running on adrenaline but like yeah I don't I don't think there's any amount of conditioning you know running whatever lifting that like can prepare you to do it other than just doing it so did you have in last year you went I would imagine that you went to them to stern like and beginning to end because how they used to do it really was we know this is going to be a long season we're going to build in a break no I went yeah I went the whole I mean yeah it's from spring training I mean I started spring training a little bit later like probably didn't get on the mall until like the first or second week of March but like or like in a game I should say um but yeah like start to finish like no break so when you get to October like you said you're running on adrenaline that another thing that it advice for people because I think that people Everyone focuses on 200 Innings 200 Innings well if you get to the postseason you're looking at another if you go to the world series I mean I think I threw an extra 30 something Innings 33 Innings so so so looking back how did that feel like you can look back at it now yeah I honestly I felt good that was the thing like I people would kind of ask me after the whole run had happened and they're like how you feeling and my first thing was was I was like more mentally exhausted than physically exhausted cuz you're I mean even when you're not pitching you're on you're on edge every pitch like you're watching thing sing every pitch like it doesn't matter even when I would like try and take a break from the game like the day I wasn't pitching and go inside like you're still watching the TV and you're on edge so it's like people like people were asking how you feeling I'm like I'm mentally like you get more exhausted and then probably about 3 or 4 days after the last game of the World Series it all hit me like physically basally and I was like on the couch for like 2 days like I just exhausted so I was like oh really yeah I was ex I couldn't get up like people were like you want to golf you do I'm like I'm out for like two days like you got to give me so it it um yeah it but I felt great I mean outside of feeling my delivery wasn't in a spot where I wanted it to be but like physically I was like I I feel good and like I feel good I can go out there like I I didn't feel like I threw 210 innings did it hit like you said you there's nothing really can do to prepare like for that right mentally though is there there's probably nothing you can do with that too and I would imagine like the hyperfocus I always I love postseason baseball I love watching you guys last year it's because it's because every single pitch is like this is the great thing about baseball right we can talk about every single pitch and then here comes another one and for you that's hyperfocus so was it what you thought it would be or like I don't know what yeah for sure I mean it's it's definitely what I imagined um I mean it's it's hard you as a kid you grow up and you think about the World Series you think about all these things but like you the finer details you don't know because you haven't experienced them but like I think the one thing that helped us was like down the stretch we had to play like it was October for the last 6 weeks like cuz we we had dug ourselves such a deep hole like with the our you know collapse in July and August was like okay well we got to we got to get going now so like at that point it was like every pitch had mattered for six weeks up until once we got to the playoffs like okay we've been playing like this for the last you know six to eight weeks of like what's different other than we're just playing a new opponent and you know the venues Chang and there's a little bit more on the line but like our mentality was was very similar from I would say August like 10th through I looked it up the thing is is that so from August 25th which as we tape this is when this is it's not like you guys like had like unbelievable run I think you were just over 500 but at the same time you had come out from that nine game losing streak right and and and just to keep your head above water that you had to have that mentality exactly like we knew our backs were against the wall but we kind of had we knew that we had left ourselves just enough room that like if we played like we were capable of and how we played the first 100 games of the year we would be fine I mean thankfully we got a little bit of help at the end um you know a couple teams lost and we kind of backed our way in there but like that was the thing like we knew we were like we were a young team probably we hit the wall after game I don't know 1005 and then you know next thing you know you're like oh man we got our backs against the wall like let's we got to see what happens but we knew in the back of our mind I was like we're still a good baseball team and we added pieces we had we you had a Clos like Paul you had Tommy fam so like we got better at the deadline it was like we just need to keep our head above water and just give ourselves just enough room to kind of get in there because we knew we were like we knew we could do what happened well I mean this is the thing you guys are like the shot this is believe me the the named Diamondbacks have come up a million times at the trade deadline because like oh look if you're in it and you get in this can happen and this is the world of baseball right now so so for you guys for what will forever be that thing which is a great thing it's I think it's great for you know for baseball I mean obviously you know you get more teams trying to compete um and you just you know you see what happens like I mean I I wouldn't have imagined it to happen the way that it did but like yeah I mean you just you just need a shot to get in and you know next thing you know you could be playing in the World Series and you were at one point in time two games under 500 with 50 games to play 40 games to play so yeah I uh so Hayes came on the podcast a couple weeks ago and I gave him the gift of telling him that you guys are going to win the World Series so thank you you're welcome all yeah yeah I mean thank you you're welcome I'll come find you when in November I get stories I get stories and ask Hazen say how often is Rob Bradford right and he'll tell you some stories all right I'll himg him today I'll ask yeah yeah ask him that and look at his right wrist and see what's on it all right it's yes it's a baseball's and Bing wristband and it's not coincidence that as we sit here since he's worn it you guys haven't lost um but so but my question is so like how does it feel for you how does it feel different because as we you know you guys have the best record since July 1st and best record since the Trad line all of that how do it feel different for you um I think one we've just become a deeper more complete team just like on paper like just on the field like you can just see that like you know last year we we were running three starters out in the playoffs and we got you know like I won the World Series last year we had to move into the bullpen like that's how deep we are in the rotation um and then obviously right now we have some injuries so like we're not as deep but like full strength I mean we could beat you from both sides of the plate left or right um but I think the biggest thing is just like the culture of and we touched a lot on this like I remember talking about I talked with you about this last year like the believe getting you guys to believe right so it just kind of started with like in I mean 21 was a was a horrific year I mean we lost 110 games and it was like we weren't I wasn't really sure like I was kind of in this weird spot of like I was a young guy but I had been here 3 years now and you know me and Merl were kind of the same thing and we're like okay is the next wave coming and I remember talking to Hayes and Amel and they're like just give us some time like we got guys coming they're just you know a step behind right now and then you kind of saw at the end of 22 and Tory kind of challenge us like hey this is we we need to build the culture here like that's what this that's how you're going to turn this thing into what we hope to be a perennial Contender it was like it's about culture so last year we kind of got the right pieces in place and you could kind of see just the vibe in the clubhouse the vibe around the team like the guys it was very loose guys just joked around like a lot of the guys the young guys were familiar with each other so like they didn't feel like they were coming into a clubhouse unsure of how it was going to be and then this year I mean the office did a great job of adding guys like jock and Gino like guys that fit in the culture help the culture and then I think just our experience from last year of knowing that we started off slow this year we could still do achieve our goals so I think a lot of guys were just like and also that you keep our head you can go up against you know these behemoths and you know I've said this before where Tor before 20123 where it's like I'm like give me your speech to the team it's like let them buy their teams right but like you can say that but now it's like okay we don't even need that speech anymore no I think now it's just kind of like we I think we understand our identity like who we are and what's funny is that it's changed from last year to this year I mean last year was a lot of like chaos like getting on stealing bases like doing all that kind of stuff this year it's not as much but it's still the same kind of like let's get on let's get on base let's work tough at bats and then you got a guy like Gino hitting in the seven hole that like L just from a pitcher standpoint I you're lengthening the lineup all the way to that point and he's you know driving runs and so um yeah it's just I think the guys just love being around each other and it's just a lot of fun and obviously it helps when you're winning and you know everything winning is the best perfume but I mean even with these guys getting hurt it's like next man up so it's it it just I think it all it's all just attributed to me for the culture really by the way they you just hit on your next sponsorship winning is the best per winning is the best per clog for men yeah WI winning it's called winning oh my goodness what a good what a great idea oh the ideas are popping love uh all right well I I really appreciate you taking a lot of this time um last thing the last thing if I could Peter games I don't know predictably he's a big fan of you for multiple reasons tar tarel yeah I mean if you're tarel you you immediately get a head start on everybody 100% yeah but he was talking about about your like attention detail prep preparation and then how you actually took notes in class in North Carolina so yeah I mean I think that that's I'm just I want to sing your Praises in that regard I don't think my notes work too well one my class notes I said to my mom I said uh is eligible good for you CU I was always a good student in high school like I but when I got to college I was like I don't see this school thing really going anywhere for me so I said uh is eligible good she said just make it respectable and I said all right that's fine what a m yes just make it respectable I said so uh yeah I wasn't I wasn't lighting the world on fire but um yeah that's that I started taking notes on hitters probably excuse me probably my sophomore year I think my sophomore year of college every single hitter every hitter I could find video on so like and at that point in time I mean you're talking about maybe one game that a guy plays on ESPN 3 that like somehow against a left-handed pitcher so it's not even the same like but at that point in time I had been doing a lot of work at the um like hitting facility training facility that I grew up at so I was tossing like I would to to like younger kids balls like in the cage stuff like that and try to read their swings so I got really good at reading like you know lower AG swings and the the holes kind of played the same even in college they get a little bit harder to read up here but so then I was like okay I'm going to read swings I'm going to watch I would take notes like I got notes of like pav Smith in my notebook like back when he was a Virginia like all these guys I mean I got Juan stto and guys that I saw in the you know go Coast league so like I started taking notes and just kind of carried it through like it was always a thing like I was trying to find any Edge that I could and that was through trying to read swings or take down at bats like charting at bats and you know and then it started you know I get to the big leagues and you have all this information at hand and Dan Heron does a great job for us here here and it's like he's putting together stats and numbers and Trends and things like that that we like to see and then I kind of do my own and put it together and do is it like like actual writing or is it like on yeah so his he'll type his out like on a we'll get a card and then I'll write mine down in notebooks so do you have stacks of notebooks uh so it's changed over the years so like I've had there's been times where I'll do like when I was in Miami I would look they whatever the algorithm they had they would spit out these numbers I would just write up sequences that I thought were good sequences for guys so like I would do like a four pitch sequence and then um I started doing uh then I would write each like pitch like where I you know where I wanted to throw it to a guy or whatever then I started doing like heat maps to myself and then I'm doing so like now at this point in time I'm just writing it but yeah I probably have like two or three like probably good sized notebooks that are filled like yeah so um there's some good stuff in there like I went back and looked at one you know probably a year ago I think Nick pakora had me look through it and there was some like some big leaders in in a college yeah like I mean wano was in there aunia was in there when I played him in the minor league so yeah it was uh it was pretty cool that's that's awesome well listen you have to have good handwriting so I do I'm very I'm very my hand very anal well dressed in good handwriting yes it's the thing I don't know Catholic School 12 years of Catholic School dude to well I I appreciate it and uh and I promise if if we do start the cologne winning you will get a cut up all right I appreciate it yeah thank you