Appreciating the Moment better get busy or quit okay not everybody gets to do this and one day I won't be able to do this so I'm just going to appreciate it for what it is Big Fish in a small pond and then you're a little fish in a big pond it was a big jump this is your dream as a as a kid when did it hit you and I remember I think my phone just started blowing up and I'm like I don't get it and I get a call from the Brewer Scout and he's like yeah we drafted you I'm like thanks crowd was just going crazy and I'm going I'm fif pumping it like there's probably 6 7,000 people here that's the fun part this is what baseball's about it's not about the money the contracts this this is what it's about what's the worst moment like what I'm saying it's like there's always going to be highs there's always going to be lows I remember going into the clubhouse and being like I don't want to play anymore ladies and gentlemen welcome back to twoes podcast aka the number one podcast in Winnipeg where we document the rise and startom of Winnipeg's talent and personalities the locations have been changing quite a bit uh this is not our regular studio at all we are here at the Blue Cross parks so shout out of the home of the gold eyes so shout out to the gold eyes for letting us have do this here today we have a special guest for you guys he was drafted in the 2018 MLB draft by the Milwaukee Brewers and he is now the home pitcher for Winnipeg gold eyes please welcome Joey matulovich ladies and gentlemen big crowd big crowd thank you Joey thank you so much for doing this thanks for sitting us down and what I could say is your field your Diamond like what's the proper terminology here field uh yeah we just caught the field like whenever we're going somewhere hey hey we're going to I'm going to the field now so yeah it's just refer to it as the field this is this is one of my first times here in this actual spot what do what is it like being here in this specific Park in this field like standing right over there and like pitching the ball what does that feel like it's great cuz compared to so many other places I've been the fans here are awesome it's great atmosphere every night I mean even on weekdays we good fans and it's always fun um and that's what makes baseball fun it's the fans the the atmosphere and I don't think you can really beat the atmosphere here especially I mean just playing around this league and playing against other teams it's like well this is the spot I want to be that's for sure what is it what's the feeling like when you walk through that tunnel and like you know it's like time it's game time like you have a game today every day I'm always thinking and it really depends on if it's the weekend or the weekday I'm like I wonder how many people are out there and so I love walking out and you can start to hear chatter of the people and stuff so if you hear more if it's louder obviously there's more people if it's quieter on like a Tuesday there might be less people but I always just like to Playing in Front of Thousands of People see how many people there are CU it's obviously more people more fun it is yeah I I I can't imagine what the feeling is like when you're like okay this is game day locked in time to go and then this is this is What You're Made made for yeah it's it's it's funny cuz that's the only feeling I really I've played baseball for my most of my entire life and obviously not in front of a couple thousand people a night but um just started I started pitching when I was nine so it just it feels very normal yeah and uh it's funny I I didn't realize it until last year I was coaching first base one day and I was just looking in the stands and there was probably about five or six thousand people here and I was just like this is pretty cool okay not everybody gets to do this and one day I won't be able to do this so I'm going just going to appreciate it for what it is cuz it's like it's it's definitely something special that's a great mindset right like you got a view you got the human Rights Museum in the background like we got the big new video board now yep yep I know sh for them put up stuff um do you remember like your first game here like uh first couple games like a story that comes to mind when with the first game and like you nervous before what's what's going through your mind oh yeah I mean if if if you go back and look at last year I definitely had a rough start to the year um ended up turning around about halfway uh through the season but the beginning of the year yeah it was it was hard cuz when I was with the Brewers I was coming out of the bullpen so I wasn't starting and then when I came here I wanted to make sure that I was starting so I talked to Greg tager who was the manager at the time and um made sure I had a starting spot and so starting was something I hadn't done in two years at that point so it was definitely an adjustment and and there was definitely some nerves involved um but now you know it it feels like home here I have all all the guys on the team I love them to death some of my best friends now um and so it just makes it a lot easier when you're comfortable with with where you're at the people you're around and all that sort of stuff let's take this journey back a little a lot actually um where does this baseball journey start for for Joey um I mean I started playing t-ball when I was probably five or six years old okay um but I didn't start pitching until I was nine in little league and then played played all through little league and I was always one of the better pitchers on the team um nothing nothing crazy didn't throw super hard or anything um but was always one of the better pitchers and then after that when I was 13 through 15 I played Babe Ruth which is uh I don't I'm I don't think they have it here in Canada but in in the US it's kind of like a a higher level for of like it's kind of set up the same way as little league is where it's it's structured by kind of community and town and City and all that Sports and Growing up in California sort of stuff and uh that's for 13 through 15 and then I played a little bit of Trav ball after that for my a local team but I never was big into like traveling too far for tournaments and stuff I uh I very I really valued my time at home with my friends and messing around doing stupid stuff and this was in California correct yes just we I grew up like 45 40 minutes east of San Francisco okay um about 20 25 minutes away from Oakland um in a small town called Danville although it's not so small anymore it's growing and growing but so yeah grew up there and and sports were always super big really really big I mean just off my like 12-year-old Little League allar team I think there was three or four guys that got drafted out of college um a handful of guys that played division one in college so Sports Ro is a big a big thing in our area yeah so from going from t-ball to just you know hit in it what what inspired like hey I want to do this for like for for a career or was it just like through High School you just playing and then going through what was that Journey like well to be honest for the for the beginning portion of my baseball career when I was I'd say 9 to for 13 14 I uh I just I happen to be good at it so I was like oh this is fun because I'm good at it and I wasn't very good at anything else I'm not a good physical sport type person so I love basketball not a good player any sort of physical contact I'm done okay football definitely not and uh so I kind of just gravitated toward baseball cuz I was that's what I was better at than most anything else um I did run cross country for a little bit actually I thought that was fun long distance long distance run I everybody looks at me weird when I say that but I'm like I don't know I just it was fun for whatever reason yeah fair but uh taking the career like through high school like so into high school I didn't really take baseball like super seriously until I turned about 15 14 15 I saw sophomore year high school okay and I had a coach um his name's Brad Wellman he played in the major leagues for like eight or nine years um and he was my coach from when I was 12 all the way up through all the way through high school I still talk to him very regularly ni and uh he was just like dude you got to get busy or quit and I'm like what are you talking about he's like what do you want to do and I was like I want to play baseball uhhuh and he's like well better get busy or quit I'm like okay and so it was funny cuz he owned the baseball facility like 10 minutes from my house if that I could walk there if I needed to and uh from there on out I was just like he would see me I was in there every day and he never charged me any money cuz he he was he was doing well on the business side of things and he knew I was one of his guys there was a couple of us that he just didn't charge he would just let us come in and do our thing and uh started going in there every day and just getting busy and CU I didn't want to quit what what did you learn from him like what were some of the things that he like instilled and was like everything I mean has the most most like Lessons from Baseball Legends incredible sayings of all time when it comes to baseball just like my favorite is the Golden Rule he who holds the gold makes the rules and he's like go get yourself some gold and then you can make change the rules and so stuff like that where it's like and and then you go down the line of playing baseball and you realize oh he's right about all these things because like I said he played in the major leagues for for nine years and yeah baseball's changed over that time the way it's played and all that sort of but it's like it's ads core is still the same thing yeah cuz baseball's a little bit different than all the other sports there's a lot more tradition a lot more like old school mentality um guys that like to hold on to that like I said The more old school mentality and uh those those baseball players that played in the 80s and 90s were tough guys different breed feel different yeah not like us nowadays they were different so um yeah he taught me I mean he was he was like a second dad to me for sure awesome um cuz luckily my parents didn't know anything about baseball and they just like just put your go goad go with this guy we trust him and and like I said he's been a big part of my life for what 14 or 15 years now so wow it was it was nice to have somebody that understood the game cuz I tell everybody if your dad didn't play professional baseball don't listen like don't listen to him he doesn't know anything cuz even if he played in college it's not the same it's different yeah fair fair and then going from what like what kind of work ethic was was instilled there like what were you like going hardcore like getting busy and like just every day just working on your craft slowly and slowly what was what was sort of like practices looking like in the training um at that point it was more of just you know I was I was 14 or 15 at the time and at that point it was just like there wasn't necessarily a huge plan put into place okay but it was like hey you need to throw like pretty much throw I would say five or six days a week playing catch working on stuff playing catch with a purpose not just going out and just having fun like let's do this this is a job let's let's take this serious and uh so going in five six days a week and treating it as a job not just oh I'm here to have fun and and mess around yeah um so that definitely changed my mindset of of how to work not just show up and just oh I'm GNA do what I whatever I sound whatever I need to do like no no no do it with a purpose mhm so do you have a story from maybe some of the games that you played during your high school career or early on that like stands out uh positive or negative either one let me think I'm putting you on the spot so so not specific games but when I was a my freshman year of high school uh ninth grade for I know people you guys say it's a little different um in 9th grade I I had a really good year that year I was one I was probably the best pitcher on the team and then I come Turning It Around into my sophomore year 10th grade and I actually broke my hand no um so I missed pretty much that entire season cuz I was in a cast for six weeks and then I had to get back into throwing and all that sort of stuff because it was my right hand yeah um and I come back that summer and I was the worst pitcher of all time I was like I couldn't get anybody out I I was felt horrible I was just like yeah I don't know I don't know if I want to do this anymore I was just like this sucks it's not fun to be bad yeah and that was when Brad told me he's like get better get busy or quit cuz it's like hey you're behind you got injured you missed a high school season yeah um you better get busy or quit and so that's when I kind of turned it around um but yeah that at that point I was like I don't know if I want to play anymore this sucks and you know being a high school kid I wanted to go chase girls and have a good time with my buddies and around do stupid stuff so um but but looking back now I mean that it's definitely the best some of the best advice I've ever gotten was and it kind of goes for life right like if you want something you better get busy it's like it's like you guys doing a podcast you don't you don't get get somewhere without doing putting in the work 100% no I I I appreciate you saying that cuz resonate I've never heard the quote of get busy but like that's what we kind of live by too it's like yeah put to work and see what happens exactly see what happens that's insane how did you break 10 was it like a baseball thing or uh I was in The Dugout for one of our first games and I'm not going to name names okay but one of my teammates and I'm I'm a very even kill guy I don't ever really get upset but for whatever reason he was making me pretty upset that day and I go to sit on a bucket and he kicks the bucket bucket out from under me and so I fall on the ground and uh I wish well I don't wish cuz it's a little violent but I punched him in the arm okay and you want to go for he was well I'm not a violent guy I'm not a violent guy I can't do that yeah but I punched him in the arm and he was like moving away so I hit him with these two Knuckles and I broke my the fifth what fifth metacarpal there on the on the hand so yeah this the only bone I've ever broken in my entire life damn okay does it get Rowdy like that in baseball like how it what's the environment like in The Dugout like you you guys every we just have fun you just have fun yeah I mean you're paying attention to the game you you know guys do something you're you you're trying to make sure you're there for your guys paying guy gets a hit you high five you tell a good job all that sort of stuff you can't just not pay attention at all sometimes I do but um it it's just you want to have as good vibes as possible got positivity at least that's my thing is like positivity breeds positivity all the time so I don't care who it is I want everybody to do well I don't and even like goes back Transitioning to College Baseball at University of California to my time with the Brewers cuz in when you're with an ml organization is you're trying to move up ahead of guys right you're trying to keep moving up the ladder and uh so a lot of times guys will get stuck in this mindset of like oh I want you to pitch like crap I want this guy to pitch like crap I don't want you to pitch well because it's like like I yeah you're on the same team like I want to move up over you and it's like that's just not a way to play cuz negativity is going to bring negativity and you want to stay positive wow okay so now let's transfer into playing at University or college what was that transition like and making it like now I'm playing yeah that was definitely a big big jump that was probably the biggest jump just because my uh my senior in high school I was definitely one of the one of the better players around and so you know it's the old saying a big fish in a small pond and then you're a little fish in a big pond or whatever so making that jump from high school to a a big division one college playing in the Pack 12 um which Pack 12 no longer exists but playing in the Pack 12 it was it was a big jump and being around guys that you're like holy crap these guys can really play yeah and I I I was talking to Landon yesterday we had nine or 10 guys get drafted off that team just my freshman year wow and uh I think we had three or four guys in the top five rounds of the draft so like we we were really good yeah yeah um and so just being going there and seeing how guys that were 20 21 years old meanwhile I'm only 18 how they go about their business how they play the game how they take care of themselves all that sort of stuff um it was a big not a shock but it was like oh okay there's another level to this so so learning that piece to it was was big and I was lucky I had a couple teammates that were older um Dalton Jeff he was a first round pick that year and he's in the Major Leagues with the Pirates right now yeah and he he helped me out a ton just like gave me a little tips and tricks of how to go about how how how to go about my business how to take care of myself how to act how to all that sort of stuff do do well enough in school um all that sort of stuff so it definitely helped have guys that would look out for you a little bit um and then there were some guys that weren't so nice that didn't necessarily look out for you a bit but that's kind of That's Sports in general what about the decision to go to University of California that um so I didn't get my first college offer until my senior high school and uh my first offer was from University of San Francisco which is actually where two of my teammates Landy barasa and Rob Emory went okay um and I really liked their pitching coach uh he ended up leaving so I didn't go to USF but going to Cal wasn't too hard of a decision okay just because my grandpa went there and my great grandpa also went there um and my grandma was a big academic she was like you need to go to a good school she's like you're going to a good school and so it I kind of narrowed Town between Choosing between Schools there and University of uh California at Santa Barbara gotta which is where my mom went um and obviously Santa Barber is pretty nice it's right on the beach and everything and tough to beat but it definitely came down to playing in a bigger college conference and then being close to home Berkeley was only 20 minutes from my parents house so I was I could get away from home and go be on my own but if I wanted to go get a homecooked meal on a Sunday I could go home too and it was great get my laundry done beautiful but uh it was it was definitely not too hard of a decision just because of the academic side of things um Cal being one of one of the better universities out there um and my parents my mom was like you need to go you need to go there cuz my parents are big big on school um especially my dad's had the family he's got a big family I think I'm the 16th grandchild wow and uh he's got seven brothers and sisters and I my brother was actually the first matulovich to graduate from college okay so it's pretty cool and so school was definitely emphasized on that side of things yeah then playing basketball or playing baseball wish play playing baseball and being at school balancing that student life like student athlete life it definitely was an adjustment period but we were lucky they definitely the teachers they understood like there was a handful of times we'd be flying back on a Sunday and I would be like oh no I didn't do that I didn't turn in that whatever that's why send an email and they like yeah just turn it in tomorrow nice nice okay and so it was definitely an adjustment but you know they want they want to help you they don't want to see you fail and and if you're if you're showing up to class and you're and you're doing most of the work and they understand that you're going to put in the effort they're going to help you out and make sure it works out they nobody wants you to fail out or anything 100% that's awesome when you got your offer like in high school what was that feeling like that was did you know that was coming did like there were Scouts coming out to like see you watch you play like what does that whole process look like by the time I got an offer from Cal I think I had probably maybe five or six or seven or so gotta um but it was definitely my biggest offer just from like a big school standpoint M and uh it was cool cuz I grew up going to those baseball games I grew I remember being a kid chasing down foul balls like I see these kids chase foul balls here and I'm like I remember exactly what that was like chasing down foul ball yeah it was it was cool cuz I mean as a high school player the only thing you think of is like I just want to be able to play in college that's all I want to do I want to play obviously you want to try and play division one but it's like I just want to play in college Y and uh being able to do that like I think about it pretty frequently like I've been so lucky to be able to do like if I were to Pursuing Baseball and Accomplishing Childhood Dreams look at myself or talk to myself when I was 12 13 years old like dang you've done pretty good dude like you're doing all right and so obviously there's always you wish you could do more and more and more but if you look at it from the perspective of like would 12 year 12-year-old you be happy it's like heck yeah I'd be happy it's like okay I can I can live that you're living it up to your to your younger self you know you owe it to yourself I I always say like I'm like I want a Lamborghini but that's I've always wanted one since the age of five is it the most Financial smart decision especially in Winnipeg probably not with the puddles but like I owe it to my 5-year-old self to to make that happen right so that I I I understand when you say like you know if you look back and you say 12-year-old Joey's going to be proud yeah when was the decision of like I want to play for real like I want to I want to take it to the leagues I want to I want to get drafted I want to go that route it had to have been my sophomore year high school after I come back from broken hand because prior to that I'd always like you know like my freshme high school I remember I was like I want to play in college this but I never really I never thought about it too much MH um but then I I guess it was going into my junior high school was when I was like no no I really want to do this want do this yeah and uh so that's definitely when I started to like really take it seriously and and and I was I was lucky the people that came into my life the coaches that came into my life really helped me get onto that path of like hey like if this is what you want to do this is the way come here and we'll take care of you and we'll do it so it definitely helped it MH and you were pitching at that time like throughout throughout I was I'm probably one of the worst hitters to everybody I got one at that in high school and I got one hit and I go I'm good you got you got your highlight yeah the coach asked me you want to hit again I said absolutely not I'm good one for one that's it can you break down the almost like science you could say of like pitching what is it like what is it like to stand and just throw that thing at miles per hours it's funny cuz it's like when I started pitching none of all this data and stuff that's out there was not of thing okay it was just a radar gun oh you throw 95 or whatever it was and now it's like there's numbers for everything um so like you know you know exactly like like we it's called a pitch plot okay and you can see exactly where your pitches are moving how they're moving and it's almost like everybody's is very unique to them based off like what pitches you throw how much they move how they move um it's really important like release height release extension all that stuff it's hard because as a player you can't worry about it too much you that if you start thinking about that stuff you're going to be off the rails but it does play an important part The Art of Pitch Selection into there's certain metrics and numbers that are going to like um you can kind of read that you're going to have success based off those numbers um but obviously there's always just the competition aspect you got to go out there and compete you got to execute your pitches yeah um but it's funny I I we were playing this golf tournament the other day with the for the gold eyes uh Field of Dreams Foundation okay and uh I was telling everybody before the tournament like I don't play golf a ton I was like I'm so nervous I'm so nervous and one of our strength coach he goes you're a professional pitcher and you're nervous to go play golf for fun and I was like yeah I I mean I don't get nervous pitching because I just do it all the time it's so normal to me but golf it's like I'm not used to it so I get nervous so yeah it's being out there on the mound it just feel it feels normal I don't really I don't really think about it too much this might be a naive question for me but like how do you decide what kind of pitch to throw so it's the catcher is calling the pitches and he's kind of he's the one that's really paying attention but as a pitcher you're more looking at like how a hitter swing like what his swing looks like and then you're kind of playing with that and your strength okay and then you're also setting up Pitch to pitch so like say you go you throw a fast ball away to a right hitter yeah and then next pit like it's for strike and then the next pitch might be set up well to throw a cutter off the plate cuz it's going to look like a fast ball that's going to start M where the fast ball was sure but it's going to break off the plate so now you're going to look and get a swing and Miss off the plate versus you could also go like fast ball into a right-handed hitter and then a change up in or fast ball up and then a curveball like you kind you kind of learn how to set things up just based off like hitter's Vision you kind of you're setting things up based off what they see so like if you throw a fast up you might want to go throw a curveball just because it's going to start at the same eye level but it's going to break below the strike zone so yeah it's stuff like that that's but it's very nuanced yeah but it's it's it's funny because it's not that hard when you do it all the time because it's all you think about it's all you do you don't really do anything else M and so you're letting the ball go at like different ways for Happ fast ball is coming off your fingers like Prett like very true spin yeah a cutter is like you're going to be slightly on the side of it and it's coming out more like a it would be like as a a bullet spins okay a slider is coming out you're almost thr like a football and it's going to come out spinning sideways like this damn change up is coming off your fingers this way so it's coming off spinning the opposite way of a slider so it's almost spinning like a a UFO I guess you could call it this way and then a curve ball is typically going to be more top straight The Mental Game of Pitching to top to bottom I'm gonna go home and just be like yeah but it's hard because you like I don't want to if there's any Young baseball players just listening to this yeah you can't try and manipulate the pitches too much that's the hard part it's like you have to figure out a grip that works and this is take I mean it takes it can take months years to figure this stuff out um is not trying to manipulate the pitch but throw the grip it's almost like you're throwing the grip of the pitch okay yeah I I always like see like the baseball highlights and like you see the big Like Home Run MH what is the perspective like from your side when a player hits a home run on your pitch uh like are you bummed out by that yeah but like it really depends so like yesterday I gave up a home run and I can I I can live with it because I I executed the pitch that we called and the guy just hit it okay and was it was probably just the wrong pitch to throw but I executed so it's like okay like next time you just don't you're not I'm not going to go throw a fast ball into this guy because that's what he hits well I'm not go fast ball away or fast up and make him go the other way with it um so for me it's like there's kind of no point on dwelling on it it's more of like a was it a bad pitch B was it the wrong pitch got you and then I can okay like yester just the wrong pitch fine that's fine live with it so I can live with it on that one does it get to your head when you're throwing and they're either not striking out or like they're not like they're just getting hits after hits after hits it's definitely it makes it a lot harder like does the does the Mind play a role into the way that you pitch and so I think the biggest thing is when things aren't going well everything starts to speed up when things start to speed up that's when things get out of control and uh being able speed up so mentally everything speeds up like you're throw before you know it it's almost like you blacked out and you've thrown five pitches without even knowing what's going on and so it's super important and and I actually uh I went and saw a hypnotherapist last year a couple times and and big thing we would always work on was just breathing and so it's it's helped a lot with uh being able to slow everything down yeah starting with the heart rate and SL slowing everything down from there because you're just going to make better decisions if you slow things down rather than speed it up sped up now you don't you're not thinking correctly you're not making the right decisions um so definitely definitely helps to just slow things down starting with the breath got you yeah do you have a like a a routine that you go through not not I I have a like a daily routine that I do every day to get ready physically yeah but my main thing like during the when I'm not pitching I don't have to worry too much about the The Importance of Breath Control breath work but when I am pitching that day it's like really important to focus on your breathing just because your nervous system is going to get ramped up and you don't even know it and now you're burning all these calories and burning all this en energy without doing anything but your heart rate's already elevated because you're nervous or whatever and uh so it's like being conscious of that and not allowing your body to burn all this energy without you're literally just sitting there but your heart rate's at 80 or 90 just because you're thinking about the game being able to slow that down that's amazing where did you learn like it you probably learned this throughout your career right like did was there a moment like maybe it clicked or you're like oh wait I can do this this way and this is what will the result will be it it's funny because I was thinking about this yesterday is like you you go through you play for so long MH and with baseball specifically there's going to be ups and downs no matter what I don't care how good you are there's going to be ups and downs and uh navigating the D like when things aren't going well just trying to figure out where you were when things were going well is always like last night I'm thinking about you know the season's going pretty well like what's my mindset been this year and it's like I I think the biggest thing for me has just been like hey like take your work seriously take like have a plan each day but be it's like just have fun like don't like you have one bad game it's like yeah assess it and figure out what happened or whatever but don't don't dwell on it like just go have fun because it's like I said earlier it's pretty we get to play in a in front of a couple thousand people every night it's like just enjoy it yeah yeah live in the moment in the moment don't don't dwell on stupid little stuff that oh I could have thrown this pitch a little bit better it's like it is what it is it's as coach Brew Mark Brew the legend every I love that guy he's our pitching coach he just every every time like guy hit a home run yesterday he's like water under the bridge water under the bridge so it's it being able to get yourself back to where you need to be when things are were going well if they're going bad it makes it uh it helps to write it down too writing it writing stuff down is very helpful because then you have like key words and key thoughts in your mind of when things were going well and then you go back read that be like okay this what I was thinking at that time yeah that's that's very wise it's very wise let's take it back so you're playing in college first year second year third year what was the idea of going into the draft now like what was your college career like what or some highlights some not so highlights yeah I uh I had an interesting college career so my freshman year I pitched really well had had really good numbers that year M and then I went which not it's not super Junior Year Struggles common for freshman to pitch a lot I I was fortunate I threw like 50 Innings that year yeah and uh I went and played Summer Ball up in Washington state that year in Bellingham Washington okay and had a really good summer and then I came back my sophomore year and I was hoping to be a starter that year I didn't quite get the starting job initially to start the season but then I got a start against Pepperdine and I I threw a complete game shut out and so then I had earned a starting job after that Co pitched the rest of the year pitched pitched okay not nothing nothing too great not too bad MH um but I had a really good summer I went and played in the Cape Cod League which is I would say is is probably the best College summer league out there um and I had a really good summer that summer so I came back my junior year and was starting disastrous junior year horrible and it was all it was all on me just like mental I I put myself in hu like big mental handcuffs just not thinking the right way trying to be somebody that I wasn't trying to do stuff that wasn't me so stuff like that um why do you think that was you know probably just putting too much pressure on myself because I did come into that year like I mean my first start that year there was 25 30 Scouts there from every team and it's like I wasn't super secure with myself probably as a per like secure enough with myself as a person as a player at that time that I was trying to be somebody that I might maybe wasn't um and it's it's funny cuz I look back at it now and I just laughed because it was such a good learning experience like yeah I wish I could have thrown better and got drafted higher and all this sort of stuff but it's like no I mean it was meant to be the way it was and uh so I had a pretty disastrous junior year but luckily I went back to the Cape Cod League that summer and pitched really well again okay and I ended up signing with the Brewers the last day of the signing dead the on the signing deadline in 2018 do you remember the story like how everything played out uh like you get a call do you get an email what does this look like so when I got drafted I was actually at the beach I was in at Stinson Beach yeah was in Stinson Beach and I remember I think my phone just started blowing up and I'm like I don't get it and I get a call from the Brewer Scout and he's like yeah we drafted you I'm like thanks and I he's just like all right we'll be in touch about like just figuring out the money after that all that sort of stuff and uh then I just enjoyed the rest of my day at the beach yeah a regular day yeah and but people were texting me and I'm not a big fan of being on my phone okay so like like I had my birthday the other day and it's so hard for me CU you know you get birthday text family and all this sort of stuff yeah I'm the worst person at texting back and stuff I feel so bad but I just don't like being on my phone very much and so it's when people A Miserable Bus Trip and Building Character were texting me I'm like trying to keep up with it I'm like this sucks um but then we ended up you know they go through the negotiations and stuff and we couldn't reach a number that we agreed on so I went back and I played in Cape Cod League to try and earn more money and uh I pitched really well I gave up I think one run in 25 Innings wow and so I I was able to get some more money and and then I signed with the Brewers yeah when did it hit you that like you were signed and like this is like CU this is your dream as a as a kid you know you want to play in the leagues and here you are being signed to this team it hit a call and you're like it's but now all of a sudden it's like when did it hit you it hit me when I got to Arizona and I signed and then the next day the bus was to the field to the spring training complex at like noon mhm and we were at the field from noon until like 10: okay and I was like oh this is what it is every day oh I don't ah this is a lot and so that was the first like oh I can't just like go play video games after that like I it's a job yeah exactly and I was like oh this is different but then when I I ended up going to Helena Montana a couple days later and played in short season up there and then things were more normal you know I had guys that just got drafted out of college there I a couple of my really still really good friends around that team um so just getting more acclimated and and making friends and stuff was big CU obviously when you go in you don't know anybody things get just feels weird MH do you have a story from like your first season playing that stands out or like a first game or I'm a big story person I love I I think people just love hearing stories that you live and like it gives perspective as well so if you have one I I don't want to put you on a spot there I got to think I mean trying to I it was definitely I got to think of one that's a good B appropriate said R cut uh when you say not appropriate how far are we going here I could go pretty far I got I got there there's there's so there's not no good like in-depth stories that I can think of but there's so many little things like I remember we were just we were getting on the bus and we had a 16-hour bus trip we were about to go on and I'm sitting in two seats just next to the person next to me for 16 hours and that was just some of the most miserable time of my life AC's barely working on the bus I'm just sitting there just like oh my gosh oh no but um but it it builds character you learn how to deal with stuff where it's like this is really really crappy um but just figuring out how to make it work um a fun one actually my friend one of my good friends his named Scotty sunic um he's from Washington and we were in spring training our first year in Arizona and they kind of our Apartments were kind of out out the Scorpion Encounters and Video Games outskirts of Phoenix and so more out in the desert and there's a lot of scorpions and a lot of black widows out there okay and so I don't know if you guys know but scorpions if you have a black light flashlight they glow like bright green like neon green I did not know that and so he's out there he bought Tupperware from the grocery store and he's out there catching scorpions and black widows and making them fight in the Tupperware and uh the black widows typically won CU they would just spin their web and get the Scorpion stuck in it very interesting but um yeah that was a wild one and at 1: in the morning I wake up and it's 6:00 in the morning I turn on the light I'm putting on tying up my shoes and I look up and there's a scorpion walking across right above my bed damn and I'm just like I'm never coming back no this was in milwauke no this was in Arizona Arizona okay okay and uh which I live there now yeah where we live there's no scorpions you have to go out like more into the desert to find scorpions and uh so I called my buddy he was my roommate I'm like you got to come catch this thing so he went came up and caught it I'm like count me out I guy yeah yeah he's a big outdoors guy big hunter big loves loves everything outdoors okay yeah what about yourself what like outside of playing on on the field what are what are some things that you're interested in and like well that keep you busy if you were to ask anybody else I play a lot of video games what you what you play right now I've been playing a lot of MLB the Show okay cuz so I always had an Xbox for my entire life yeah MLB the show was only on Playstation okay and then in 2020 right after Co hit I bought a PC and that's when MLB the Show came out on Xbox so I didn't have an Xbox anymore and so I was playing on a PC and so I never got to play it and then I just bought an Xbox right before the season started and so I've been playing ml the show like crazy having an absolute blast um and then I've actually been playing a lot of fortnite really yeah really yeah I was playing with Andy Armstrong a shortstop yesterday last night after the game um playing fortnite played a lot of Call of Duty played Minecraft nice um I'll play 2K a lot of 2K I'm kind of burned out on 2K right now okay but yeah fa and then that just gets your mind off things to like and I'm just a nerd I just like to play video games cool that's awesome and it keeps me it's a good way for me to not to go spend money going out and like you know yeah getting dinner every night and all that sort of stuff I just go back and play video games yeah young Soul at heart young beautiful now let's transition into so playing professionally what is something that you didn't realize about playing professionally what when you had the aspirations like you realized okay like this is work now yeah was there anything that stood out to you of like I enjoy the pitching side I enjoy being on the The Business Side of Baseball field I enjoy all that aspect but this sort of stuff I was not expecting I didn't even know maybe the business side maybe the the world the interacting um it's hard media so there probably a couple things like the business side of things it is a business like if you don't perform it's not good yeah and but that doesn't mean there's not a lot of good people that work within the business a lot of the people with the Brewers they're some of the best people I've ever been around some of the sweetest people like I love I love everybody there and and when I got released from the Brewers it was no surprise for me I was not I wasn't throwing well um and I have no hard feelings cuz I know some guys that got released and they had some hard feelings with the teams that that released them but I got nothing bad to say about the Brewers I love everybody there so but on the other hand it is a business so like if you don't perform you might be out of there yeah and then uh I think one of the coolest things about professional baseball especially with Within the minor leagues is uh just getting to meet so many people from around a around the us or Canada Mexico close to the US um but also so many Latin American guys um especially guys from the Dominican guys from Venezuela Cuba Puerto Rico um just so many cool people that some of the some of the most genuine people you could ever meet in your entire life um and a lot of them come from way different backgrounds than what we grew up with in California everybody's everybody's so different um that was probably my favorite favorite thing about or is my favorite thing about professional baseball is just the people is like you just meet so many cool new people I mean my Spanish got way better it's kind of I've been struggling with my Spanish lately because I don't talk to anybody in Spanish but um just meeting these people from from Cuba Dominican it's like and they just their their way of life is so different they're just so much more like focused on like just enjoying the moment having a good time they're lot less a lot of them are a lot less worried about like the little stuff that we worry about on a day-to-day basis a lot of like you go into a minor leag Clubhouse and most of the time it's SP like Latin like Spanish music and the guys are just having a good time uh it's such a blast some of the best people I've ever been around for sure that's awesome that's awesome and that and would you say that's like the environment that baseball is like oh yeah and sometimes you want it drives you up a wall when all you hear is this loud Spanish music and you're just like I just want quiet but it's it's definitely it's very fun mhh what about the environment like the environment of like the fans what are the fan interactions like have you had an interaction that stands out or um when when that's that stands out but it definitely depends on where you're at um Rowdy Fans at Oregon State obviously playing at home here is really fun cuz we get good fans vast majority of the time um being on the road can be weird just depends on where you're at um like is it Rowdy like do do fans get like your head dep it depends on where you're at trying to think where where was the worst in colle in college one of the hardest places to play is Oregon State okay um why is that Andy Armstrong our shortstop played there uhhuh hey they were they won National Championship when I was in college they were one of the best if not the best college team I've ever seen in my entire life um but their fans who was like they were going to wear you out all all game and it was a bunch of like middle-aged folks that were just like what did they say what did they say uh I don't remember specifics but like if you do something wrong they were going to wear it was going to be to let you know their Stadium wasn't that big I think it only hold like 4,000 people four or 5,000 people but it was P sold out and they were going to let you know if something if you did something made a bad pit like you can't throw strikes they're going to let you know guy makes an error they're booing yelling at you it's it's bad damn and it's hard cuz their dug The Dugout their seats are like right above the Dugout so you cannot get away from it yeah it was tough I does does the crowd influence the way you play a tremendous amount no no no it's definitely more fun when there's fans just because you get like more adrenaline more juices flowing yeah but um well and it's hard when there's no fans it's almost just like it's pretty boring yeah really quiet you can like hear people talking in The Dugout um but definitely the fans make it more fun home or on the road it doesn't matter like I If fans are chirping at you when you're pitching I don't I don't ever hear it to focus on what you're doing pay attention are there any other influences that influence the way you pitch like we were talking just like setting up this podcast the wind was influencing us but like does the wind influence um yeah kind of sometimes I don't I try not to worry about too much just because I focus more on using my strengths rather than focusing on outside stuff um but I'm trying to think you you're definitely you're going to go through like a scouting report on each lineup before you face them yeah and it's a there's a fine line like I said between focusing on your strengths and their weaknesses because sometimes their weaknesses could also be your weakness and now it's like okay so sometimes you're better off just like just challenging him with your best stuff against their best stuff and see what we can do but it's it's funny it's with B with baseball game especially starting it kind of it's almost like it's scripted like there's a way things kind Trash Talk and Respect in Baseball of work out um and you can kind of tell how a game's going to go just based off like the first couple like the first inning or the first two innings you're like okay I see how this is going to roll out have you hit a player yeah I mean purp no not on purpose I like I like everybody I don't I don't dislike anybody I'm it's funny like some of these guys probably hate playing against me because I'm always I I love talking to guys guy hits a ball hard but he gets out I'm telling him like good swing I want I love liking people I love okay I'm I'm not I would never be a mean guy not a trash talker baseball's too hard to trash talk really if you trash talk it's going to come back and bite you in the butt o i i i' not a fan no it's too hard are are there guys that will like try to trash talk you oh yeah yeah uh it hasn't happened to me this year okay but yeah guys will guys will talk and it's and then you're like I'll see you like I'll see you like I'm going to throw them I I try not to say anything because like I said it's like we always T like baseball gods they know there's baseball gods and they're if they if you need to get knocked down they'll knock you down okay and so I try to just I just try and play try and play the game the right way and and be respectful of the game beautiful and I I want to be respectful with the guys we're playing against unless someone's being a real you know yeah not not a good guy it's uh I try and be respectful of everybody and everything okay yeah let's take the continue the journey here so you're playing with em Milwaukee um you're going with them what was the next sort of natural inclination there of playing after after I got like after I got released yeah um I kind I knew because obviously independent ball is a really big thing and um I know tons of guys that have made to the major leagues playing in this league front there's a couple different leagues in the US that that they play in and uh so I remember when I got released I remember I texted my agent I told him and he's just like all right figure out a place to play were you were you upset were you what was going through your mind I was definitely like bummed you expec yeah it wasn't super surprising I wasn't throwing well at the time and uh it wasn't very surprising but yeah I remember my agent's just like all right we got to find somewhere to play then and uh like I said I was coming out of the bullpen with the Brewers and he's like you just need to go somewhere where you can start got you and so the Brewers were super cool they they the farm director um Tom Flanigan shout out Tom Flanigan he's one of the best he he reached out to a couple teams um in this League to try and help me find a spot to play yeah um like I said it's some of the some of the nicest people in the Brewers organization some of the best people so they they tried to help me find a spot and then Greg tagert who was the manager here last year ends up calling me and he's like you want to come play and I was like well I want to start he's like all right we can give Playing in Winnipeg you a starting spot and I'm like okay I guess I'm coming so I didn't even didn't think twice and just came here and had no knowledge of anything about Winnipeg yep um and show showed up and like I said didn't have a great first half of the year but finished strong and had ended up having a super good time made some really really good friends land basa Travis C Brook um daon C uh Cruz Andy Armstrong just so many guys that we were here last year with that are back this year miles simmington um and then continues to grow this year I mean this year's team has been so fun everybody loves everybody it's it's just Good Vibes all the time and you guys are doing decently well this year we're third right now so um going into the any like the top four teams from each side make the playoffs so um but yeah we're we've been playing well we had a a little skid couple weeks back here at home but um we're definitely we're definitely doing all right yeah and I I saw that you were also named like the pitcher of the week for uh correct me if I'm wrong something Association yeah I was I was I was the picture of the month for June in the American Association yeah what is does that mean anything to you like are you it means more to my fiance than it does to me she she'd always she's like why does nobody recognize what you're doing like I don't care it doesn't matter to me I'm just trying to show up and do my job every day I don't it it doesn't bother me what uh I asked you the video but what's it like playing in Winnipeg what's it like being in the city and oh it's the best it's I don't think I played in some pretty cool spots and I this is probably number one hey the fans are awesome yeah I get to see people people like we have fans that have season tickets that are here every day that you get to talk to say hi tool um they know your name they know they just they know you and they get to know you over the course of a year or two um the Stadium's awesome the fields great M on top of that Andrew our GM he's he's the best Jamie Samson our clubhouse manager everybody it's just like you can't beat it it's the best everybody's awesome um everybody is it's all about winning but we also have a good time while we're doing it um Logan Watkins are our manager this year awesome awesome guy uh great manager he's it's nice cuz he's he played the major league so he's very he gets it pretty hands off if you need something he's there but he's pretty like I'm gonna let you guys do your thing that's awesome and so um just from top to bottom everybody's incredible team's awesome um some of the nicest best guys I've ever been around one question I really wanted to ask you and and again this shows my baseball knowledge is is baseball like the movie Moneyball uh like how how what do you mean like the numbers and stuff yeah yes is it is it that intuitive like oh it's way more than it was back yeah okay now it's so I was actually just talking about this with Max Murphy yesterday is Yamamoto's $350 Million Contract so Yamamoto I forget Yamamoto that signed with the Dodgers during the offseason okay he's 24 years old and he had never pitched in the major leagues at all and they gave him a $350 million contract damn because what they can do is they can take all your numbers like for your pitch metrics put it into their pitch model which is like their their AI like data base that kind of like tells you exactly what what you're going to get and they basically can tell how you're going to do before you get to the major leagues and that's how they could give him $350 million without pitching into the major league crazy so like it's it's incredible now wow and obviously when it comes to spending money yeah still some teams like the a they don't want to spend money but the Dodgers are not afraid to spend money on they go bu players that's insane so like so everything is like like stats based B like it's everything and so does that put pressure on the ability to like perform every night cuz like you know like oh like my st's going to go down or like numbers are going to fluctuate a little bit here and there you kind of just have to forget about it there's just no for Le for me there's no I can't worry about it or else it's it's all negative if I just worry wow that's that's that's insane to me that's a that's something I didn't know yeah it's I wish the average person could understand all the number like I could try and explain it if I had it in front of me I could try and explain it to you and it would just be like what are you talking about that's insane to not even be able like not even a single pitch no nothing just you're in yeah it used to be it used to be a lot more like you needed like to show show yeah you need to show it and there was a lot more like eye test like okay it looks it looks right yeah um but now it's like you you could you could pretty much tell what a guy does just based off of the numbers that you see wow do you look at your own number sometimes and be like Oh not not super I try not to I just don't think it's helpful cool uh in terms of walking away from here is there is there something that if you walked away and you're like hey I wish Robin had asked me that I wish I talked about a specific topic or a specific moment in your career that stands out do you have like a the biggest moment in your career what's something that at the top of the top like you felt like you were the man you everything's going your way so your highlight of your career almost one of the most fun like in the first thing I can think of is last year we were here we were at home and we were playing Kansas team we're playing right now yeah and Kansas City and they were the number one team in the league last year and they had I want to say they had like eight or nine guys that played the major leagues yeah and it was like the best game I threw all year I went a complete Game nine innings with 12 strikeouts and I remember there was a base hit I walked The Thrill of Baseball a runner on the first there was a base hit into left field and Miles Simington threw the ball to Third and threw the guy out at third and he was out and the crowd was just going crazy and I'm going I'm fifth pumping it and the crowd's just going crazy and that was same time last year when I was like this is just so cool like you like there's probably 6 7,000 6,000 people here and it's like the crowd's going nuts it's like that's the fun part that's what's fun that's awesome and that was like the moment for me I'm like this is what baseball's about it's not about the money the contracts this it's not about the fan this is what it's about and so that was that was definitely like in my mind what I can vividly remember the most see I would love to end it there but now I have to ask you what's the worst moment uh Pro in recent memory last year against sou Falls at sou Falls I gave we looked at I my fiance talked about this last night yeah I gave up eight runs in three Innings okay and I remember going into the clubhouse and being like I don't want to play anymore oh no obviously I kept playing but I was just like what I don't know what just happened I seriously I I remember texting and I was like I don't know what just happened and so like what I'm saying it's like there's always going to be highs there's always going to be lows it's like it's like they always just try and say like just say somewhere in the middle stay steady don't get too high don't get too low it's funny to say that cuz the common theme I would say from the guest that we've had on the show it's very similar it's going to be high moments it's going to be low just got to stick right in the middle it's very hard to stay in the middle very hard uh especially I think the biggest thing is like just getting your ego out the way don't be able to laugh at yourself a little bit Yeah like take things and stride and don't take it too seriously if if you have any advice for someone who's looking to get into the world of baseball you know someone maybe's in high school or early years um what what would one thing that you would say to what would you say to your younger self if you could give yourself advice uh a obviously work hard put in the time but B work with a purpose don't don't just do stuff to do stuff and that's hard when you're younger because you're you know you're just a for 15 year old kid you're like I just want to go hang out with my friends it's it's doing stuff with a purpose and uh I think that's the most important thing don't just do it to do it do it do it with a reason and a purpose wow that's awesome ladies and gentlemen thank you so much for listening watching viewing and subscribing Joey thank you so much for thanks for taking your time we're here at the Blue Cross Park the beautiful Park the beautiful time in the beautiful field good luck for the rest of your season Joey and I appreciate the time here thank you see you next week peace that's that's a r thanks guys thank you brother thank yeah thank Expressing Gratitude pleasure like