A's Cast - View from the Press Box - September 4

0:00It's time for the view from the press box. Oh, that's one of the fly ball that's set up. It's going back, still going back. You're the track on the track. And clock reaches up. And clock drops. It's going to be my whole run. Oh, I'm going to play by Denzel. He strikes again. Where the voices of the A's get you ready for today's game. One stretch pitch. Swing in a drag. Deep to left. The A's take the lead. And grand. Fetch it. Now, live from the broadcast booth. Here's Johnny Daskoo. Well, hi, everybody. We're a team mobile park here in Seattle, where the A's have won the first game of the series. A's are two and two on the road trip after losing two or three to Texas. But when the final game of that three game set in Arlington, then when in the game last night, as we get ready for this ball game, it will be the right hander, Caden Morris, on one 9.82 ERA. He's getting his second start against the right hander Logan Gilbert, 11 and 8, 3.42 ERA. So game two of the four game set.

1:00And we have Martin Gallagher's with us. This is our round table. We don't have Feldy today. We'll have Feldy next Friday. But we have Martin Gallagher's. The pen is my year. The sword. He covers the athletics for M.O.B. Comda, such an outstanding job. Great writer there. And Martin, what a win last night. I mean, the bullpen, one run in six innings. Perkins did not have his good stuff. He struggled. Only went three, but the bullpen picked him up. Yeah, to me, that was kind of the story of the night with the bull. And what they were able to come in after Jack Perkins really stabilized that game for the A's not only to come back, take the lead, and then hold on to that lead. The A's offense chipped away. Just overall all around good things, good positives all around. But yeah, the bullpen was definitely the highlight with Bluett going two innings. He's been great since they acquired a boy croft. He's really emerged as a guy for them as well. And then the back end there with Medina, the way they was able to shut it down there in the eighth. And Hogan Harrison and I just, something that they've been looking for. You know, that's kind of the focus the end of the year. See what they have in that bullpen. See if they can identify some arms going into next year. And we saw some pretty good arms last night for sure.

2:00And tonight for Kate Morris, another start. He's trying to get locked in and put himself on the map for 2027. You know, he has good stuff. So a big start for Morris. It is. You know, I think obviously he's had one major league start. And I was in Houston didn't go great for him. And unfortunately, you know, he got sent down, I think right after that. So you know, had to stew on that a little bit. It came back up as a pitch and some down games that are reliever. I think there's a big, big night for him. I'm sure he's feeling some butterflies, you know, going out there, you know, big environment. And it's a team desperate to stay in the playoff race. So it's a good opportunity for him to kind of go out there and show what he can do. Kind of a race that tastes that he had in his mouth on that last start. And he gave the age of chance to win. You know, he may be on a limited pitch count. Probably 75, 70 pitches at most. But let's see what he can do with those pitches. And maybe he can be efficient and give you some innings. And you know, at the very least keep the team in the game. I think that'd be a win for him. Yeah, maybe get four innings. Of course, Jack Perkins, who Katsi and the scrum today said that he's definitely a part of the future. But through 85 pitches and three innings, it's going to go down a AAA, get some work in.

3:01Look, look, we're at the toward the end of the year. Joey Estes, familiar face coming back up. He started. He can give the A some length in that bullpen. Yeah, it's always going to see Joey Estes, you know, his presence in the game. Oh, it's energy and incredible. You know, it's infectious. Yeah, cool to see him get a chance up here. And yeah, for Perkins, I mean, there's definitely something there with them. I mean, we see it, you know, the strikeout numbers are great, but obviously the walk numbers have been high. Especially the last few outings that he's had. And I think that's something that he talked about yesterday is something we still looking to, you know, get under control. And you know, we go to AAA, get a chance to reset a little bit. And you know, we see a lot of times guys go down a AAA and come back better. Obviously, there's not a lot of season left, so we may not see him again this year. But I think if you go down there, AAA pitch well, go into the off season, feeling good about himself. You know, who go into spring training, kind of kind of back to the Jack Perkins that he believes he can be. But yeah, I think there's still something there with him whether it's his reliever or starters to be determined, but he's got the talent for sure. Our team, what is the latest on GT game? You know, not a lot of, not a lot of improvement. Yeah. First, it was looking like it wasn't maybe a huge thing. They were pushing him back a couple of days, but I think it's just general fatigue and soreness, you know, long year.

4:04He's already exceeded his career high and innings pitch. So, you know, he's kind of grinding through the end of the season. You know, he's showing them a lot this year. And if he doesn't, he doesn't pitch again, you know, he's had such a great year. I know, go into the off season, feeling good. At this point, you know, I would think we're probably going to see him go on the aisle here soon. Just based on kind of the way he's been progressing hasn't been great, but, you know, it'll be interesting to see how they structure this rotation going forward with a couple of openings now. You know, we, we talk about Hank Bolte. I think every time on this show and he just seems to get better and better with each passing day, starting to figure it out. And I talked to Fran Reardon, the manager of Las Vegas. He said, you know, he doesn't even stress the surface with this guy. What he's going to do in the big leagues is going to be pretty special. And we've seen, you know, the contact rate, the hard hit rate, the exit velocity. You see some things starting to come for this very talented centerfielder.

5:05Yeah, you know, he's a five tour guy. And I think slowly we've seen each tool kind of materialized at the big league level. And now we're starting to see the power a little bit that that gave me out of Texas with the two homers. I mean, that second home running, it was just ridiculous. It seemed like it was an emergency hack. You know, he's laid on a fastball and he pokes it out to right field. That's just kind of a glimpse of I think what's to come with him. He's got that type of power, but it's just, you know, it takes a little while at the big league level to develop that on a consistent basis. I think he feels like it's slowly starting to come. But yeah, I think the best is still yet to come. And we're seeing a lot of good things from this year, but he's nowhere near a finished product as a big league. He's going to get better. I think, you know, next year and going forward, you're really going to see him emerge as a really good player. I mean, he can do it all as fast. One of the, arguably the fastest man in baseball in terms of sprint speed. He's got the power. He's been playing great defense, whether it's center or right. He can hit for average. So it's just great to see kind of his ability to get up here as quickly as he did, you know, as a guy drops out of high school and contributing now. It's funny every day in team meetings, you know, they're talking about bolts a speed. But I think Brock Rodden, I don't know if he wasn't paying attention, but that first ball hit to him.

6:08I think he, he barely got bolt A. And I think just looking at his face, he look at wow. Okay, they're right about his speed. Later, I think it was later in the game. You know, he kind of understood that you got to, you got to rush with this guy. Yeah, I think, you know, obviously the league still starting to get to know him a little bit. You know, he's been in the Bayley's for a good amount of time. But, you know, I think teams when they face him for the first time, it's different when you're seeing him. It's different when you're seeing it on film and when you see it in person. Yeah. And I think with them, you know, they saw him busing it down the line the way that he did. And they're probably like, oh wow, really, you know, the speed's free. It's not just a number on a screen now. We're seeing it in person. This guy is really fast. So, yeah, he's a threat to get on base. Just put the ball and play. You know, if you get put the ball and play, there's a good chance you can end up at least on first base with his type of speed. So, you know, it's been great to watch him at the top of that order to kind of take control of that lead off spot, especially against lefties and the job that he's doing up there. And what you hear is Martin Geigos from MLB dot com covers the athletics done a great job for many years. Was that yellow off? Martin, what I guess what's impressed me that we really haven't touched on a ton is the fact that he had a recent slump.

7:14He had an over 19 or a one for 24, whatever it was. And it didn't seem to phase me. He got out of that. And it's a different Zach Gelloff than we saw a couple years ago where he was pressing. He was chasing. I'm tracking it better, but it is much more confident mature player now. Yeah, I think his mentality has just changed a lot. And I think I really picked up on that and spring training. It's kind of the way he came in to camp. The way he was kind of interacting with guys is just his personality. It just seemed different. He seemed a lot more loose. You know, I know the last couple of years have been a grind for him. Whether it was injuries or under performance after that year where he had that big rookie year. And there was such high expectations for him. When he didn't kind of replicate those numbers, I think he took it hard on himself. And it was kind of he fell into maybe a, you know, a bad place. But he's been able to kind of mature as a ball player. Obviously he's gotten older. I mean, he's still a young guy, but just having more experience now. And being able to kind of, you know, figure out, okay, you know, not all the success is going to come right away. You got to go through these ups and downs.

8:14He went through that. Now you're seeing him evolve into that player that we all thought he was going to be. You know, it might have taken, you might have taken a little bit of a detour with the injuries and stuff like that. But he's looking again like that. Zach Gelloff that we expect to see. And it's been so great to see him kind of reemerge and reestablish himself as part of this core. And a guy who can play all over, you know, we saw him left field yesterday. He's at third base today. We might see him at second base. Yeah. He's a pointy player, you're wearing play well. Some of these role players who may not have been here, if not for the injuries, the Donovan Walton's, the Elicca Williams, the Donovan Walton against the team that draft in him. He gets the pinch at home, refers pinch at home, round of his majorly career. He's been solid. He'll touch on not only Walton, but Elicca Williams has done. We've touched on the fact that, you know, we heard all glove, no bat. And he gives you a quality of bat, Ryan. Talk to Ryan Christensen today. He talked about the batting practice that Elicca has had the last two weeks. He said it's a elite batting practice. He's been impressed. Yeah, I mean, he's been a really good hitter. I mean, from the time he came over, you know, obviously looking at the scouting reports

9:14and what people were saying about him and Pittsburgh and stuff like that. No, expecting a guy who, you know, might be overmatched at the plate, but he's going to give you great defense. That has been the case. I can recount very few instances where he's looked overmatched at the plate. He goes up there and you feel like, you know, he's got a good chance to get a hit every time. He works a good at bat. He can drive the ball to all the field. You've seen him, you know, hit the gaps quite a few times. So, you know, he's really done a good job of establishing himself as a majorly player who can not just provide defense, but if you need him to play every day, you know, he's going to give you a good at bat every single day. I think we're going to watch kind of his evolution. Yeah, all those role players that they have right now with Walton and Stefanik as well. I mean, those, these are guys who, you know, teams kind of need guys like that, you know, especially when you go into the end of the season and, you know, you're kind of, you know, tired out there. These are kind of the glue guys who have kind of been through it a little bit before. At least Walton and Stefanik have been through it before. At the end of the year where you kind of trying to finish, finish the year strong. And it's good to see those guys kind of get an opportunity to play. You know, you don't want to have a bunch of injuries like they've had,

10:14but kind of the super lining for them at least. It's a good chance to kind of show what they could do at the big level. Outstanding work as always. The pen is mightier than the sword. Thanks, your brother. Appreciate it. All right. That's Martín Gallegos M.O.B. dot com. We'll become back. Ken Korak, the voice of the A.C. sits down with the third base coach and infield coach with the athletics Bobby Crosby. Korak and Bones right after this. On a Friday in Seattle is game two of the series. The A's in the Mariners after a big win for the A's last night. And Bobby Crosby is with us. You know, Bobby, you played for many years. We're an outstanding player for the A's and coached and managed in the A's system. And you know, I look at this year and we've talked about it. It has not been an easy year. But how do you look at the last couple of weeks, especially the way the offense has bounced back? Yeah, you look at, I mean, the guys are battling. You know, guys are performing well. I mean, you look at what Bolti is doing and, and get off and, and McNeil. And you can go kind of up and down. And then you have Donnie Walton coming in with the pinch head homer last night.

11:16Staphonic puts together a good at bat. So everyone's contributing and everyone's kind of knowing their role and, and making most of it. Let's talk about Bolti and his progression. How do you look at the way that's gone for him from the time that he first joined the club until now? He has an idea what he's doing now. I think I'm more importantly than anything. I mean, I, you hear him talking to the coaches, talking to other players. I know Rook's helpful with him and, and Lang is helpful. But you see what Bucci and, and Al Dohn have done talking to him. And he's starting to understand what he's doing, what he's looking for, what, what pictures, you know, are going to throw him and, and why? So you see, you know, you see a young kid like that. You just want to see his progression and getting smarter at the play. And I think that's what's happening. He seems like a guy who can really adapt. He can adapt. He can adapt. He's, he's, he's a smart guy. He's a great athlete. And it's almost he, he just needs to be told in a sense like, hey, do this. And, and he does it because he's such a good athlete and such a good player. Once he gets, like, you know, something clicks in his head and goes, oh, geez.

12:16Okay, well that works. I can do that. So he's kind of just adding tools. It was toolbox right now. He's just adding things that are helping him. How important has this been, this year of been for Zach Geloft to really bounce back? It's big for him. You know, I mean, you know, he had his struggles and he worked hard in the offseason and, and he came in with a new mindset, new attitude. He was ultra positive, even though he didn't start with. He's like, I'm going to be there. I'm going to be there soon. And he just, he has an inner belief himself that he's going to be a good player and a very good biglier. And he's, he's showing it on both sides as well. I'm, I'm happy for him. Yeah, you do a lot of work with the Ace defense, Bobby. And how do you look at the way, uh, Geloft has moved around? And he seems to be handling that well. Yeah, he works on the outfield stuff. He works on the infield stuff. He does, uh, he knows where to be on every play. He's, he's a smart player. Uh, he continues to work hard. So it's like when you, when you get a guy like that, that, that's smart and knows what they do to be successful. And, and his actions are really good in, uh, you know, it's, you can put him anywhere and know that he's, uh, he's going to care for one and work at it and, and be really good.

13:19You mentioned Donovan Walton and he came off the bench with a really key, uh, pinch hit home run in the, in the game last night. So you looking at pinch hitting, is there something that you think a hitter should focus on? I don't know. I was, I was pretty bad at it. Um, yeah, it's, it's hard. I mean, I know, you know, the theory back in the day, I talked to No Mar about it when we were sitting on the bench together in the last year or so. Um, and he'd go up there and just, yeah, you'd go up there and swing. And a lot of guys have that mentality up there and, and you look for that first pitch fastball on your hammer it. Um, that's really the only, only thing that I've really heard that, that, that is stuck. And I, I think it's a skill. It's an art. It's something to come off the bench cold and get up there and put together a good A B. It's hard to do. And it was awesome. She don't need that. I remember in just, you know, going along with what you just said, the great mani moda who was an incredible pinch hitter for years with the Dodgers. He said, if you, if you, the first pitch is a good one, don't let it go. There you go. Yeah. So me and any more to think the same I guess. Yeah. I mean, yeah, I know he was a good one. So, uh, yeah, I mean, you, uh, if you come in cold, you got to get up there and ready to swing.

14:22Bobby Crosby is with us as we get set for game two between the A's and the Mariners and you and Jeff McNeil have become really close this year. And, and to me, he's, he brings that veteran presence. And the one thing and so many things that stand out about him, Bobby, and maybe you could expand on this. The fact that his head is always in the game. Yeah. We have become close. He's, uh, I mean, we went to the same college. We have a lot of the same, uh, same thoughts and, uh, you know, same hobbies and golf and such. But, uh, yeah, he's a smart baseball player. He, he just, he knows where to be. He, uh, you know, we always pride ourselves at Long Beach on, on, on being dirt bags on being baseball players on getting there. No one, no one where to be knowing what the situation calls for. And that's exactly what he does. I mean, there isn't an exact spot to be on every play because you have to adapt. And he's really get it adapting. He's never just standing still. If you see a baseball player standing still at a point, they're doing something wrong. So he is always moving, always, uh, helping other guys, you know, positioning them on where to be. But, but he's, he's fun to watch. You kind of just zooms around the infield and, uh, and he's always in the right spot.

15:29How do you look at the way that he says focus, Bobby, because they're, they're been science when maybe you guys might be down by eight or nine runs. He's on the bench and comes off the bench. He delivers a base it in the eighth inning. Where does that come from for him? I don't know if it's a Nate. That's he's a baseball player, you know, he's a baseball player. He's always in the game. He's always thinking even when he's not playing, he'll come up to me. You see what this guy did. You see what this guy did. So he's a student of the game. He understands where everybody should be. What should be happy on every play? Um, what you can do to take little advantages. Um, he's big on that. We, I mean, when we're just sitting there hanging out talking, uh, he's always talking about the small aspects of the game stuff. I love so little nuances of the game that that makes makes the game great. And, and he's a student of it and wants to know everything there is. And he's, he's pretty smart. I need to ask you about this. So if you could give us some insight into the golf game of Jeff McNeil. Uh, yeah, he's, he's better than me. Uh, I'm a four. That's your number a little bit. I'm a four handed hat. He's a plus two. And that's a, I mean, he's probably better than a plus two. I mean, we go out and play and he's, he's shooting even one under 200 300 every single time to go out. So he gives me strokes and he loves, uh, he loves grinding me about it.

16:41Uh, one of these days I'm going to beat him. He's, but he's pretty darn good. Do you think golf can help somebody's baseball? Well, if you watch him head, it's, it's hand-eye. I mean, I mean, he loves golf and he plays a good amount. It doesn't affect his baseball swing. I think that's a, that's a big myth. Um, for him, I, I think the hand-eye part could really work. Um, but I don't, I don't know if it, that necessarily helps it. I don't think it hurts it. But, um, if you watch him swing, he, he knows how to put the ball in the ball. It's nice is it to have Denzel Clark back on the eye. I mean, he hasn't played in the big leagues since April. Yeah, it's good to have him back and get it, get him some of bats. I mean, we all know what he can do in the center field. And that's fun to watch. And it's going to help us. Uh, I want to see him take some, take some of that and take some good at bats and build that confidence. He hasn't had a lot of time like straight time just playing and getting big league of bats. So he's seen it with Bolte. Um, he's grown with all the bats he had. So we need that from Den to get out there and, and take some good at bats and figure some things out and start performing. Well, you've been around him a lot. Where do you think his ceiling would be offensively? I mean, he has crazy power. We saw it last year. He has power. He has speed. I think what, what puts you in the coach, the hitting coaches are trying to do is make a more consistent. Um, and that's going to be the thing that is, you know, the more you play the more consistent, you know, be so him being healthy is the, is the biggest factor.

17:54But when the guy has power like that has speed like Bolte, um, they're similar in that way. I mean, the ceiling is super high. So I mean, I just, I just really want to see him be consistent, um, and, and be healthy and, and who knows what he can do. Cause I've seen some good things out of him. So the season ends three weeks from Sunday. What do you want to see from this ball club the rest of the way? Keep competing the way we are. I mean, you know, we know the guys that are hurt. There's, there's no use behind it. We got to compete. We got to find ways to score. Um, whether it's funny, and whether it's hitting run, uh, getting timely hits. And that's the stuff we've been doing as of late last, you know, last week or so. So we got, we got to keep that up. We got to play good defense. We got to pitch well. Um, but, you know, it's, it's good to see guys growing and the growth is good. But at the end of the day, we want to win. So, um, I think that's what I'm going to say. I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say Bu소, uh, I just want to see him keep, keep growing and developing. Okay, well said the words of Bobby Krosbie, Johnny D. And we'll send things back over to you. Now, standing interview with, with Bobby Krosbie, and I love you. What dealt into the golf little bit with Jeff McNeil and the hand, I and just always in the games. Those, those are points. We talk about all the time with McNeil and of course, you know, Bobby has grown very close to, to Jeff McNeil. Again, they both want to be state. They're both baseball grinders.

19:09interesting just here in here in Bobby talk about jumping Neil. Well he's been impressive you know McNeil as you know Johnny and we were kind of half joking on the broadcast last night about. During the middle of the season he was really slumping which is like. We don't understand it because we watched him play all year and the way he could just flip the ball around the time and he's hitting well over 300 since the all star break so even though his average is is just 270 right now. He's a 300 hitter for me. Yes. What about this offense? And look it's not you lost five nights of your offensive core right. This year so guys are stepping up you got the Williams is in the Walton's and some of these guys probably wouldn't be there you know if not for the injuries but what do you make of the offense over the last last couple of weeks. Well it's been impressive you go inside the numbers over the last 12 games they're batting 289 and you know you ran through the Whitney of injuries and so.

20:10Now guys getting a chance to play I think and it can be contagious that sounds cliched but I think I think it's true but you can't help but think about next year so they need gill off to be the gill off of now next year right. Johnny they need Butler. Yeah. Bolte these guys to continue to do what they're doing this year and then hit the ground running next season. What do you look for with Kate Morris tonight. Well it's interesting guy to me because he does have a sinker and he's a ground ball pitcher and we've talked about that at time especially in Sacramento where there is neat guys who put the ball on the ground and so I'm excited to see him pitch tonight but like the great martin Gallego said he's out he'll be able to get real deep in the game maybe 70 75 pitches max. All right. Thank you so much for the visit. Appreciate it. Good to see you. Good to see you too.

21:10Ken Corack, Johnny D. We're going to send it after the break to Chris Townsend and Shootie Babity NBC Sports California A's cast in the A's Radio Network as they get you ready for A's Mariners and we'll talk to you about 40 minutes. A's Mariners and Towny and Shootie coming up next. This has been a presentation of the athletics.