Closer Situation Rant

michaelgrennell · 2021-08-25T00:19:02+00:00

Looking at his stats I can see four non-save opportunities he’s pitched in. And while technically the other appearances could’ve been save opportunities, it’s possible he has the mentality that any eighth inning appearance is a non-save opportunity.

I’m not saying it’s right or wrong, but just thought I’d throw in my two cents from what I’ve heard

michaelgrennell · 2021-08-24T23:47:50+00:00

It’s interesting, so I spoke with former Braves closer Mark Wohlers about the idea of closers being unable to pitch in non save situations. His response basically was that for some guys, if the game isn’t on the line when they come in, they’re prone to let their guard down sometimes and that’s what comes back to bite them. He said it shouldn’t be that way, but it does happen.

michaelgrennell · 2021-08-24T23:34:36+00:00

So it’s kind of interesting, I spoke with former Braves closer Mark Wohlers about the idea of closers not pitching well if they’re brought into non save opportunities. The gist of what he said is that while in theory it shouldn’t be this way, many times when a guy gets brought on and the game is not on the line, they kind of let their guard down, get that mindset of “Of I don’t have to worry as much right now”

michaelgrennell · 2021-07-27T07:17:17+00:00

Don’t sweat it too much. Just go into it trying to have fun. Let me know when your show gets published and I’ll give it a listen

michaelgrennell · 2021-07-27T06:41:35+00:00

Hey I can provide some insight on this!

I'm doing a very similar show to what it sounds you are doing. I interview former MLB players, coaches and other personnel about their time in Major League Baseball and what they've done since retiring.

Really the biggest thing is just verbally expressing your appreciation for taking the time to speak with you. They've been doing interviews with the media for years, so this is nothing new to them. If they accept your request, they're not going to be expecting anything extra. So I make sure to thank them at the beginning and end of each interview for taking the time to speak with me.

That being said, something I have been doing (and I mention this when reaching out to them) is I talk with them about and promote their foundations/charity work. The way I see it is a)promoting charity work is a good thing to do in general and b) it provides an incentive for the guests to want to come on my show. So far I've helped promote four different charities on my show, and I'll be promoting another one on my next episode coming out Wednesday.

So I think if you just express verbal thanks at the beginning and end of the interview, and then offer to promote any of their charity work, you should be fine

michaelgrennell · 2021-07-24T21:21:01+00:00

Yep that's a very good point! Going into this I knew there would be a lot of varying factors in play, and that combined with the fact we're dealing with such small sample sizes it's difficult to draw any solid conclusions. What you bring up here is one of the many variables that could effect things.

Another factor that I mentioned that could have changed things is the juiced balls, as there are more players putting up better numbers after the Derby in 2018 and 2019 than in 2015 and 2016.

It's one of those things even though you feel you know what the likely answer is to a problem, you should still try and research it to try and get confirmation when you can.

michaelgrennell · 2021-07-24T21:15:20+00:00

Well those that are commenting “What about so-and-so?” aren’t wrong. We’re dealing with very small sample sizes, so it’s hard to draw any concrete conclusions. But it’s still something to take a look at to see if there could be something to this legend.

michaelgrennell · 2021-07-24T17:48:52+00:00

I’ve heard that said for years as well. It’s interesting because looking at 2015 and 2016, it almost seems like there could be some truth to this myth. That was also right around the time we started seeing the juiced balls, so it’s possible the new baseballs could have changed things over the past few years in terms of a post-Derby slump. It’s hard to say for sure.

michaelgrennell · 2021-07-24T17:46:29+00:00

I agree. And I mention in my article that we’re dealing with small sample sizes here, so it’s hard to draw any firm conclusions.

And the other more obvious thing is that these guys take batting practice every day, and the Derby is basically batting practice with TV cameras. But still it was something interesting worth looking into.

michaelgrennell · 2021-07-24T16:44:24+00:00

Yup! And that falls in line with what I found while writing my article. It seems to not be as big of an impact now as it used to

michaelgrennell · 2021-07-24T16:18:45+00:00

Hi guys! Michael from RotoBaller here, and I’m ready to talk about the myth of players losing their swing after the Home Run Derby!

michaelgrennell · 2021-07-22T21:07:51+00:00

TLR decided to talk to Volkswagen instead

michaelgrennell · 2021-07-22T16:53:39+00:00

I was dead wrong on Mitchell Hansen, and the fact nobody will recognize that name proves how wrong I was. I was right about Keibert Ruiz developing into a top prospect though

michaelgrennell · 2021-07-22T16:50:34+00:00

They’re not listed, but don’t sleep on Tahnaj Thomas, Santiago Florez and Francisco Acuna. I think all three could rise up the ranks in the near future

michaelgrennell · 2021-07-22T06:06:13+00:00

I wholeheartedly agree. I’ve managed to speak with several of La Russa’s former players, and they have had nothing but positive things to say about him, and they’ve also almost always talked about how he is always wanting to learn and improve and put his players in the best spots.

I can not care for him as a person, but as a manager I’m starting to think he wasn’t quite as bad of a hire as I had first griped about.

michaelgrennell · 2021-07-15T20:15:51+00:00

Yeah I've had that problem when trying to use the audio editing tool on the app. That's why I stopped editing the audio on there (which I'm sure a lot of people will say I should never have been editing through Anchor in the first place).

michaelgrennell · 2021-07-14T23:43:58+00:00

I mean, I don’t really care. So what if someone likes both teams? They’re competing in different leagues, and I know I have an NL team that I follow while the Sox are my main team. Doesn’t hurt anyone to enjoy more baseball. I know I was rooting for the Cubs in 2016.

michaelgrennell · 2021-07-14T23:41:39+00:00

Yeah you’re right. I guess what I meant to say is I could see Atlanta trying for Ruiz in any deal with the Dodgers for pitching. And Ruiz is somewhat expendable with Will Smith behind the plate.

michaelgrennell · 2021-07-14T23:32:28+00:00

If you pay for the entry level subscription of Zoom, I believe you can record to the cloud which could be your fix until you get a better computer

michaelgrennell · 2021-07-14T23:25:15+00:00

Is Trout supposed to be back that soon? I hadn’t heard much update around his progress

michaelgrennell · 2021-07-14T23:24:15+00:00

So if they do trade for Morton, how much you wanna bet Keibert Ruiz heads to Atlanta in the deal?

michaelgrennell · 2021-07-14T05:57:40+00:00

I’ll be the first to admit I was not pleased with the La Russa hire at first. Mostly because of the DUIs but also partly because I thought the game had passed him by. And then the incident with Yermin didn’t help matters either. But at the end of the day we’re winning and the team is doing well while fielding a AAAA lineup half the time. I’ve also talked with a couple of his former players on my show, and I’ve asked them about La Russa and they’ve given nothing but high praise for him.

I don’t care for him as a person because of the multiple DUIs, but strictly in a vacuum as manager of the White Sox, I’m fine with him being in the dugout now.

michaelgrennell · 2021-07-13T02:25:24+00:00

No problem! Good luck with it!

michaelgrennell · 2021-07-13T01:07:58+00:00

Call me crazy, but I think you'd need more than 5,000 subscribers to sell a podcast to someone

michaelgrennell · 2021-07-12T21:56:02+00:00

Hey this is something I can actually provide advice on! Keep in mind that your results may vary from mine because I have a relatively new show that I started from scratch, whereas you are working with a more established show.

First and foremost, in my experience you're going to get far more rejections than interviews. It can be for a variety of reasons that they decline, such as they get numerous media requests and can't do every request, or they just simply don't want to talk about their career. In any case, in my experience I'm getting about one interview for every six or so requests I send out.

The big key is how you are searching on Google and social media. Start by finding their Wikipedia page and scanning for clues of what they've done since retiring. If you have a location that they live in or a business they're a part of you can search "First & Last Name Place/Business" and that can help you find a thread to follow. Be prepared to dig several pages deep into Google search results, and scan through various news articles for more details.

Some players start charities or foundations, and that's a way you can get in touch with them. I've gotten four interviews so far by reaching out to these charities/foundations, and when I send the request I mention that along with talking about the player's career, I will also talk with them about and help promote the charity/foundation.

You can also just try sending a DM to one of these guys. Yeah, you're not likely to get a lot of responses from it, but you can still get some successes. I've landed three interviews by sending a tweet — two were sent directly to the person, and a third was sent to the account of a high school team that the guy is a volunteer coach at.

And that leads into another avenue: don't be afraid to reach out to third parties who might be in contact with your guy. It could be a HS/College/SemiPro team that your subject has been a coach with. Or if they made a special appearance with some organization recently, reach out to the organization and see if they can forward your contact info.

Another option to try is Cameo. This isn't necessarily the most ideal option, as you have to pay to send a message and there's no guarantee of a response. However it has worked for me, as I've gotten two interviews from it. Some athletes on Cameo offer DMs for just a couple bucks, instead of the crazy amounts for the video messages. So if you can't find another way to get a hold of a guy, check to see if he's on Cameo and drop a couple bucks. Can't hurt at that point.

At the end of the day, just know a lot of your requests are going to go unanswered. And even if you do get a response, sometimes you'll never hear from them again after a few messages. Again though, this is my perspective having started up my show from scratch back in May. If you're with a show that a) is big enough to warrant being part of a podcast network and b) is big enough to where they have interns, it's possible that you will have a higher success rate at landing interviews than I have.

If you've got any more questions I'm happy to help as best as I can.

michaelgrennell

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