Ep. 13 - Dallas Braden

We welcome on the Mayor of the 209, Dallas Braden. A quick interview, but packed full of content. We cover what it meant to him to play for the Stockton Ports as a hometown kid, how important of a role Dallas' grandmother played in his life, and his surprise draft selection when Dallas was ready to enlist in the army! We hope you enjoy this episode as it will serve as the end of Season 1. We will see you in the fall!

Newly New York Mets 40-Man OF Nick Plummer joins the show. Nick has had a roller coaster of a career making for an outstanding interview. A first-round pick out of Brother Rice High School in Michigan, Plummer spent 6 years with the Cardinals, including 2020. During his 5 playing years, the numbers on Baseball Reference wouldn't show the average consumer that Nick was performing at 1st round level. However, in 2021, Plummer exploded on to the scenes, slashing a career high .280/.415/.894. Splitting the season between AA-Springfield and AAA-Memphis, Nick proved he was a big league talent, if not the most talented player within the Cardinals minor league system. Not selected to the Cardinals 40-Man roster following the 2021 season, Plummer opted for Free Agency and signed a Major-League deal with the New York Mets! Enjoy the interview and leave a 5-Star Review!

An interview the stretches over a wide range of emotions - We have former big leaguer, current minor league pitching coach Clayton Mortensen on the show. So many amazing stories over his lengthy professional career, including his time with the 2013 Boston Red Sox. So many stories over his first true season as a pitching coach. None of those compare to the story of his late son, Miles Mortensen. A tragic and heartbreaking story, Clayton shares the stories of Miles, who was diagnosed with Nueroblastoma at just 2 years old. Miles fought incredibly hard, remained in positive spirits for 4 years, until 2018 when he passed away. Miles is now remembered through the Smiles for Miles Foundation (https://smiles4miles.org), bringing happiness to those kids currently fighting cancer. Clayton praises the Royals, who treated him like family. He praises his teammates, who were a crucial ear for him as he was trying to play with his son fighting hard back home. All in all, this is an excellent interview. We hope you enjoy, and don't forget to leave 5 Stars up top!

The #14 Prospect in baseball, Brennen Davis of the Chicago Cubs, joins the show. A relatively quick sit-down, we touch on the social impacts of having his pedigree, Brennen's experience at the Future's Game, and why he was on the receiving end of so many Hit By Pitches! We had a great time with Brennen as he was kind enough to give us his time while Chef Jenny cooked dinner - We hope you enjoy! Don't forget to leave a 5 Star Rating if you love what you hear today! 

Ryan Jensen, 2019 1st-Round selection for the Chicago Cubs, joins the pod. We talk his wild 2021 campaign, overcoming his 6th-inning woes, how his pitch selection evolved throughout the year, and his goals for 2022. We cover a lot of unique perspective minor leaguers are placed into in regards to prioritizing process over results. Jensen also tells his draft day story and how one person did all the negotiating while Ryan was in the dugout!! Hope you guys enjoy, please make sure to leave 5 star rating!

2 guys who had a huge impact on host Max Bain's rookie season in the High-A Central, Mike Massey and Nick Loftin sit down with us for the better part of 2 hours!! We get to touch on who the in-season matchups went between Max and Nick/Mike, Nick's first professional home run, and much more. Mike Massey dives into the evolution of his game-planning and the importance of Quad Cities River Bandits clubhouse leader Vinnie Pasquantino. Nick gets to explain and talk about the opportunity it was to experience big league camp and have someone like Salvador Perez know his name the day he first steps in the clubhouse. We hope you guys enjoy! Please don't forget to leave us a 5 star rating!

For the first time, we get to sit down with a big leaguer. This was incredibly fun to talk to a guy who has shared a locker room with Mike Trout, Albert Pujols, and AL MVP Shohei Ohtani. We get to talk about his time he spent playing in the Arizona Fall League, how he developed socially in spending the bulk of years playing for multiple, sometimes 3 affiliates in a single year. We had an outstanding time, even got to debrief his Lakers, Bulls, and Bears fandom. Enjoy and make sure to leave a 5 star review!

Our first first-round-pick!!! We sit down with Jordan Wicks to hear about the pre-draft process, his development of off-speed pitches, and what his first taste of affiliate ball was like. A fun interview to say the least - this is absolutely packed with content. We hope you guys enjoy!

Our first interview with a pitching coordinator, we sit down with the great person and baseball mind that is Rob Hill. Rob works as a pitching coordinator for the Los Angeles Dodgers and has made waves in the baseball development community, making headlines in Sports Illustrated and The Athletic being hired as a 24 year old helping the likes of Kenley Jansen and Clayton Kershaw. We talk about an array of things, ranging from crushing wings with big leaguers to talking philosophy as it pertains to his growing ability to communicate. We were even able to coordinate an appearance from his collegiate pitching coach and host Max Bain's South Bend Pitching Coach, Tony Cougole! Thank you all for tuning in - We promise this won't disappoint.

Joe Nahas joins the show as our 5th guest and our 1st since the podcast has hit 1000 downloads! We can't thank you listeners enough and for that, we bring you a special interview. We talk through Joe re-acclimating to the competitive atmosphere after having 2020 off. We also touch on his, not 1, but 2 in-season promotions and the mental aspect of stepping into a new locker room at a higher level. Adjusting to having a flexible role between a long relief spot and starting role, we visit what it's like to have different routines, and finding ways to stick to your process. We hope you enjoy, and thank you again!