Episode 94: Justin Topa

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[00:00:24] Get 10% off your first order site-wide with code DREAM the podcast. Make sure to download, leave us a five star review and follow the show wherever you get your audio podcast, those reviews and downloads. They help us out a ton. So if you just take a couple of extra seconds to do it, you're giving us a, you're doing us a big favor. Like, comment, subscribe on YouTube where the full video podcast is and follow. And I got to say, I'm sick of it and I want the warm weather back. So are you going to slide down your driveway? This is what I was asking you pre-recording. I might have to. My driveway is, it's the parking lot for our apartments about five feet off the road and there's this little sloped driveway,

[00:03:01] which is covered in ice.

[00:03:03] It is covered in a sheet of ice about two inches thick.

[00:03:06] And well, I certainly don't worth of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. And to be honest, I don't think I get sick of it. But, dog, me and you are both somewhat healthy people. So, I'd like a little bit of a balance besides only eating peanut butter.

[00:04:22] All right, fair enough. I did essentially in an igloo right now is what in theory, because everything's frozen outside. I get to wait for it all to melt on Wednesdays. It's fun. Yeah, the Pacific Northwest basically says we don't get enough snow or ice every year to put the funds into this stuff, which makes sense. It usually is only a couple days a

[00:05:43] year compared to a lot of other places where it gets really cold and you need street sweepers from MLB pipeline as their number seven international prospect. He gets the Byron Buxton comp. Super athletic is a shortstop now, but can move out to the outfield. We did talk a little bit more about him in our mailbag episode last week. Last week was the mailbag episode. Yeah, I want to say two weeks ago. Now maybe a week and a half ago, but yeah, it's a mailbag

[00:07:03] episode. We did ask for another pod Joe Doyle for a little bit of a scoop on on do well. become stars like Julio, but when you get when you sign really really highly talented international players It's easy to be excited and Celeste in was the pinnacle of that last year, but to all Joseph look He's a shortstop But he's a dude that's so athletic that even at the out grows the position or they just decide maybe he's not a true infielder He can play center field that they have to insanely good speed

[00:08:20] He's got power that speeds getting better like there's a ton of tools in this guy in this guy's belt that

[00:09:25] but with more international signings, we're talking about from A plus ball down from Everett down. That's where the strength is and it continues to be fortified at every level.

[00:09:29] And how about the short stops? How about the short stops in this system, especially at

[00:09:34] the younger levels? Like you can go as far down now as DeWell Joseph in terms of age range,

[00:09:38] being 16 years old. You take a step up, there's Felney and Celestine, you take another step

[00:09:43] up. There's the three first rounders, Colt Emerson, Ty Pete, or I should say, Fermel was last year a little bit, I think. Was he so? Thought he was at the Academy. He was there in spring training for a little bit. So maybe they'll get a glimpse of DeWell Joseph and bring him up to Arizona for at least a period of time. But again, it'll be nothing more than probably a lot of instructional work. Maybe he'll play in a little bit of the backfield games if they feel like he's ready for it.

[00:11:00] But yeah, he's a while away.

[00:11:02] It's just when he gets to, when the time gets here,

[00:11:05] there's reason to be excited.

[00:11:06] So, DeWell wines, get all that, some great pizza, and a good time, it was a little bomb. But I would be too if I finished runner up in a fantasy football league. So in case any of you were curious, we don't know all 12 guys that were playing in the league.

[00:13:40] But it sounds like those two were in the championship.

[00:13:42] And Rojas gets bragging rights for the next year.

[00:13:45] So Justin Topa, awesome guy, big football fan. And they make getting measured easy. Simply set up your measurement profile in less than 10 minutes. You can send your measurements online from the comfort of your home or make an appointment at one of our showrooms. Find the perfect fit with Indochino. Go to Indochino.com and use code PODCAST to get 10% off any purchase of $3.99 or more.

[00:15:00] That's 10% off with code PODCAST.

[00:15:03] Hey, are you planning to get an updated COVID-19 vaccine?

[00:15:06] Yep.

[00:15:07] I don't want a ton of documentation. Is this like a consensus in the bullpen or is this

[00:16:23] sauce just stir just like stir and stuff up with says, oh, I can listen to an argument on this. No, everybody's open minded. I was talking with the other day, it's like, we have a lot of time in the bullpen in the first couple of ways. We feel it out, especially with our starters. It's kind of nice last year. You didn't have to get moving too early. So, yeah, you look down

[00:17:43] with bullpen, you kind of see the hijinks going on early the second game by getting hit by a home run by Ted Williams and that was supposedly was where the guy was sitting and yeah you like look at it from the seat and you're like there's zero chance anybody's getting a ball out here especially I know that years ago I think saw us mentioning it too like Big Pop he tried to do it with like a metal bat in batting practice like the perfect you know the perfect scenario to try

[00:19:03] and do it all things like lined up and he still couldn't do it so it's like If that's the actual story that this guy just woke up to being hit by a ball in right field, I had to say, you know, there's a lot of factors that could have been involved. Somebody gets through the ball. You know what I mean? Did you guys run that past the Red Sox bullpen too? Is this something they've already discussed? Because those bullpen's at Fenway are right next to each other. It's easy conversation.

[00:20:20] We did not. We should though. We should. Maybe this next year when we're up there,

[00:20:24] we'll see what they have their tape is on. I'm sure they've heard the story. Obviously, And everybody's like talking about, you know, I think I ended up selling for almost 180 grand or 170 grand I don't know recently and Somebody found that Original photo and it's not even Tom Brady. It's just like his face photoshopped over somebody So like that is kind of the example I guess right like you see you know a fictitious

[00:21:40] player grand Tom Brady is a real person, but

[00:21:43] fictitious

[00:21:44] You know sin everybody, baseball, photos, whatever it might be. So that's kind of where the collection started. I thought the opportunity to be a boy for the double-A mess when I was in middle school slash high school. So you got to see a lot of those guys, get some cool memorabilia from them. And it's kind of transitioned to now.

[00:23:01] I collect a lot more, but more specific

[00:23:04] to what I'm looking for.

[00:23:06] Back then, it was kind of like, I'm scouring pretty, pretty often just to see what's out there. And I also try, like I've sold a bunch of stuff. So I'm on there, you know, buying and selling pretty much all the time, trying to upgrade certain stuff, different areas within the last five years or so. I think that I've kind of shifted, shifted my, my thought to, to's kind of tough. I would say probably something like Mickey Mantle, Mickey Mantle rookie car, like that's even like the perfect PSA 10, even PSA 9s go for like 100 grand plus. So it's like, I probably will never buy one of those, but you can get some pretty worse

[00:25:41] condition, I guess you'd say worse condition examples for decent prices, but still they're like I said, growing up around baseball, around sports, learning stuff from my dad. One of our favorite movies is Field of Dreams. So there was a clip in the beginning of the movie where they show the old Cracker Jack cards of Schuylstow Jackson and different guys throughout that. So those would be some cool cards in trying to get those older free 1930 Cracker Jack or T206

[00:27:06] of the Honus Wagner. to like collect all the guys that he managed like a card from them. And so it was pretty cool. That kind of got my wheels turned a little bit a couple years ago. The only thing about it and then recently thought, you know, that'd kind of be cool, you know, maybe get a box and then fill it up with guys that played with, you know, it seems like you play against everybody and then like you play with

[00:28:22] half those guys.

[00:28:22] This is the way that baseball is.

[00:28:23] You're always intertwined somehow.

[00:28:26] I assume you at least have a Julio rookie card. So I started a box a couple years ago of just trying to I'm like the working part so like Double-pooly or rookie cars and guys throughout the league you know body with junior and Guys like that so just so that's almost insider trading you might have the fed show up on your door Yeah, I don't think I've profited off of it

[00:29:43] But no, it's it when he brought it up. I was like, I just thought that you kind of turned into your animal scout

[00:30:46] I would say like valuable wise like monetarily. There's a couple. There's other things that like are just like special to me just because of you know collecting with my dad and something like that.

[00:30:52] So recently I think one of them actually my dad was down here the other day this weekend and

[00:30:56] he had a 1953 off-sadule page in his collection. He got it when he was a kid. like sentimentally I think like you know my like my day be Jersey something that Didn't Jersey with a lot of cards Nothing that just a culmination out. It's something that's very priceless to me and my family. So it's a cool addition to the collection If we were gonna get into some of your pitching stuff now, and that's all really cool by the way

[00:32:21] So I was never I collected sports cards a little bit growing up

[00:32:24] But I kind of got out of it with them and you kind of hear some stuff here and there. But yeah, you look back and it seems like every year there's a handful of guys that you see kind of bounce around and carefully find their footing in the big leagues and then they get an opportunity and kind of run with it. So, yeah, so going into getting traded, it was exciting,

[00:33:44] right? That's kind of the first thing that pops in and talked your bullpen, your mechanics, et cetera, what stood out to you the most? I think it was just the knowledge, like how much information was available and how simple they projected that information.

[00:35:03] I can't remember if I was having a camp.

[00:35:05] It wasn't much more than a week.

[00:35:07] Yeah, it's do this so instead of the negative it's more of a positive positive positive positive was there a pitch for you that you thought specifically took off because they're just like hey we believe in you let it rip.

[00:36:22] Yeah for sure it was definitely the change up anymore? And I was like, no one's ever really said it's good. And he's like, no, like let's, you know, I think it can be a weapon against lefties. So we kind of just ran with it. I think it also helped the fact that having the cutter against lefties to kind of run something in and it guys all sinker in the slider

[00:37:42] and then, you know, being able to throw the change up,

[00:37:45] you know learn a sweeper here and it's funny I've told Bradshaw all the time I've never been in the least found a video of Bradshaw talking about his slider grip and like what his thought was with the slider. This was bad I said back in 2020

[00:39:02] it was one of his prospect videos so I credit Bradshaw a little bit to learn in the grip but

[00:40:04] in you, let's stick you in the bullpen, make your stuff play up and get the best version of you possible. But YouTube both have a very unique arm slot when it comes to throwing a baseball.

[00:40:10] So how much did you learn from Paul in the four months you guys shared a bullpen together?

[00:40:16] Yeah, Paul was the best. I think we all missed Paul. He was able to bring us under his wing a him day in day out, you know, going to work and what he did to be prepared to pitch at the back end of the end of the game It was in Shremel for almas. You see how dominant he's been over the past couple years You try to just see that and try to add that to your routine as much as possible Okay, you mentioned brash a minute ago and I want to circle back to something even as a big league reliever

[00:41:44] When you got to the Mariners the first time slider. Like, if that just doesn't encapsulate everything about Matt Ratch, I don't know what does. Yeah, exactly. I think I've seen that video like a hundred times in the saw season, like it's always just being retweeted or on the pitching ninja or something.

[00:43:01] I just watch it and just laugh.

[00:43:02] It's like, this is absurd.

[00:43:06] Do you have a giveable strike effect that it's either running a little bit of away or a little bit cut. There was times last year where I think I would try to manipulate it a little too much

[00:44:22] and it would just back up, get some weak contacts. And kind of use that to my advantage. Kind of funny, in the spring training last year, after one of my games, Skip came up in the dugout, and he was like, hey, like, you know, the cutter looks great. I don't see you throwing a ton of cutters this year.

[00:45:41] I think you're gonna get a lot of strikeouts

[00:45:42] on like front hip, front hip sinkers.

[00:45:45] And I was like, weird point in my career. Getting drafted, obviously that was a goal, you know, get drafted, get play Pro Ball, didn't really know, you know, growing up, I didn't think I would ever get to play let alone call or in college, let alone in professional baseball.

[00:47:01] It was always like, you know,'re looking for pitching. If he wants to keep playing. And he gave my numbers to the manager and I got his number and I was expecting to play one year in any ball and kind of just ride off into the sunset, I guess, go get a real job.

[00:49:40] And after rehab, all that time, I was like,

[00:49:43] well, I just had a great year.

[00:49:44] Why not try to throw for teams, see what happens with a group of guys, like I said, you have such a wide range of guys, college guys, guys that play in the big leagues. A former teammate of mine, you know, Mike, my friend so, so with the pirates. So it was like that familiarity with a couple of guys and then also being tied in being healthy for the full year was big. Didn't really have to rehab,

[00:51:02] which was nice. So yeah, just like group of guys know, you don't get paid a ton of money. You're kind of just playing the game for the love of the game more than anything. It's like playing for the exposure. It was a cool league for me too, because like I said, it was close to home in New York. There was three teams in New York, New Jersey,

[00:52:20] and then three teams up in Canada.

[00:52:21] So you're road trips, you kind of knew where you're going.

[00:52:24] You kind of got to explore different places.

[00:52:26] But I think overall probably would have retired. Tim Ponto, we were working out at the gym and like I mentioned

[00:53:40] earlier, I worked with the same pitching guy for years, George Zirkel. So it was a three

[00:53:44] of us. We would show up to the gym. We would turn on like three lights in the entire place. Thankfully that guy had blives and threw a couple guys in there and we did some lives and it was pretty eye opening because I had thrown relatively hard in my career. You know, occasionally it ended up 95, 96, 97. For some reason everything clicked kind of this day and go out there first, I guess

[00:55:00] quote unquote first inning of this live and that was on a flight morning out there in Arizona. So I think it happened very quickly and it's funny now, like I've heard the other side, I was going into the facility for just another Friday workout and just turned into something more. Have you ever asked Matt Arnold about the story or just Murphy? No, it's funny. So that spring, that was my first big league camp. I debuted in 2020 during

[00:57:43] COVID and then so that was my first big league camp. And they called me up to the big leagues. So I think just exchange a couple of sweets there. But it would be cool to catch up eventually and and talk to them. I'm just picturing Arnold like sitting in bed like you said, like actually eating chips scrolling on Twitter like the rest of the video pops across his feet. And all of a sudden his eyes like pop open. It's like, well, this guy has pretty good

[00:59:01] stuff. I better stop what I'm doing. I better send this

[00:59:03] for somebody else grabs him. So it was cool. And I had also now so it happened pretty quick. Justin, if we had five short wrap up questions for you as we start to conclude this thing, we asked a bunch of the big ligers these same ones just to try to let fans get to know you guys a little bit better. First one I've got for you is your go-to pregame and postgame meal is well. Ooh, I don't really have if you asked me this drink in the ball

[01:00:21] it was before every start I would have a bowl like a

[01:00:25] turkey sub it was like turkey lettuce tomato man.

[01:01:26] it's like, you can only eat so much. Like, have you pulled that? Don't get me wrong. I always have a couple of times a week.

[01:01:27] That's the urban legend we seem to hear is we hear every single day. And I think to myself,

[01:01:33] like, even as a pickleer, that feels like a lot of money, especially when there's food

[01:01:36] at the clubhouse or whatever.

[01:01:38] Yeah, he would walk in with his bullet bag more often than I think.

[01:01:43] Justin, if it makes you feel any better, oh, I should go back and watch the whole thing. So then I started the next year watching all of the episodes. So yeah, definitely those two. Me and my wife are big, like Chicago PD, Chicago Fire, Chicago Med people. So we're only going to touch up on it. I think we've talked for the most part,

[01:03:04] there's a new season coming soon, right? Little whole experience Obviously with during covid so it's a little different than that and how does now guys can get up and mingle and playing cars and so like that Where? During covid it was kind of like all right You're sitting in your seat and but you also walk on on the plane and they got all the snacks and the food you can think of

[01:04:20] So you're never going hungry

[01:04:22] Yeah, I'll just say any to this question. It's what's your favorite baseball player of all time. So I'm going to change it up on you. Who's your second favorite baseball player of all time?

[01:05:42] Yeah, obviously first one. Definitely Derek Jeter I still get chills thinking about like going to the Yankee Stadium as a kid and hearing you know, an understand man for the first time that Yankee Stadium as a fan and just like, wow, like this game is pretty much over.

[01:08:02] to, you know, kind of date things. So I kind of fall in love with that.

[01:08:04] Everything's, you know, it's probably something,

[01:08:07] like flipping houses or renovating houses

[01:08:10] and doing something in real estate.

[01:08:13] That's a good one.

[01:08:14] Well, Justin, this has been awesome.

[01:08:16] We appreciate big time you taking all the time to sit out

[01:08:19] and talk with us.

[01:08:20] This has been a blast and we certainly hope

[01:08:22] to do it again soon.

[01:08:23] No, definitely.

[01:08:24] I appreciate it.

[01:08:25] Thanks for having me on. com slash Marine layer pod clicking that link helps support this podcast, but also gets you 10% off your first month of better help. So you can connect with a therapist and see if it helps you. So if you're struggling, consider online therapy with better help, click the link in the description or visit better help.com slash Marine layer pod.

[01:09:42] I really enjoyed that conversation with Justin Tobin. I'll tell you why I never got to meet Justin.

[01:09:45] When I was at the field, I got one weekend've talked to on the field, on the podcast, they've all been great. We talk about that all the time. And all of them have very interesting stories. But when we say, yeah, he's a very normal dude. Like he's a big football fan. He has a sports card collection. He like all this stuff. He was, he's a big Eagles fan. So he was talking about getting ready for the playoff game and all that stuff.

[01:11:00] Yeah.

[01:11:01] So he was, he was awesome.

[01:11:02] And he just happened to also be really smart, worked his tail off to get to the big leagues,

[01:11:07] throws a lot of athletes, especially major league baseball and especially the social media world, we can compare and contrast everything everyone else does to ourselves, you can go see that there are 21 year olds who blow the socks off of everyone in major league baseball like Julio Rodriguez. But the fact is that that's the exception and not really the norm and that everyone,

[01:12:23] if they're talented enough and hard working enough can get to where they want to listen to the full form pod, you can do so wherever you get your audio podcast. Make sure to download, subscribe, or follow the show I should say, and leave us a five-star review of those downloads and reviews. Help out a ton. Like, comment, subscribe on YouTube, where our full video podcast is, and check us out on social media, on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube shorts at Marine Layer Pod. That's TJ, I'm Lyle. As always, we thank you guys for tuning in.