 what's up everybody welcome back to sequence i'm your host trevor ploof and today we have another very special guest on the program he co-hosts of the starting nine podcast sideline reporter baseball analyst for mbc sports up in oakland and one of only 23 pitchers in the history of the damn game to go 27 up and 27 down my man dallas lee brayden what's up dude clovie how you doing brother i'm doing great i appreciate you coming on we've been talking for a little bit trying to get you on here and today uh ended up working out i want to ask you to like give us your pitch mix so pitch mix is four seamer two seamer cutter slider and a couple different change-ups you know and a screwball and i think it's important to to note this though the two seamer is something i would tell myself or i would call a sinker and that was because i mentally needed to trick myself into throwing a pitch that was going to get the result i was after and i i don't know that i could get that with a two seam fastball but you could get that with a sinker right so it's kind of how i would trick my i was lying to myself and and the slider the slider was so that i would continue to utilize fastball arm speed and fastball hand speed because if i would tell myself curveball i would slow everything down because i had a i had a i had a nice banger in high school and i i mean that's why i got drafted out of high school was because my curveball but that went away when i discovered the screwball in junior college i picked up a i picked up a ball and threw it into the net in juko and had a funky grip on it and was like whoa how did that happen what's the screwball grip is it a circle change is it a um no it's a uh i'm looking just hold tight let me get a fastball let me get a baseball screwball is not something you see too often uh but you gotta love that dallas is scrounging around looking for a ball he's got one there he's back all right so uh the the change up you know is more here yeah fourth team change up and then you can go with a two team change up as well start moving that guy around but then the screwball is getting getting on the inside of the baseball so with the middle finger are you prone any like that so not not until release so with the middle finger i'm pulling down and then with the index finger i'm pulling this seam as well and so at at release it's just a a flick of the wrist and then a manipulation of the fingers and that's what gets you that you know it's almost like a right-handed slider spin you get a dot and there's certain things that that you know i can do with the ball to bounce it on the ground or throw it up in the air to tell me that i'm getting the spin that i'm looking for all right let's let's get to the about i love that we're talking shop here i could talk baseball all damn all day dude all day and lately it's been we haven't had a lot of baseball talk about so this is nice um this is a game in 2009 and i believe i read that you're the a's opening day starter in 2009 is that correct true story yes i mean that's that's pretty awesome ask that first question ask the first question you want to ask how in the yeah i wasn't asked i wouldn't know like how did it come about justin duksher uh got hit by a bus and and that's how i know he he had uh he had hip surgery and for those who don't know who justin duksher is put some respect on that man's name look him up we're talking about an all-star starter all-star reliever the man did work okay and he did work from the right side you know below hitting speed which is not an easy task but he had some hip issues and that put me in a position barring my health to take the ball on opening day so that that's how that happened i mean nobody can ever take that away from me you know it's such an honor to start opening day even as a position player just getting in the lineup is awesome but to be a pitcher starting is really cool it's it's it's one of those feathers in the cat man no doubt so you uh here we're in texas which is a tough place to pitch already it's a launching pad this is the old texas we're going to see how the new uh stadium out there plays this year but this one was a launching pad and i was going through a bunch of the abes you're like locked in this april i don't know what the numbers were but you aren't missing many spots here in all the abets that i've seen yeah i'm uh early on you know texas being a division opponent as well and knowing what kind of lineup that i was facing early on especially earlier in my career those guys were it was a salty vet lineup knowing what the ballpark was going to play yes like and knowing what kind of stuff i did not have pluffy this lineup is stacked yeah that'd be our point man all right so here we go it's two outs we had the bottom of the third again we're facing michael young here let's start this video up check it out we're going to see a young baby a young baby dalis on the hill right there we got no hair no beard i don't know what you what do you got going is that a little a little goat yeah a little goat little goat piece a little goatee just a little this little bad baby goat and there's that bad man at the plate michael young and you can already see i mean it's the camera angle maybe but he's fucking angled right center yeah he's like hey look everything you're gonna throw right now i'm gonna i'm gonna take your second basement for a fucking ride out to out to that right gap that's gonna happen all right so first pitch here you're the kind of guy that can go anywhere um let's see what we got setting up then boom bang it down and then you like that call early in because now i've given myself the opportunity to expand away if i want to get him out away or i've allowed him to know hey i can come in here not only for a strike but i can come in here off if i need to as well just know that i've already told you that i'm present on the inside you know my game plan you know i'm gonna work away at some point in time but when do we get there how do we get there well let's find out what's what's cool about that you that mindset and i'm thinking now as a hater in the box it's like you think to yourself i don't really need to worry about in when i'm facing a guy uh like you because you're like i can react to the fastball but the truth of the matter is when you're expanding the zone like that now you're gonna you know open up the away side you're throwing the changeups you're maybe changing speeds on fastball that 86 to 89 plays up well and and against a guy like michael young his approach maybe my third bet or which is undoubtedly my third best pitch uh the slider i'm not going to lay that in there and try to throw a first pitch quality strike with that to him because that's soft coming to him lefty on righty and he that's going to be up and fat for him to you know maybe he wants to let it travel and really spin on it or maybe he wants to maybe he wants to shoot it the other way which he's really good at doing i don't want to give him that opportunity all right let's go second pitch here coming back inside right here huh yeah second pitch we're gonna double up oh that's a little slide piece huh yes yes trying to go now it's it's that's at 82 so that's a little i'm trying to cut the baseball just trying to work it in off see if i can get some kind of swing so now i see his feet move i like that as far as that ball kind of ended up off i think it was a good take by him because he kind of tunneled that last pitch the heater in with that slider in and unfortunately he saw it but a good pitch yeah well and that's why i say i like to see his feet move for me because now he's you know he's not necessarily buying into one of the other okay all right here we go so one one you can go anywhere here and looks like we are back and i love this right here with the slide step slide step heater we got guy on first base i think it's marlin bird um not too worried about him going anywhere but the idea there again staying hard because i know he knows i'm gonna throw a change at some point in time he's gonna get the change up so with a guy like michael young it's almost like i know he's already that one pitch ahead of me how do i utilize my next move to to almost make two moves in one where i catch up to him but then pass him as well in this chess game and i'm not going to give in to him and go soft no to hell with that i'm gonna stay hard i'm gonna make him a job because right now it looks like he's fighting off fighting off fighting off he's not ready or anticipating that fastball he's looking to adjust to something soft i agree you can totally see that um and i like that you said that like you could tell that he's late on the heat because he's he's he's looking for that change up word on speed pitch it's a defensive hack on a fastball against a guy who's throwing 86 87 i've been there buddy all right one two now now you you can open your bag of tricks at wherever you want to go but it looks like you're continuing to go inside here yeah this plays back into the yeah you're back oh you're getting booed got to control the running game some people like to say that they control the running game that's cute i eliminated the running mark burley is your guy mark burley that's a great example of that mark burley andy pettit oh yeah yeah so again want to want to keep it in the oh you gotta go back there hold i wasn't ready for that all right you got away with it so leading you saw that people leading up to this yeah one two we've stayed what hard three times right yes he hasn't seen that change up so in this count one two i'm going to go wrinkle here or do we not tell him go ahead yeah go ahead man they already saw it screws up one up so we're trying so we're trying to back foot it i i get away with a mistake here and in my change it no this is not a change okay roar let the people see i'm going to show you right now so you're going to see this you're going to see this slide piece this wow that was gross right that was below average at best look at this thing just a spinner up and and look at where he's he's almost like tied up with it he is you you jammed him tied him up with this slide piece right with an elevated just gross slide piece gross isn't not good it was not not good and it's because he sees it soft out of the hand and he's expecting that pitch right there to continue to fade armside he's not thinking that he's getting my third best pitch with two strikes there's no way he's getting my third best pitch with two strikes right so that's part of that that's part of me trying to stay one step ahead or having to make two moves to every one that he's making because he's so damn good so it's like all right i roll the dice here and try to back foot him with my third best pitch because worst case scenario if i execute he swings and misses or best case scenario for him if i've done my job still he fell he pulls us into felt right and we're still at one two and now i can try to heat him up inside still not giving in and giving him the soft stuff or now i make the decision to go my best versus your best right here right now and and that's what being able to execute with my third best pitch would have done for me but i mean there i get away with one so i don't have to continue in that sequence yes but those are the moves that ensue if i'm not able to get him out this is what you're talking about so right about here mike's picking up this ball and you're saying you guys have faced each other a ton before this yeah so he's expecting change up yes at some point yes right about here he's like okay this ball is gonna come it's gonna come down it's gonna fade away arm side and i'm gonna drive it to you know right field right center whatever it is but as we get here and you're gonna notice how he is tied up on this pitch right there yeah look at how far back look where the barrel's at he's not ready for that pitch it's tying him up like you said it's because i i think at that moment that you pause it where he processes that that is now starting to come to him it's you know he processes that it's soft and it's up and it's a and it's a way at the moment so his brain and his body tells him everything that's correct most of the time which is hammer this soft shit the other way but it just continued to spin just enough towards him where it tied him up and that i mean i got away with one i gotta love it you could you could tell he was just like uh-oh he's like what happened not to this guy well he recognized it way too late right there i mean which is a testament to the kind of how you set him up right there how you were hiding the ball and you tunneled some pitches he had no chance no so dallas you demand this this is a bat number one yes we're bringing it back on for a bat number two which is from a very special day in your career thank you for all the helpful tidbits the insight all the kids love this shit so you put on a masterclass there and how to pitch so we thank you yes yes i'll see you guys back for a bat number two