 What's up, everybody? Welcome back to Sequence. I'm your host, Trevor Ploof, and we are here for a bat number two, where I go over a bat of myself. This one's really special to me because it was at a time in my career where it was like, do or die for me. 2012, I came into the season as an outfielder. I had played shortstop my entire career, got to the big leagues, did it for a few years, or just up and down, and was horrible. I was a bad defender at a position where defense is a premium. A premium is placed on your defense. I just wasn't cutting it. So I got a call from Trevor Ryan, and he was our general manager in the off season, and he said, hey, we're going to try in the outfield. So I worked that entire spring training in the outfield. I was out of options, so I kind of knew I was going to make the team, but I knew that bats were going to be tough to come by. I was learning a new position, so I had to think about that. To be honest, the season just started horribly for me. I wasn't playing a lot, and when I was playing, I wasn't playing well. I worked really hard at being a good outfielder, but I'd never done it, and it wasn't an easy transition for me. Here I am. It's like, I almost said, May 2012. Our starting third baseman at the time was Danny Valencia. He was struggling, and they thought that he could use some time down in AAA. They ended up sending him down, and really had a necessity. I just went and played a game, a third base. They knew I could play in-field, so I started the game third, and I think I hit a homer, and Guardi was all about that. He's like, let's get this guy back in the line of the next day, and I want to say I had another big day at the plate, and because of that, I just kept getting put out there, and it really steamed rolled or snowballed, whatever you want to say. I started to play really well, especially offensively. I was hitting homers, and driving in runs, and I looked like a different hitter all of a sudden, and I don't really remember exactly what sparked that. I do remember the feeling, though. I had gotten kind of into my legs. You'll see this swing and setup is completely different from the first abat that you watched. I was in my legs, almost pre-loaded, and I was trying to do anything just to see the pitch as best as I could. I felt powerful doing this, and as soon as I kind of got more regular at bats, I turned those into productivity. Playing every other day or every four days wasn't easy for me. I'd never done it. I was always a starter in my entire minor league career, so I didn't have the ability to take two or three days off and then go up there and put a good abat together. So I think that was a big part of it. I was just playing more at this time. Like I said, kind of out of necessity. Flash four, I'd already gone off. I'd hit a zillion homers. Just kind of out of nowhere, but it was awesome feeling. I'll never forget it. I probably never had it. I didn't have a streak like this again my entire career. A couple good weeks here and there, but this was like, I went to the field. I knew I was going to hit a home run. That's the feeling I had. I was like, I don't know. Maybe I'll hit two. Every single day, I was like, I'm going to go there and bash this whoever's pitching. It was a really cool feeling. So this is like right in the middle of it. Milwaukee's in town. Yvonne Igariata's on the mountains. This is a cool series for me because I had friends on the Brewers. That's a big kind of like rivalry in the state of Minnesota. The interleague series is always packed. So a lot of fans in the stands and this is just a really good abat. This is when I'd go back and I knew I was, you could just tell how locked in I was here. Even the foul balls and takes, everything was really nice, on time, aggressive. It's probably the most confident I'd ever been in the batter's box in my entire life. So it's cool to go back and watch it. We're going to play the second or I think it's my third abat of the game here. I had already hit another home run in like my second abat, which would give me like five homers in three days or something like that. So then I'm coming up again here full of confidence and Gallardo is throwing the book at me. Another chess match of an abat. So that's, let's get the screen up. Check it out. You can see there I am 2012, June 15th. I forgot to say this is on my birthday. So here I am walking up feeling good about myself. I think they're going to show my first homer here and just kind of a line drive and go back here. See my setup a little bit. See, I'm like spread out a little bit more. I'm leaning back. I get this pushback and now I'm cocked. You see all of my weight, you know, kind of in the back upper hip. I've coiled there. I'm strong there. I'm balanced, as you can see. And that is just unleashing everything I have coiled into that swing, which is kind of what you want to do. So yeah, that was a solo homer. Put us up one nothing. Feel myself right there. A little skippy. I don't know what the heck that was. Okay. But here is pitch number one. And you can even see that take right there. That's a little curveball and just I'm on it. So anyways, 01. I guess I should preface this with Gallardo has every pitch in the book. I mean, he probably has six pitches he throws cutter slider curveball change up to Seymour for Seymour. He's got everything's one of those guys that you have to kind of pick a zone and just go if you try to cover all these different pitches, just not going to work out for you. And at this point I was pulling the ball a ton. So I was kind of looking more like in or at least even if the ball was on the outer half, I was trying to pull it to like left center. It was just a phase I was in. Josh Willingham had convinced me like just go up there and try to hit some homers poolside and it had been working for me. So you'll see that I'm kind of on that zone. So anyways, 01 here, you just think your curveball, I don't really know what to expect. I'm really looking middle. I'm so locked in right here. That's all I kind of really had to do was just look for a ball in the middle of the plate and I would adjust to it. And that's that's like if you ask somebody what does it feel like to be locked in? That's what it feels like to be locked in. Throw the ball in the middle of the plate and I'm going to do damage no matter what pitch it is. So anyways, here's 01 young TP right there. Spit on it little four Seamer down in the way. Easy take for me. You can just tell how locked in I am. And you can see right there how I'm kind of like diving in also that was, you know, I'm wanting to pull the ball and you can see kind of where my foot ends up here. If I get it. So yeah, I'm diving in right there. Anything over the plate I'm looking to pull. This one just happens to come out low in a way. Easy take. I think it's a baby Maldonado behind the plate there. 01 I'm just locked in again just looking for anything over the plate. He wants it away. And that's a really good take right there. That's this cutter. Now just watch it. Comes out low. I see it the whole way. Don't know who the empire was, but good call right there blue. So here we are to one. I think so far he's gone curveball, four Seamer cutter. Again, you're just like what they throw the kitchen sink and I'm looking middle of the plate to one here. So it throws a slow curve right there. And you can see he set up middle. He just wants to fore strike. And even though I found that went off out in front of I still get my barrel to the ball. I'm still on it. There wasn't really anything fooling me. I was just a little out in front there. Good pitch. Good pitch by him to one for sure. Cool little shot right there. Looks like it was a stormy day. Packed field. No shift on me yet, which is cool. Shift suck for hitters. Oh, call time out right there. Get back to box. I'm trying to think what he's going to do. It's hard to think along with him. He's got so many pitches. Again, I'm out of zone. He's going away. And that's a four Seamer fouled it off. Pretty swing right there. Good two strike approach right there. I think at this time, you know, with a two strike approach, I'm still looking to pull the ball. But again, you just kind of got to be able to adjust on the fly. So he's going away right there, fouled it off. You know, see another pitch here. Let the see another pitch. And there it goes with a slow curve again. And you can see like I'm on it. But that was a ball. You know, I shouldn't have swung at that, but I still got the barrel to the ball. Battling right now. 2-2, he could go anywhere. And I know that again, I'm just kind of looking middle of the zone. And I'm going to do damage still. That was my mindset during this time right here. So now he wants something down in a way. You see him all the time. I was got his glove there, getting ready to set up. And this is where he wants this pitch. And same pitch right there. And now he knows he can't go back to that because that's a much better swing, better off right there. Again, foul ball doesn't look great coming off the bat, but he sees my timing and sees me see in that pitch better. So now if I limited that pitch, I know he's not going to go back there. I'm probably thinking fastball right here if I had to guess. Maybe that cutter away or something like that. But you see right there, I think he just flashed it, what he wants. See if we can get it on camera right here. That's a whole hand wiggle. That's usually a changeup, which I haven't seen this at bat. So it's a good selection by him. 2-2, he wants it away. Those the changeup, leaves it over the play, and you can just see how locked in I was. I hadn't even seen that pitch that at bat. 88 just ran right back into my barrel and I crushed it. Second home of the day, like I said, I was just on a tear that week. It's my birthday. I'm feeling it. People are going nuts. Here's this little thing I used to do feeling myself. I'm sorry that I used to do that. It's embarrassing. Look at this. It's gross. I don't even know why I did that. I'm not really sure. People are loving me. There's Carl Pavano, and here's some slo-mo. I love this. Oh my. All right. You know I love the slo-mo. Let's go back. This girl can't believe it right here. That was a John Boy thing right there. All right. So starts there and you're going to see it outside part of the play, but it runs back and I just walloped that ball. Check how my hands stay back there. I'm a little out in front of it. You can see my weight leak forward right there, but look at those hands still back whack through it. I had my hand up like I guess I was pimping that. I don't know. I definitely was feeling myself and shaved head and all. I can't believe it. This guy's like, can you believe it? I'm like, not really. I'll just say it. Yeah. Oh, there's seventh homer on the homestand. Honestly, there's just no better feeling than that when you're locked in. Another chest match up at bat. I think the main takeaway here, if you watch my two of bats with me is you got to be able to make adjustments. I did it throughout my whole career. I was never a great hitter, but I was able to make enough adjustments to produce and was able to stick around for quite some time because of it. Don't be afraid to change things up. If something's not working, figure something out. Definitely fun going over those two of bats. I don't know if we'll do any more of these, but I think it was a good to do it and change it up a little bit. Thanks for joining me. Next week we'll have another guest on, something awesome. Hope you guys are doing well. Thank you very much.