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I'm your host, Trevor Plouffe. This episode is brought to you by DraftKings and back for a bat number two, our guy Chris Archer. Chris, what's up my man? Man, I'm enjoying this so much. I'm looking forward to going through this next AB. We were just saying we're sending you a bat up. You said seven pitches in and I'm in a jam and I got one soda in the box. We got eaten on third, rendone on first. We'll get to the abat. Okay. But everyone that watched the first episode, they realized how in depth, whenever we have pictures on this show, it really surprised me just how in depth the thought process is. And hitters are the same way. But there's a lot of guys that will just rather see the ball hit the ball. And I don't know, maybe there's some pictures that do that too. I'm just going to throw what I throw. But the game is moving towards knowledge and technology and grasping that part of your development. So my question to you to start this episode off is, have you found one piece of technology, whether it be the slow-mo cameras, the analytics, maybe even in your training, what do you think has benefited you the most of all the things that have come about and say, ah, last three, four years? Yeah. I'll say the biggest thing for me is what we touched on earlier is being able to say all I want to see are fastballs similar to mine because there's a database of everything that profiles similar to yours with movement and velocity. And how does this hitter do against those pitches? I mainly look at the fastball just because my slider, it does different things and it's hard to put it in one category. I usually check, okay, how does this guy handle the ball? My fastball, fastballs like mine, end zone, out of zone, up, down, in, out, whatever it may be, so that I know where I can go with one of my best pitches. And if I know that if I establish that, everything else is going to play. The changeup is going to play underneath it. The slider is going to play underneath it the other way. So for me, being able to extract the exact fastball that I throw and then see how it does against one through nine. And that just gives me just like, okay, if I need to get this person on the ground, this is what I need to throw them. If I need to get a swing and miss, this is what I need to throw them. If I need to get, you know, whatever I'm looking for to get, I know what I can get before the game even starts. That makes it so tough for a hitter. When a pitcher knows exactly where to attack you, you know, and I'm not just like general, it's like, now they know exactly where to attack you. That makes it really tough. Rendon's on first, Eaton's on third. You got one out in walks, you know, one of the best players in the game, one of the best hitters in the game. And he's only 21 years old, Juan Soto. Yeah. And look, so you can, you can run it. I'll talk to you about what I'm thinking as he's getting in the box. I'm thinking I need a pop up or a strikeout. So I'm going, I'm going straight 0-2 mentality out the gate. I throw a change up. Yeah. I throw a change up. It's a little down, but I feel like I'm okay walking him in this situation. That's a good, but there's, yeah, there's a change up again. Let's see. Like, it didn't work because I didn't throw a low fastball prior to it. You know what I'm saying? He might have been taken all the way there too. Maybe. Yeah. I hate when y'all hitters do that shit too. Because you don't get the feedback. You don't get the feedback you're looking for. But yeah, I'm straight 0-2. I'm trying my, I'm 0-2 mentality this whole time. So again, I try to go change up just below the zone. That's a good one. That one works. Yeah. That one worked. It started a little higher, so he had to respect it out of my hand immediately. I don't know why it wasn't called a strike to begin with, but it's a totally different topic. He goes too. There you go. Oh my goodness. He's asking to check that. I love that. Hitters are so stupid, man. Come on. Hey, Miguel Cabrera started that. Hey, you check, check, a little check. He started that a few years ago. So now, yeah, you got a 1-1, two combos in a row. Yeah. Go back to that, man. I can't remember what I do here, but I do know that I'm not trying to throw it in the zone. So I tried to go elevate a heater, and he budged, but it was pretty much ball out of hand, because it was so wide. It was like two or three balls wide. And now you see on this pitch also little up, made it look worse because he was coming out of his crouched there, but now Rendon's on sec, he got open base. Exactly. Exactly. So the whole time I'm okay walking the best hitter in their lineup, even I think it might have been Matt Adam or no, it's Astruble Cabrera right after him. So I'm like, I'd rather face Astruble Cabrera at this point in time, although Astruble was really, really hot in the month of September last year. I'd rather face Astruble than face Juan Toto. So now, this could be for you like mentality wise, this could be like strike out or walk, like that's about it, right? Like, hey, so like I said from the beginning, it's strike out, walk or pop up. I'm going to throw a pitch that I can get that result, but that's one thing before we keep going, like I feel like as a young pitcher, you have to know A, who's in the box, B, what you're capable of and C, what the situation dictates. So if the situation says, I need a ground ball, you have to know what you throw to get a ground ball and what the hitter hits to get a ground ball. That's one thing that I learned from Jose Molina. Again, I'm 24 years old, my rookie year. And he was talking about intent behind your pitches. So for me, I know a pitch gets guys on the ground. I know a pitch gets guys who pop up when you miss XYZ. So any kids at home, when you're going through situations, know what you need in that specific situation. Love that. And you know as a hitter, when you're on deck and a pitcher looks over you, the catcher looks over you and they throw a 3-1 off-speed pitch, that's disrespect. Yeah, I know. That happened to me a lot. It's all right though. You just go up there and try to get them. But 2-1 now, you went change a elevated hitter. And like you said, you're just looking for a few different outcomes and you can kind of do whatever you want here. Yeah, I don't remember. So let's see. I know how they have that. So that's the pitch right there. I tried the backdoor slider. Juan Soto knows it. That was the one pitch he was going to get to hit. And you guys talk about all the time, a guy like Juan Soto only gets probably one or two pitches all game that he can actually hit. I tried the backdoor, came over the middle. Fortunately, it had enough movement to get him off of it. Yeah, I was going to see how if we could get where it started and see if it was started off the plate. But that one kind of started on the plate and then right over the middle. So yeah, a little mistake pitch, but still 2-1 slider is not a, I mean, you're not exactly just sitting there on that. So right, right. He's giving you the long walk. Oh, look at you. Oh, my goodness. Okay. I didn't see that. I was looking good at that. Made it our episode, baby. My goodness. Okay. Oh, that's great. Between you and Juan Soto, that's a lot of energy right there, man. A lot of good energy right there. Hey, but see, that's the best part about baseball, man, is like they are those individual battles out there. Yes. So look, I still have the same options. I can get on a pop up or swing a minute or walk. That's what I'm trying to do right here. What I see here, and this is just a hater talking, and now I can see it visually. You have the strike zone box over here and you went two pitches down, you went up, and then you went backdoor. So I'm looking at the only quadrant you haven't hit yet, and it's in. Yeah. So as a hater, you're kind of like, all right, like, is he going to go there? Is he going to stay away? But you know, that's kind of what I would be thinking about. So 2-2 here. Yeah, okay. Oh, shit. Yeah, I didn't know that was the pitch. Yeah, but see, you know, this is kind of lame, but Jim Hickey used to say this all the time. Pitching is just like real estate, location. It's all about location, location, location, location. So, you know, he did kind of look like he was looking in, but it was one ball up and one ball in just out of where he anticipated that pitch, because look, he almost got to it. Oh, yeah, that is the honey hole right there for you. Exactly. And again, if he was going to make contact with that pitch, he was going to pop it up. His barrel is under that, and it's not even his barrel, it's closer to his handle, but he's going to get under that ball weak contact. So it's going to give my outfitters the ability to throw him out. Hopefully it'll pop up from the infield, or the most desired result where runners on second and third, no outs with a swing and miss. So, hey, it's funny that you said that. You hadn't seen it yet, but yeah, I hit that quadrant. And again, fortunately, I hit that quadrant because of that pitch. Yeah. Now, see, if that's a two seamer, then it's more likely to leak back over closer to the barrel, have a little downward action, a little leak. But, you know, I scrapped my two seam after they had like a 600 slugging percentage on it. That was a wrap with that one. Hey, let's see. So last thing before we get off, technology can tell you what you don't need to throw off though. And, you know, last season, the first half, I was, I tried to implement a two seamer because I felt like I needed another pitch to get guys on the ground. And after about 12 starts, that won the pitch. Like, the slugging percentage was just way too high. I had given up probably 10 or 11 home runs on that pitch alone and 12 or 13 starts. I had a really good discussion with my agent and he's like, hey, like, you know, this might be a little late, but you need to, you need to understand like most of the damage is happening on this one pitch. You even need to make that pitch better, which is hard to do during season or you need to scrap it. I said, I'm scrapping that thing. I love it. Yeah, but it goes both ways. What should you throw? What shouldn't you throw? Exactly. We got you, we got, you're not pitching this season. You're doing your rehab. You got a team option for 2021. I believe the Pirates are going to take that option because it's a sweet deal for them. If they, some for some weird reason, don't take that option up. Every person watching this, whoever team you root for, you better be telling them, go get this guy. After watching these videos, people got to understand like the kind of person you are, kind of player you are, and the value you can bring to an organization, not only because you're a damn good pitcher, but because you can help with anybody, veteran, young guy, teaching the right way to play the game. And I think anybody that's watched these is seeing that. So we're all on the Chris Archer hype train. I've been on it. You see right here, man. Wait, there it is. My guy. So we'd love having you on, dude. And here's to, you know, a successful offseason and then another big year in 2021, man. I appreciate you coming. Yeah, sir. Trev, thanks for having me on. And I'm looking forward to your future too, man, because you have a lot of knowledge and insight that you can bring to the baseball world. And I'm looking forward to your next chapter in life, man. Appreciate that, dude. All right, guys. Thanks for joining us.