Kevin Graber is the Head Baseball Coach at Phillips Academy Andover in Massachusetts and is an outstanding guest! We appreciated hearing about his wild journey through baseball and him sharing about the rabbit holes he has gone down as a coach. Huge thanks to him for an awesome episode!

2:22 - Coach Graber talks us through his (pretty wild) personal baseball journey.

14:00 - KG shares with us the challenge and the appeal of coaching at the prep/high school level, explores ways he’s tried to create advantages, and talks about establishing a culture of both structure and freedom.

58:51 - The conversation gets more hitting specific. The guys talk about approach to coaching hitting, development of approach, and get granular about some details.

1:24:09 - KG asks Bobby some questions about the 2015 Home Run Derby.

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7:32 - Long conversation recapping the playoffs, analyzing the state of the game, and diving into some hot stove type stuff

1:07:07 - Buster Posey retirement! Is he a Hall of Famer? 

1:13:40 - Mailbag

1:18:15 - Post Show: Pete Fatse promotion!

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Huge thanks to Jose for coming on! This is an incredible interview and it was so enjoyable getting as detailed about hitting with such an incredible player!

2:38 - Jose’s role in the shifting dynamics of player development.

3:50 - What was Jose’s foundation pre swing change?

9:00 - Getting into specific evolutions in Jose’s swing

20:32 - Jose's plate awareness and competitive mindset

28:25 - Jose’s tendency to rise in big moments

34:01 - The Bat Flip Homer

38:20 - Jose’s thoughts on the recent evolution of the game

43:03 - World series talk

47:35 - Jose's favorite hitters to watch today 

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3:04 - Recapping the American League playoffs thus far

12:23 - Temperature check on robot umpires and should MLB hitters change their approach when umpires fail them?

18:11 - Recapping the National League playoffs

28:37 - Freddie Freeman’s early NLCS struggles

38:10 - Critiquing the Dodgers’ pitching usage

44:22 - Thoughts on the two remaining managers and World Series Preview

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1:08 - Recapping the Wild Card Games

11:25 - Diving into the individual division series matchups

32:28 - The guys discuss the “automatic double” play from Red Sox vs. Rays Game 3

49:00 - Bobby dives into a tweet about scalability amongst hitting coaches.

1:04:39 - Giancarlo Stanton’s success and the concept of a perfect swing

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Awesome guest this week - veteran MLB catcher Erik Kratz! Easily the guest that has made fun of Chris the most...enjoy! 

4:41 - Bobby asks Erik about the length of his absurd baseball reference page and Erik tells some minor league stories.

11:56 - Through all of Erik’s time in pro baseball what have been the constants?

16:21 - How does being a catcher allow you to engage with teammates and impact the game?

25:31 - Erik’s high emotional intelligence - can this be taught or identified?

37:42 - The best in-team jokes/rituals during Erik’s career

46:23 - We get Erik’s take on robot-umps.

59:46 - MLB Playoffs/Wildcard Talk

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We have special guest Kevin Goldstein on the show this week! Kevin is a former front office executive for the Houston Astros and is currently a writer with Fangraphs.

4:12 - We dig into Kevin’s history with baseball and talk about how he ended up working for the Astros.

8:00 - Kevin describes his familiarity with Chris’s career and talks about the time the Astros tried to claim him. They get into what the Astros would look for most in evaluating players.

15:22 - Kevin tells the story of when the Astros released JD Martinez and gives a detailed look into the player evaluation process from his time there.

23:00 - Kevin describes the Astros attempts to objectify swing evaluation and talks about the differences between evaluating hitters and pitchers.

33:27 - Why are analytic predictions so often wrong?

39:00 - What is the process like going from a tanking team to a World Series contender?

47:10 - Kevin explains why there is no such thing as a small market MLB team.

54:12 - We get into some current topics including the race between the AL East teams and Kevin’s take on the MVP discussion.

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Big thanks to Kevin for coming on the show! He and Chris recorded from Kevin's hotel room while eating room service - authentic big league off day right there. 

Chris and Kevin are a little quiet the first ten minutes. If you want to jump to when the audio improves its good at 10:24. 

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3:53 - We get into Kevin’s background as a D2 player and his path to being an everyday big leaguer.

10:24 - (Audio for Chris and Kevin Improves!) Kevin talks about his summer ball experiences and what it was like playing with guys from “better schools” than him.

20:20 - Kevin talks about facing tougher pitchers and the evolution of hitting development during his time in the MLB.

36:08 - Some talk about failure, the experience of being sent up and sent down, and maintaining positivity when things aren’t going well.

43:30 - The guys discuss the role of emotion in playing the game at the highest level. How does it change in the postseason?

1:00:10 - Kevin and Chris discuss the various injuries they’ve played through and the importance of wanting to be out there on the field.

1:04:06 - The guys discuss the confrontation between Machado and Tatis Jr. that was all over Twitter.

1:18:48 - Discussion on Bobby Dalbec’s turnaround this season including KP’s close friendship with “Heart Throb Bob”.

1:26:20 - Mailbag

1:39:50 - Bobby asks Kevin what it’s like to witness DeGrom.

1:51:26 - Who should win the MVP awards this year?

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3:17 - The guys reflect on Derek Jeter’s career, what he meant to them growing up, and what makes guys like Jeter, Brady, and Jordan so different.

18:35 - Intentional balks - What are these? What is this all about?

24:47 - Bobby recaps the Mets Yankees Sunday night game and why things got heated!

29:47 - Who should get into the Hall of Fame from the new guys eligible in 2022?

35:38 - Quick Hits - Soto’s insane second half, and Wander Franco’s historical streaks

41:20 - Post Show - Do the Blue Jays have the best lineup in baseball? And some talk about the wildcard race

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2:29 - Is on field machine work garbage? General thoughts on the individuality of preparation for competition.

11:22 - The guys discuss the Mets players giving a thumbs down to their fans this past week.

15:37 - This guys discuss a tweet from Jeff Leach saying that having a great attitude and work ethic is not enough if you do not have the skills to back it up.

23:49 - Marcus Stroman made an athletic play to cover third base last week - the guys discuss whether or not it qualifies as a “high IQ” baseball play.

29:07 - Frameworks for programming hitters - process driven vs. results driven

39:00 - Post Show: Trevor Story bat flip approved, general bat flip talk, Salvador Perez MVP?