Blair & Barker
Player-Manager Relationship with Kevin Pillar + Facing the Noise with Jordan Romano
21 Apr 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
All right. Welcome back to Blair and Barker brought to you by Capital One. Capital One giving Canadians credit for 30 years. You almost forgot. No, I didn't. You did. No, no, no. It's got it right here. Right here. Right there. We've got tickets to give away to see the Jays and the Red Sox on April 27th. At the Rogers Center.
That should be fun. Should be. Man, the Red Sox stink.
They got the Yankees. Is it a three or four game series against the Yankees? What is the date today? Three or four game series against the Yankees. It must be three game, right? Because it's Tuesday and Wednesday. No? Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Series against the Yankees. I think it starts tonight. I just don't know if it's at Yankee Stadium or at Fenway.
But, I mean, they've got, yeah, we've talked about it. They've. There's a lot of teams have issues. How about the Mets?
Philly's not real good.
Braves look really good. The Marlins are a game under .500. They're in second place. Yeah, the Braves are just kind of quietly built up. They've got, I believe, a five-game lead already in the Marlins. That's early. But, yeah, boy, the Mets are something. Something's got to change there soon.
You know, I know Ken Rosenthal had a piece essentially suggesting that, you know, the Mets and the Phillies may be in line for a managerial change. It's not the manager's fault. I don't know what, Kevin. The Phillies, I just think, you know, as Rosenthal points out, the Phillies are getting old. I mean, just look at their ages.
They've got a bunch of guys that are, I mean, JT Real Muto is a ghost of himself now. They've got a bunch of guys who aren't performing. The Mets, I don't know.
Devin Williams came out yesterday, or the day before yesterday, and said it ain't the manager's fault that the players are underperforming. He's putting them in all the right positions to have success, and we're just not getting it done. So... There you go.
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Chapter 2: What insights does Kevin Pillar share about Vlad Jr.'s performance?
If he hung up his jersey today, he's going to be in Cooperstown, right? The fact that he's willing to go out and make these changes to, you know, raise his bar of what he can be as a productive player in this game. But honestly, the step back thing to me is,
is just maybe something where he's just getting a little bit older and he's having a little bit harder time loading on that back hit that back leg the fact that he could kind of step back into it kudos to him for trying it because obviously and too with brady anderson being a new hitting coach over there right it's hard to come in as a new guy uh especially with a guy like mike trout and make these sort of suggestions to him that might seem like crazy to him but i think i
it speaks wonders of maybe who Brady is as a hitting coach or the respect that he has to that organization. I think there's, you know, other layers that go into it too.
Mike probably threw his knee injury when I was there and some of the people that he saw to rehab him, he was, and the work that the angels do in terms of their medical staff, their strength and conditioning staff, maybe they identified, Hey, you're not able to get in your back hip as easily as you did four or five, six years ago when you were elite, let's try this. And,
Obviously, it takes multiple people, but obviously it takes Mike willing to do it. And I love it. It's great for the game. I'm not going to sit here and hope that he has a ton of success during the series because my allegiance is with the Blue Jays. But when Mike Trout is healthy and Mike Trout is performing like he's been performing early in the season, it's great for the game of baseball.
No question. Kevin, really good of you to join us, man.
Awesome stuff, buddy.
Really appreciate it. Yep.
I appreciate you guys. See you, man. Bye.
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Chapter 3: Why is Dylan Cease considered difficult to hit?
He did not. Another guy Pete Walker made a crap ton of money for. Help. Wow. Help make money.
Yeah, it's the player that ultimately goes out and performs at the high level. But Pete, he's pretty good at making suggestion and... I mean, pitch in a little bit more. You got a good hater. You know, let them pants breathe a little, dude. What the hell is that? Well, I mean, the thing's pretty tight, dog. Is he still wearing the tight? I'm sure he is.
I saw him give up a couple of homers the other night. It doesn't look like he has the extra gear that he needs. When you're going to throw in there that much being left-handed, you've got to get it in there.
Do you see our guy, Tony Vitale, speaking to the Giants on social media, apologize to the fans for the team's slow start? That's nice of him. Do you see John Schneider going on Twitter to apologize to fans? He could do it on our show.
He could come on here and be, hey, my bad. You know, John would say the same thing that he said to me a bazillion times. Yeah, when I go up to hit or when I go out to the field to catch the baseball, I'll make sure I do a better job at it. Basically meaning he's never thrown a pitch for the Jays, never hit a ball for the Jays, never called a baseball for the Jays. It's like that Mets thing.
Oh, you've set me up here.
You yell and scream about the manager forever. How about blaming the players?
The players are not playing well. Yeah, I think there's also something maybe deeper there with the composition of the team. I mean, something like that happens. You've got to ask questions. I mean, the players just didn't get all together and say, hey, you know what, let's all suck this year. There's been something going on with the Mets for a couple.
There's a reason Pete Alonzo didn't re-sign there, and I don't think it necessarily has to do entirely with money. Yeah, Jeff.
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Chapter 4: What does Kevin Pillar say about the relationship between players and managers?
Do you ever hear that when you're in the ninth inning, maybe a fan doesn't like you yelling and screaming at you? No.
Oh, yeah, yeah. I've heard that plenty. You know, I've heard that plenty, especially back-end relievers. I feel like we wear it quite a bit, you know, especially from the fans. But, you know, you got to kind of take it from their perspective, right? They're paying money. They want wins. And when you're not performing, they have every right to do that, right? And that's another thing.
It's just going to be temporary. It's like, all right, yeah, they're not happy with me. Let's get on a roll here. Let's kind of smooth things over, win some games, and then everyone will be happy. So, yeah, you try to block it out as much as possible.
I feel like when you're kind of too involved in what the crowd's doing, you're kind of losing your mission of what you're trying to do on the mound. So, yeah, just block it out. Let's just stay with our approach here. But, yeah, you definitely do here. There's no way not to.
That's a great answer. Was there a point in your career where it became easier to do that? Because I would think it would be human nature, you know, again, I'm not a competitive athlete, but I think it would be human nature early in your career to maybe hear it. But then was there a point where you just kind of thought, you know, I got my job to do. I'm going to go out and do it.
Yeah, I felt like, I mean, in Toronto, you know, you hear it here and there. In Philly, I think it was every game, you know. So, yeah, I just kind of get used to it. So, all right, this is what it's going to be. Let's just do our job and, you know, that's it. But, yeah, I mean, it kind of sucks. You know, everyone's booing, but you got a job to do. And, yeah, you just try to stick to the program.
You know, you mentioned Mike Trout a little earlier, and we were talking yesterday with Mark Goobson, talking about the adjustment he's made at the plate, the little step back and everything. And, you know, baseball's better when Mike Trout is healthy, obviously. He's a terrific player, one of the faces of the game.
But, Jordan, what does it tell you about a guy that at this stage of his career ā He's still looking for stuff to make him better, not just stay healthy, but he's looking for stuff. Now that I'm healthy, okay, I want to try something else that is going to make me better. I'm not just going to go with the same old, same old.
Yeah, that's just that just tells you like how much he loves the game. You know what a competitor competitor he is. I mean, you know, some guys, you have that great career. You can just kind of like cash it in. All right, we're going to finish out our career. But yeah, like when you're just trying to find different things to do and how much success he's had, trying to find new things that work.
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Chapter 5: How does kangaroo court function in a baseball clubhouse?
And a lot of guys can't do it because it rubs their fingers, and it affects other pitches they're trying to throw. So, yeah, I mean, velocity is the first thing. Locate is the first thing, what you're trying to do, where you're throwing. So it's a bunch of different things.
And, you know, again, when one of your better pitches is getting hammered, like Jordan, you know the slider's not sliding the way he wants it to. Velocity of the fastball is a little erratic. It's all over the place. Sometimes he's throwing it down the middle. When you're doing that, you're trying to invent ways to get guys out. You want to stay in the ninth inning? Yeah.
Because if you don't, it's like the way John talks about Jeff Hoffman. It's exactly the way Jordan's talking there. Pressure's on you because if you're bad, they lose the game. You're not passing the baton to anybody. So there's a fine line there between how long you stick with a guy, what he's working on, how he's trying to figure out how to get people out.
Yeah, and there's still something about having your closer blow game. It's demoralizing. It is. It's so sudden.
Especially when your full lineup's not there. You fight and claw to get it to the ninth inning. And then, you know, a dude throws a sinker down the middle, gives up a homer, and all of a sudden you're tied. Now, you know, the hitters are like, jeez, hey. There has to be a little bit of that, too, where, you know, John and all the hitting coaches and ā
All the coaches that have to deal with the ninth inning, what that guy's going through. You got to make sure everybody's on board and not holding their head. You know, they're not dropping their head when the dude come running out. But, you know, they feel sort of the same energy the fans feel when Jordan's coming out. Hopefully they figure it out.
If not, I think reality gets set in of, you know, the leash is getting shorter. He's the ninth inning guy now. He blows the save tonight. I would think he probably is not going to be the closer tomorrow. I think that's where they're at with this. I don't know. I thought that. I'm pretty. I'm pretty. People that I've talked to pretty close to this. You know, it's.
What would make the difference between. Blown saves. No. But what I'm saying. What are they? 9-13.
Why? Okay. Why would that change? Why would that be different? Nah. Tomorrow after the success. Forget it.
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Chapter 6: What strategies are teams using with the ABS challenge?
That's me. I have my opinion. Everybody else has theirs. You know, I think plan B, when I say plan B, I mean it. The dude has more offensive talent than most humans have. It's reality of life. How hard he hits the baseball. He hits way too many ground balls, way too many. You said that first. It's because he does the same thing all the time.
Every once in a while, because plan A ain't where it would be or should be, Just set them. Do whatever you want to do with your feet. Beat the guy to the spot. Hit the ball to the moon. And then you can start doing all A you want to do. Just little things like that. And I think that's sometimes the frustration around him.
But, again, people look at me when I say this because of where his OPS is at. I look at Vladdy different than everybody else does.
You know what? No, I think most people view him the same way you do in that they expect him to be ā
Top five. He's a top five MVP guy every year offensively.
Exactly. He should be a perennial MVP. He should be the guy that when you sit down to fill out your MVP ballot, you're putting in the top five spot.
I'm sorry. 24 and 80-ish with the RBIs. That's silly. That's silly. Not all of that talent. That's Barker stats. That's silly, man. Silly. So, yeah, that's all. Hopefully he's turned the corner. Hopefully that change-up gives him confidence. You know, again, we'll find out tonight. This dude's going to pound him with haters. Going to get after him with power sinkers, and it's going to be 97.
The next two guys are hard. It's going to be 97. The next guy leads baseball in ground ball percentage. He's going to get after him with sinkers. So these two. Pound him in. This two back-to-back starts are going to be. With power. Yeah. So we'll find out if what he's doing is working.
And, you know, just again, the guys in front of him got to get on, give him a chance to have them at bats that matter. The guy on the mound for the Jays has got to give them an opportunity to have a big inning. I think they can. I think they've turned the corner. I think that team-wide approach is there finally.
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Chapter 7: How is Mike Trout adjusting his at-bats later in his career?
I know.
And we appreciate it. We appreciate it. I try to put you in a position where you can ā Yell and scream at you. 938 is the first pitch tonight. 307 first pitch tomorrow. Blair and Barker on from 2 to 3 tomorrow. We'll be doing postgame as well. So that was Blair and Barker brought to you by Capital One. Capital One giving credit to over 4 million Canadians and counting.