Alex Berg shares how he helps Giants players get better during Spring Training

0:00When you really need care, you need 24-7 access to a care team, not a maze of paperwork from a third party. Every day, America's hospitals and health systems show up for you. Navigating healthcare can fuel overwhelming. But you can count on real doctors, real nurses, real people, providing quality around the clock care when you need it most. They're in your corner. In communities across America, your neighbors, your lifelines, right beside you holding your hand and helping find answers. That's what putting patients first actually means. Learn more at strengthinhealthcare.org. Brought to you by the Coalition to Strength in America's Health Care. Welcome back to the exerting post-game show with Bill Lasky. I'm delighted to bring a guest back on the show. Catching coach for the San Francisco Giants. And now he's got a new label. He's the field coordinator. Let's welcome in, Alex Berg. Alex, how are you today? I'm doing really well on yourself. I'm doing great. Thanks for joining me. And boy, we got to jump right into this new way that you're doing the field coordinator. And I was looking at the numbers of spring training. 62 players there. 19 non-rosters, 32 pitchers, six catchers, 13 infielders, 11 outfielders.

1:04Your job is full every day. Yes, sir. I'm trying to make sure we get everybody in the right spots and make sure that all the practice and all the work goes off without a hitch. It's kind of the biggest goal is what we're doing here. Alex, have you done this before? Did you jump into this job? Did you have any experience of being a field coordinator? No, I did a little bit of scheduling during COVID with Texas. So just kind of like when we were doing the early workouts before camp kind of started. I was doing a little bit of scheduling there, but from like a full scale like this now and ever. Well, games are starting. Of course, competition is growing. How do you make games? Do you schedule the players to play? How do you work those games out? And then what do you do with the other players? I just kind of help out with lineup distribution. Obviously, Tony has full say on who goes where and Tingler has been a big help with him.

2:05You know, kind of helping getting guys in there and making sure everybody's getting some playing time. And we're getting guys in the right spots. But for the most part, just kind of like adding a little input here and there of, you know, maybe what catchers need to catch. You know, obviously we got a pretty big position battle back there for the backup spots. So making sure that we're showing both of these guys and seeing them in kind of the roles that they might be in along with getting them some starts and make sure we see them as much as possible. Alex Berg joining me on the extra learning post game show. Of course, you're one of the returning coaches from last year. You've been here since 2024 as a catching coach. You've been with the bullpen since 2022. A new vibe, a new leader in Tony Vittello and a good coaching staff that he's put together. Tell me a little bit about what's going on in that coaching room. Yeah, it's been tremendous. I think it's it's fun to see new faces and hear some different different opinions on things. And you know, we have a great mix of old and young and experience and inexperience.

3:06And it's been a lot of fun to just kind of hear the chatter that goes around the coaches locker room. And, you know, obviously that's all led by Tony and, you know, he's very he's been tremendous at kind of making sure everybody's heard and everybody has his has the ability to get their opinion. And it's been a lot of fun. Alex, you got a lot of returning players coming back. You got a lot of young players. You got some minor leagueers. How are they moving forward with the whole new coaching staff? Are they accepting it? Yeah, I think they're having a great time. I think Tony brings energy every day and they know that he's here for a reason. Buster wouldn't hire somebody that wasn't fully qualified and ready to lead this team. And I think they're taking to it. You know, he's done a tremendous job with the players and you see the buy in. You see them doing everything he's asking and doing it with a smile on their face. And you see a lot of guys playing really well right now. So it's pretty exciting for us. Well, Alex, I want to go back into this feeling coordinator. Do you work with a pitching coach as well as a hitting coach on different groups and different things that they need to do?

4:08So I actually work with everybody. So strength and conditioning, training staff, hitting coaches, pitching coaches, kind of get to touch everybody and make sure that everybody has a say in what goes on throughout the day. And ultimately my goal is to, you know, make sure everybody gets the time that they need to do the things that they need. And that's kind of been the biggest challenge, but also the most fun is kind of putting the puzzle piece together and making sure everybody has what they need to make sure that our players are getting what they need. Well, as I said in the beginning, 62 players, you have a full coaching staff with some extra coaches coming in, special coaches. How do you influence those guys into this? Just kind of putting them in positions to succeed. So just making sure they know where to go. And, you know, our pitching coaches and hitting coaches do a tremendous job of making sure, you know, those guys are feeling like they're involved in what's going on. And with some of the special coaches, the getting them in there and being able to just kind of like,

5:12how can we get these guys in front of our players as much as possible so that they can, you know, share some of that wisdom that they've gained over their careers. And, you know, it's been, it's been a lot of fun so far. Alex and Giants put a nice tweet out there, a little info commercial about you and what you do as a feeling coordinator. And a lot of it also is food intake, making sure these guys have protein before they get on the field. And also a lot of stretching. Is that normal? Yeah, you know, I think, again, this is something where I think people don't really realize when you're putting together the schedule like everything starts with nutrition and making sure these guys are fed before they get on the field and then making sure that they're ready to complete the activities we want them to complete. So, you know, strength and conditioning staff and our nutrition staff is incredibly important because, you know, this is how this is what really maintains their health.

6:13So the more that they're doing in the training room, the more that they're doing in the weight room, the more that they're stretching and getting ready to play along with eating and make sure that they're getting the nutritional needs that they have. You know, those things are really honestly popping more important in terms of staying healthy than anything that actually goes on on the field. That voice you hear any extra any post game show is the bullpin coach, but he's also the field coordinator through spring training, Alex bird. One of the things I saw in this video is with the pitchers and this was probably the video done when the pitchers and catchers were there early. And there was a part that you call the playground where they're throwing balls against the wall kind of a weighted ball, different things like that. Are most of the pitchers doing that now besides the bands? Yeah, so most of our pitchers will go out there and we have tons of things. So like if the guys don't want to throw a plyo ball or a weighted ball, they can do some water bags stuff. We had medicine balls out there. We have a ton of different activities. We're ton of different tools out there for them to get activated to throw.

7:15You know, our biggest thing is like, you don't just wander out there and throw a baseball. There's a bunch of things that have to happen that go into it before you throw the ball. And we want to make sure that they have their own area to do that and where they can feel safe to kind of try any products or any tools that they want. And for the guys that know what they need, we'll have those tools out there as well for them. One thing that pitchers do, PFPs, pitchers feeling practice has ended changed in probably 50 years. But you guys do it differently. You do it differently where the pitchers throw on a lybp or a bullpen. They kind of not do it that day. And then there's certain defensive drills you do with certain pitchers. How do you define that? So when the guys throw a pen, they're usually hot. So right after that, we'll send them out there and they'll do some sort of pick off or some sort of PFP, whatever they need to work on. And then if they're pitching in the game that day or throwing like a lybp, then they won't be a part of that group. And then the guys that aren't throwing aside or aren't throwing in the game, those guys will do some sort of PFP, especially when it's team base.

8:19We like to get everybody out there and kind of work through the whole process just so the pitchers can get used to. Feeling these balls with the defense and also sort of defense can kind of see who's a really good fielder, who's not and what plays may. May, may I have to make or may I not have to make because this guy can really do it. Well, Alex, let's get into the part where you have been fantastic. And that's being a catching coach. And again, I'm going to congratulate you on Patrick Bailey. When in his second gold glove last year, we talked about it. You were raving about his defense. What did you see different from him last year? And what did he get better at? I don't I don't know if you did anything different. I think you just continue to get better. I think he's he's gotten better in every aspect of the game. He obviously improved all of his numbers across the board, you know, as the leader in fielding run value for baseball, so just like a public metric, he boat race the entire league. In terms of not only just catchers, but any defender.

9:20He's number one. And if you look at a few public metrics, he was number one in everything. So this guy is a special defender. He's talented and he's hungry wants to be the best. And he continues to work at it continues to work hard and just kind of hone the craft. I think, you know, he knows what makes him good. And he continues to just build on these build on these things so that, you know, this year, hopefully, you know, obviously, hopefully stays healthy. You know, if this guy catches a bunch. I mean, there's no stopping him as talented defenders have ever seen. Well, you have a lot of young catchers in camp. And I think Patrick Bailey is probably the leader also where you don't have to always be talking Patrick when he speaks. They probably all listen. I think that's one good thing about having him as a leader as a catcher. Does he do those things in a bullpen? He does. I mean, he's he's very open to helping not only the young guys, but also some of our older guys in camp, you know, I think he's he's learning his craft. I think if you would ask them two years ago, he wouldn't have known a lot of the things that he was doing back there. He just knew they did it well.

10:28And he started to understand a lot of the things and why he's so good. And he was able to kind of impart some of that wisdom and able to talk through some stuff with our other guys. And it's been fantastic. It's fun to watch. You know, we got six catchers in camp and the rapport between all of them is great. We have a blast every morning. We have a blast every day, kind of talking through catching, talking through the game. And yeah, this is a wonderful group. Alex Berger joining me for a few more minutes on the extra in post game show. You talk about young catchers. And I've had an opportunity to interview a few of them. Daniel Susak, Hey, Zeus Rodriguez Diego, Cartaya, three young catchers that are sponges. I bring up your name every one of them. One of them raves about your Alex. And that's what I want to tell you each one of these guys are listening, learning and working hard for you. And every one of them, when I mentioned your name, like I said, they have something good or to a point of I wasn't this good. Now I'm better.

11:30How do you protect yourself in teaching this to certain catchers because they're all competing for one job or competing to get a triple layer double a job. That's your job to kind of teach their things good and bad. I think in catching catching probably catching is the only position in the game where two guys have to play. You don't see any catcher play every single game. So these guys need each other. There's always two guys. Sometimes there's three. And you have to work together like they all know that they're competing with each other for a batch and innings. But also like you have to help the other guy because he's going to help you. And my goal is for them to just like you're all in camp raw giants like our goal is to just get better like not only are you playing for the giants, but you know, you could be playing for 29 other teams. You know, I think every single catcher and camp besides Patrick Bailey has been with another team. So you're always you're always playing not only for the team that you're on, but you're playing for the 29 other clubs that are out there scouting and taking a peek because again, catchers are one of the weakest positions in the big leagues in terms of like it's hard to find a good one.

12:44And you know, we got some good ones. And so people are going to be asking about them and are, you know, my goal is to help facilitate the work and make sure these guys are as good as they can possibly be so that when they do get their opportunity, they're ready to shine. Well, Alex, they say your communication is spotless. You just talk about the good and the bad. And this is like I said, you rave in to talk about the good and what they do. But you also rave in to say, hey, this is where you can improve on when I was talking to Daniel Sussex. As soon as he got traded over, he said one of the first calls I had was from Alex Berg and it just took my attention completely to a catching coach. Do you do this with all your catchers? Do you communicate as well as you do? I try to, you know, I think when you get these guys and you know, especially a real five pick like that, obviously he's a little bit easier. I played with his older brother and his older brother was a good friend of mine. So it's a little bit easier there. But yeah, with all these guys like you have to, you have to be transparent with them. You have to let them know like this is where you've struggled.

13:47This is what we're going to work on. This is where you're really good. We're going to continue to work there and continue to improve that to make the strength stronger. But, you know, our goal is to make the most well-rounded catchers and the first way to do that is to know what you're not great at. Because if you don't know, and nobody tells you how are you supposed to work on it. So that's for me, it's just trying to be as transparent with them as possible and go like, here's what you're good at. Here's what you're not great at. Here's how we're going to work together this part of your game better. And this is how we're going to work to continue to keep that part a strength of your game. And, you know, these guys have really taken to it. And it's been a blast for me. It's fun to show up to work every day with these guys. And if you're going to hear them just talk about you, they're accepting it, working at it. And every day they say, we just can't wait to put the gear on and work with Alex. And I think that's a test to you. And how many years you've been doing this. And how successful you've been. And I want to congratulate you on that. Well, thank you. I mean, these guys are great guys. I think that's that's a big part of it. Like we don't have anybody that you wouldn't want to be around.

14:51Like, you know, I think about if I had each one of these guys, like I would be fully, you know, if I had a dog, like I would be fully comfortable with all of them. I'd be fully comfortable with all of them, baby city, my kid, because they're all fantastic individuals. And like I said, they show up to work every day. All of them want to be great. And I think that that makes it a lot easier for me to like if they if they want to work, we have plenty of work to be done. It's which I've never had. But, you know, if you have guys that don't want to work, it becomes a little bit tougher to kind of get some of these points across. But, you know, we got a bunch of workers, a bunch of guys that want to be great. And like I said, it's been a blast. These guys have been fantastic. Well, Alex, I want to thank your time today. I mean, you reached out and and gave me a little time today to talk catching and your new feeling coordinator job. And I just want to wish you luck again another year coming around for the 2026 giants. And good luck. Arrested the spring. The giants are doing well.

15:52Well, thank you so much. I look forward to seeing you during the season as well. That was Alex Berg. Any extraening post came show more coming up right here on KNBR. These sports later.