Matt Olson - Braves All-Star 1st Baseman

0:00The Braves Radio Network channel on the podcast park is brought to you by TrueisBank. When you start with care, you get a different kind of bank. This is how I feel about it all. Hey, quite the career thus far. He is Braves First Basement, Matt Olson. The opener is tomorrow at 7.15 and he joins us on the loud security systems news maker line. Matt, appreciate the time this afternoon. I would imagine you're ready to go. Hey, yeah, it's about that time. You know, we're all excited to get back up to Atlanta and get it going. So when you have an established career, how much time do you really need in spring training? Because I would imagine you're getting a bit antsy of the last week, week and a half or so. Yeah, I mean, I think it's mainly for pictures kind of building up. You know, we're on a, we're not playing every day there for a while until then. So I think, you know, if it was shorter, we would just kind of move that time frame up a little bit, but you know, I'd rather have too much time to be rushed, but I think it's important for

1:03the pictures to kind of get in, get off the mound and, you know, get built up again. Matt, do you know you made a little bit of news? The guy who sits right in front of the entrance to the clubhouse area, you hit a home run, you hit a bomb. Do you know the story about this? No, I don't think I do. Okay, the guy who sat in that chair since North Port Open, and I see him in the morning, you see him in the morning, you walk in a clubhouse, you hit a ball that he got startled by. It literally bounced right by him. And then he found out, oh, it was a mad Olsen shot. And when we were down there, I talked about you hit some bombs into that right center field area. But yeah, that you're on record as being now the first guy to start all the security guy who sits at the entrance to the clubhouse right there. I'm just glad I didn't, I didn't catch it in the air or anything. Yeah, having a lawsuit coming my way. I'm a little bit surprised and pick it up and try to sell it back to you because I do know that sometimes these balls might be a, a value to somebody. But, but you're, you're swing. How long does it take for you? And then how much do you just say, I'm good? Because I know it's always a work in progress, but

2:05how long do you need in spring for your swing itself? I always kind of look at like the 40 at bat, March. There's something I don't want to, I want to get to. I think earlier in my career, I kind of, you know, tried to build up a little slower and didn't necessarily feel ready, but between getting at bats during games and, you know, we have, we have that trajectory machine now. We had an in the cage in spring, YBPs early on. I'm kind of in the camp of just, if you can get an at bat, take it. There's, they're going to be ugly in the beginning of spring training, but, you know, seeing pictures and from different guys, different slots, it can really only help you. I've told this story about pictures, and I think we think about them more with the days off in between. Ask a guy's been in the league 10, 12, 15 years, and I asked some of the best pictures, what's the biggest difference in you with 22 and now? And they said it's the work in between. So, can I ask you as a hitter, how have you figured out in nine or 10 seasons, what is your supposed to be doing before a game,

3:10after a game, whenever it is, you might be thinking about how I want to work on something. How does it work for you? Yeah, I think you kind of find your routine. And really, I think, you know, it comes from that experience, you know, the years of figuring out what works. I've had stretches in my career where I can go in the cage and I'd swing 200 times before the game. I've had stretches where I'd go in and take five swings. And, you know, it's kind of a little, you know, you're your professional at, you know, 18, 19, 20 years old, but, you know, I look back at that, you know, frankly, I had no clue what I was doing at that age. And you kind of, you find your sweet spot, you know, the number of reps you need, what kind of reps you need, you know, is it machine, is it to Jack, does it flip to the tee, whatever might be, and everybody, every guy is going to be different. But I think you kind of find that sweet spot,

4:12the longer you go. Matt Olson with us on the loud security systems, newsmaker, line hard to believe. This is your fifth season with the Braves already. We know you're a hometown guy. Everything happened with such a whirlwind when you first came here. Did it take some time mentally for you to adjust in retrospect? Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, I'm sure it being Atlanta was part of it, but, you know, I think just because I was with Oakland's, you know, my whole career that if I had gone anywhere, it would have been, you know, quite a bit of an adjustment. And, you know, and it's part of it, you know, a lot of us aren't lucky enough to be in one place or our whole career here. And, you know, I was thrilled to be able to come here and, you know, be a brave and, yeah, they're the first four seasons kind of feel like they've flown by. But, you know, it's great driving into the yard every day at Jerusalem, putting the Braves

5:12years down. I know that the page has now officially turned, especially after the first page. Somebody says play ball tomorrow last year is last year, but we talked to Walt about it. We talked about his first sort of get together speech with you guys. Can you talk about the concept of flushing a season, whether it's personal, whether it's team, what you want to take out of it before it's completely flushed. What's your process of saying, okay, that is the past. How do we make sure that we're better than maybe we were? Yeah, and I think that's kind of the nature of a baseball player, honestly, is, you know, I think the better you are at flushing stuff, the better you're going to be in the long run. So, I mean, we're doing that day-to-day during the season, you know, we get blown out by 10 runs. You strike out four times, you know, you're going to be in the lineup and playing the next day. So, you know, to be able to kind of do it on a daily basis, kind of prepares us to do it on a season-wide basis, you know, last year, not the year we imagined by any means and, you know, team in and a lot of personal years. So, I think everybody came in,

6:16just to spring, you know, super focused, ready to work, kind of resonated with that message that Wall gave us of, you know, coming in, being aggressive, not reckless. And, man, I feel like we just, you know, obviously, see you this day when, you know, some guys had some good camps and, you know, we won a lot of games, but just I feel like it was one of the best camps that I've been around as far as, you know, not just doing a bunch of busy work, but when we were working, we were working hard, we're working smart, you know, I feel like we're ready to rock. We had a chance to talk to Antoine Rich, then about what it is, he's part of what it is, he's going to be doing here. Can you explain when you talk about maybe work, his messaging, and how you go from 4.4 runs a game to 4.9, because maybe you're on a basis better, you have a few more stolen basis. Can you talk about what maybe Brace fans might see in that regard this year? Oh, I mean, it's a huge part of it. You know, you get any picture on here, and you ask him to drive that first base, second base, it completely changes how they pitch, take the double play out

7:23order, get one broken bat blooper over the infield, it's a run. And, you know, I feel like we saw that in spring training already, the dudes who are running were really working on it kind of goes back to what I said, you know, guys are coming in focus, it wouldn't just, I'm going to, you know, get ready, you know, kind of lightly get into the season, like nah, they hit the ground running, no pun intended there, but Antoine's been great, you've got a good eye for stuff, he's a good energy, I think it should help us out a lot. You want to put a number on yourself this year? How many stolen bases are going to happen? What's the overrunner? Hey, we'll see, we'll see how it goes. You know, it's, we obviously got some more guys who are going to run and all that, but do you know what your season high is? I had to be, it had to be 20, 21. Yeah, it was four. Yeah, yeah, and I think probably three or

8:27four of those were, we're back side steals. We got Sterling Marta at the deadline, and he was, he was running wild, and he was sitting in front of me. So, no, you know, I'll just say it's very rarely or, you know, stolen bases happening because of you're just faster than what's going on. You know, you get cues off pitchers, you pick good counts to run, think it might be a breaking ball, and you know, not only speaking for myself, but you get, you get enough info on a guy and, and, you know, pick the right spot, then, you know, we're going to have guys going for it. Antoine told me he said, you know, part of what we're trying to tell guys is bring your hitter's mentality down here for a space. You know about this guy. You know what his tendencies are. If there's a breaking ball coming on an off-speed pitch, I mean, make sure that you, you bring what it is we've talked about from the hitting side to first base, and you're going to have an opportunity to maybe grab a couple that nobody thought you were going to get. Yeah, absolutely. And kind of,

9:27you know, taking a shot. It's, you know, if you get thrown out, it's not done to the world, and Antoine's big big on that saying that he's going to try to prepare us. And, you know, if if it's bad intel, he's he's going to wear it. I think, you know, hopefully that message is for you some guys up, and you know, kind of just trust their abilities. Fishing up with Matt Olson breaks first space. Been joining us on the Loud Security Systems Newsmaker line. We know the tale. You haven't missed a game in a brave uniform. Walt Weiss says he wants to keep some of you guys off of your feet, not necessarily a day off. Do you see more days work, even if you're not off, maybe D.H.ing a little bit more this year? Yeah, I don't know. We haven't, well, I haven't necessarily talked about it. You know, I definitely see the benefit to, you know, getting some guys off their feet at times. You know, I've been on a record saying if I feel like I can go, I want to go. So, you know, I'm also not going to have

10:29some big knock down drag outs by it with a wall that he comes in. Yeah, I know you were a lot younger. Bad idea for every bad idea. Yeah, yeah, let me let me say even if that knock down drag out started, I would I would get out of it quick. Yeah. Hey, real quick, Oakland Coliseum putting one up in the air compared to Trois Park. Left handed hitter. The chophouse has got to be for guy like you. Can you just explain what the difference is in go, no go in terms of home run, no home run when you talk about Oakland compared to here? Yeah, Oakland at night, definitely not the best. But, you know, day games, day games in Oakland weren't the worst gaps, gaps from, I would say fairly getable. Yeah, down the line to right here is, you know, good spot to go, but you start working out towards the bullpen right center and left center. You got to get a little bit, especially it played a felt like towards the big part of the field last year. It played a lot

11:32bigger for whatever reason. But, yeah, I mean, the chophouse is a good spot as a lesson. Yeah, how quiet was it, by the way, when both Ronald and Ozzy were off doing a World Baseball Classic style? Yeah, there's, you could hear a little more in the clubhouse. You know, I thought it'd be a nice little tranquil week and a half or so, but actually, I miss, you know, the little guy over over the next two days chatting it up with me. So it was, it was good to get them back. Cool to obviously Ozzy had that, that big walkoff and Ronald went in the whole thing. So was that the real metal? He brought the metal to have everybody take a look at. Yeah, yeah. Teddy. It's, it's the real thing. It might be. Either they got some lead in the center of it. Yeah, well, to the victim, go to the spoils as they like to say. Last thing for you, the line of construction, people are going to talk about that, D.H. and Drake Baldwin, maybe

12:33Hanks second. Can you talk about Baldwin? Maybe in a two hole and hard hit balls might be the reason why this makes sense. Yeah, I mean, you know, he's probably, you know, he's not the best. He's one of the best start teams, just bad to ball. And it does seem like when he puts a bad on it, it's coming out hot too. So I liked him in that spot. I think, I think he likes it in that spot. You know, no one, you're going to get somebody who's putting together a good AB, good quality AB with a good chance of, you know, to ball being in play and being in play hard. Yeah, you want to guy like that, getting a lot out of that. All right, Matt, listen, we appreciate the time. Hit the ground running tomorrow night, fresh start. And we'll see you down there tomorrow night. Sounds good. Thanks, guys. You got it. Mad Olsen first baseman with us on the loud security system newsmaker line 715 first pitch against the royals. And you got the Ford lead off show with Domingo and Barrett Salih coming your way at six o'clock on the fan and for free. Chris, the fan app.

13:36Nice night popman circumstance and everything comes with, yeah, everything that comes with being introduced up and down the first baseline, their baseline. I don't know if there's bunting up in the stadium yet, but opening day is pretty special. Positive day.