Gwynn & Chris On Demand
Mike Shildt discusses losing Joe Musgrove to Tommy John surgery
This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Whether you love true crime or comedy, celebrity interviews or news, you call the shots on what's in your podcast queue, and guess what? Now you can call them on your auto insurance too, with the name of your price tool from Progressive. It works just the way it sounds. You tell Progressive how much you want to pay for car insurance, and they'll show you coverage options that fit your budget. Get your quote today at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates, price and coverage match limited by state law. Manager of the San Diego Padres, join us. Mike, I'll start with the news today, obviously. You spoke before the news broke. I'm assuming you knew you wanted, didn't want to get ahead of AJ and Joe being able to talk about it, but just from a personal standpoint, Mike, how are you feeling knowing that last start for Joe was his last one, at least, for the rest of this year? Yeah, I didn't want to. We had a team announcement two o'clock for Joe to be able to share that with his teammates and the staff, and I didn't want to be early on that announcement. I wanted him to be able to share it with people he's in the proverbial bunker with. Clearly, hard news for him most importantly, clearly. The guy that we all admire greatly and Joe must grow is everything that's good about sports and everything that's good about humanity. He's just top of the class and everything. It makes it tougher in his heart and love and desire for this organization, his teammates in the city, to win that first World Series is what's really hurting him. But now we have another reason beyond the history of the city and Peter Sideler, but also we owe this to Joe. Mike Shilt is with us and I'm excited to talk to you, Skip. You've been on with The Morning Show all year and you haven't had a chance to come on with myself and Tony. So I just want to congratulate and a great year of managing. I believe you deserve and we'll get some manager of the year votes. You've done such a fantastic job to this point. But I also believe that as a, along with the manager, to me, you feel like also a fan of sports and the game. And so to have this matchup with the Padres and the Dodgers and knowing how that, you know, the franchises and the cities feel about each other. This is why you got into the whole thing in the first place, isn't it, to get ready for something like this? I do this for two reasons. First and foremost, always do it for the opportunity to help players get the most out of their god-given abilities and seconding that do it at this level. And specifically this region for this level is for this, you know, for these kind of match-ups and this kind of opportunity of competition at the highest level with, you know, chance to go and win a World Championship. That's what this is all about. Mike, you obviously have had injuries throughout the course of the year and you've been, you and this team have been big on, you know, next man up kind of, kind of mantra. But I would imagine losing a guy of this stature, this late, is a little bit of a different kind of maneuver. It's, this seems like a little bit of a gut-punch. How do, how easy is it to refocus your team? You know, obviously this is the NLDS. You don't get an opportunity to do this very often. But that being said, this is a big cog that you guys are losing. How do you guys get, turn the page and just get ready for tomorrow? Yeah, you know, unfortunately we've had some experience like that with, you know, the guys during the course of the season that, you know, have had to miss some time, some big pillars of, of this organization, of our success. And through the credit of everybody, the greater good, the depth of the roster, the hunger and competition for the guys on the field, you know, we'll, we'll figure it out. You know, I've said this and believe it sincerely, you know, losers complain and win response solutions. And this is a, there's no money in complaining or crying. I mean, we have our heart for Joe and that's different. But no one's going to feel sorry for you in competition. And, you know, we'll, we'll strap it on. Be ready to go. Mike, this team was 50 and 50 after the first game of the all-star break, a loss there in Baltimore. Since then, though, incredible, 43 and 19. And when you came, you know, took over his head, you know, manager of the potter, a lot of people said, Mike Schilt, his, his record is that he's, uh, he's amazing in the second half. And you did that with the Cardinals. Did you do anything different in the second half or have you always done something different in the second half? And if so, what, if not, what got this team to get turned around the way it did? Well, I mean, there's, you know, probably a lot of answers that question with me specifically. Yeah, I didn't do anything differently. You know, when did it start? It's not like you come in after the all-star break and go, hey, now it's time, boys. Far from that, actually, you know, I'm a big believer in the first step. And the first step was the day I took the job and started taking steps every single day for incremental improvement, whether it was culture, whether it was fundamentals, whether it was strategy, whether it's whatever it might be. And, um, you know, that's the continual growth mindset that I've always had. And we'll always have in this deal. And that's the fun part of the journey. And, um, you know, say it all the time, you know, the best of getting better, better as the game goes, series goes, season goes. And, um, you know, as far as the first half record, I was, I'll talk to Tony about this a fair amount, even, and publicly and probably, um, I feel good about it. People are like, oh, you know, you're under, I don't know what people's expectations are. I just know that this group from the very first day of me getting the job and starting to partner with our team, putting their staff together, um, there's a lot of goes into the process of the lead, the consistency. And there's a lot of, a lot of people that weigh in on. There's a lot of people in the organization, the team that need to figure out a way to pull them in the same direction. That takes time. And, um, all I can do for my seed is, is collectively try to make sure that we're moving things forward every day. And every single day we get individual, we get collective experiences, team experiences, and how are you growing from them and ensure that we are. And if we do that, I know we're getting better. And if you have that, then you're going to get better. And you have a group that's willing to buy into that, um, which is not easy until these done this grind. It's not easy. It's not easy to show up every day and, and figure out in this gig, um, you know, how are we going to get better and how are we going to learn from last night and how are we going to push to go, you know, be ready to go today, um, and give everything we got that day. You know, it's a, it's a nine month season. Um, you know, I don't know how many games we play. We the blessing of playing over 200 probably by now between spring training. Um, and the games we play in regular season at a playoffs to bring it every day to look for that. And 200 from every day is a challenge. And the teams that are willing individually and as a group to do that, they, they end up getting to a point where things start to click. And here we are. Manager Mike, she'll joins us here on Gwen and Chris. Last one from, from me, Mike. Um, I want you to put your scout on, scouting hat on here for a sec. You look across the diamond at this 2024 version of the Dodgers. What makes them a difficult team to deal with in a five game set? Um, you know, fair amount, you know, I always think about what we do, but your questions valid. And I'll be happy to answer it. Happy birthday, by the way. Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. Yeah, sir. Um, now the first other, you know, very, very good guys that have been very fun at it. So just, you know, these moments we're about to move over the next, you know, three to however many games, um, is, is not anything to be new for that group a whole lot. They can rely on experience. They're talented. You know, let's don't get ourselves. I mean, um, you know, the top of their lineup is, you know, mean, a tawny's, I think he's human. Um, and now you got some Freddie right there. And, and, uh, you know, beyond that, deep lineup, they've got guys in their bullpen that have big arms, that have done it, that have, you know, either been there for them or been acquired, that have, you know, really done a nice job. They, they aim the right way. Um, so there's a lot, you know, look, there's, there's a reason they've done what they've done over the period they've done it in, with a lot of the core drives they have. So, um, we're, we're aware of all that. We recognize it. We also look in at our side and go pretty freaking good. And, uh, we're going to go, go, uh, we're going to be ready for them, but we're going to, we're going to play our game and we're going to take it to them, not vice versa. Mike, we really appreciate the time. Uh, great having you on. It's fun for me to get a chance to talk with you finally. And, uh, wish a great luck moving forward in this series. Um, it's going to be exciting. We all can't wait. I know you can't wait. And, uh, good luck starting tomorrow, sir. Thank you, Mike. Appreciate it. Going fantastic. Thank you guys. Manager report with Mike Schilt, it's brought to you by San Diego County Credit Union. It's not big bank banking. It's better. This episode is brought to you by progressive insurance. Whether you love true crime or comedy, celebrity interviews or news, you call the shots on what's in your podcast queue. And guess what? Now you can call them on your auto insurance too, with the name of your price tool from progressive. It works just the way it sounds. You tell progressive how much you want to pay for car insurance and they'll show you coverage options that fit your budget. Get your quote today at progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust progressive, progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates price and coverage match limited by state law.