hitting coach

Episode 015_TREY HUNT_INDEPENDENT BASEBALL PLAYER_HITTING INSTRUCTOR

The transcription below was provided for your convenience through an automated service. Please excuse any unintended errors made in the process.

Evan 0:00

This episode of Born To Baseball is sponsored by the BTB. Travel team and training tracker. Are you a parent or player searching for travel teams or training facilities in your area? Or are you a coach looking to expand your reach? Then you have to check out the BTB triple t tracker at borntobaseball.com. Make sure your team is represented. Let's go.

Music 0:23

Calling all ballplayers. Are you ready to take your game to the next level? Were you born to baseball? Then bring it in. it's game time.

Evan 0:39

Hey guys, and welcome to the born baseball podcast. I'm Evan and joining us today is Trey hunt. Trey was born and raised in San Diego, California, where he attended Lincoln High School and became San Diego Athlete of the Year. After high school tre went to Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego and was named the all Conference Player not once, but twice as a centerfielder. He currently plays with the Black Sox organization out of Pennsylvania. Trey, thank you so much for joining me today.

Trey 1:06

No problem at all. Thank you for having me.

Evan 1:07

So you're from San Diego, can you share how you got started playing baseball?

Trey 1:12

Oh, my dad actually was a Sunday league All Star man, he played all growing up. So I was always in the dugout, I was always kind of just running around the field. So I just picked up a bat whenever I was ready, and it happened ever since then.

Evan 1:26

That's awesome. And can you talk about like your high school and maybe college experience a little?

Trey 1:32

Yeah, absolutely. I went to a very basketball and football High School. And so I was on the football team as well. So I went, basically back and forth between baseball, football, baseball, football over and over. And then eventually, my junior year, I started breaking out a little bit, I hit .535, which was the highest average in the state or close to the highest average in the state. And then my senior year, I kind of just took over all baseball and just did what I had to do.

Evan 1:59

That's awesome. Your last two years at Lincoln High School, like you said, you put up a .535 And then in your senior year, you put up a 565 average, which is ridiculous.

Trey 2:11

That season felt good. Everything felt good.

Evan 2:15

Like those numbers are just really incredible. And especially that 30 point jump over that only one year period of time. So what do you think sort of attributed to that jump?

Trey 2:26

honestly, I was just a very raw athlete. So I just tried to get as many swings as I could, I was just always born to to do more and do more and want more and just see what, what repetition could do for me. So I wasn't the most smooth swinging guy. But I wasn't going to strike out and I wasn't going to miss fastballs. And a lot of it was just the mentality of knowing that you can't beat me, I'm just going to do what I can.

Evan 2:50

Yeah, confidence is huge, it plays a huge role.

Trey 2:53

Absolutely, absolutely. And for me, it was any, any little hiccup in the day could have been my average go down. So I was really focused on just trying to keep everything consistent. If I could get up there and force a fastball early and not miss it then I was gonna hit a double and I was just gonna do what I had to do. I knew I couldn't get beat.

Evan 3:08

Yeah, that's a great approach to the game and you're at bats. And youth athletes were like you said, You played football and baseball. And a lot of us youth baseball players, and just athletes we're told to play multiple sports. So What benefits do you see in playing multiple sports?

Trey 3:27

Well, for me, I always just noticed it in situations where a lot of guys would like get out, you know, for instance, a pickle, there's times where you're just so, so used to going side to side on a football field or having to shake somebody or do something that you would never really do on a baseball field, that when the time comes and you could implement it on the baseball field, it showed up. And a lot of guys that didn't have that athleticism to move out of the way of a 300 pound guy or find a way to outrun a safety, you know, you'd never have to really do that on a baseball field, you can kind of play it safe and jog in and get the double. Or you'll notice a lot of guys that play other sports are comfortable taking that risk, where they could get that extra base because they're not really worried about failing, they just want to go for it and see what happens. And for me, I think that plays a lot, a lot into my game for, you know, always trying to take that extra base. when I'm at first and the guy shows his back on a fly ball to the left field, I'm going to take that second base if I can, because I know he's got to catch it turn around and make a perfect throw. And if I'm tagging up, I only got 90 feet to go. So I think I could beat him on that.

Evan 4:31

That's interesting. That's a great way of looking at it. And like Are there any like specific sports like would it be football or basketball that you would recommend youth baseball players to play

Trey 4:40

um, I mean, honestly, anything that's gonna have a lot of moving side to side. You know, for baseball, the quickest, quickest way to get the second is if I can get that first step and get going as fast as I can to steal second base where a lot of guys that's not a part of their game. They're either they're not very fast or they don't have that secondary twitch when you're going in and playing Those other sports, you automatically have to find a way to get that, you know, football even the linemen their first step is quick. You know, you're, you're playing safety, your first step is still quick, you know, you don't really have time to mess up in that situation. And if you do you end up on your back. So it's like automatic. Alright, we're gonna let you know you messed up.

Evan 5:19

Yeah definitely

Trey 5:20

Whether it's, you know, getting a shot blocked in basketball, there's always like that instant. Okay, you weren't fast enough. So the next time you might make that shot, because you gave it that extra fast twitch to get there? You know, it just all depends on, on how you can interpret it your own way.

Evan 5:36

Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. Like you said, lateral movement is, I guess, sports that have that is, I guess, you can implement in baseball,

Trey 5:43

you could, you could do, you could do tennis, you could do anything. Anything that has has to make a quick decision real quick, you know. And in baseball, you can easily look at it this way. When I'm hitting When I say go, I want everything to go. Yes, I don't, I don't want that little lag to where it's like go and now my swings coming. You know, and in football. If I'm lag on that first step. I'm on my back right now. There, there was no couldn't, could have just fouled one off and get extra pitches. You know, so there's ways to interpret it, where it's like, okay, that first step is really important when I'm hitting that, okay, I needed to go now is really important. So,

Evan 6:22

yeah.

Trey 6:23

That's how I see it

Evan 6:24

So you are San Diego Athlete of the Year in your senior year of high school, which is incredible. What kind of confidence did that give you going into college that knowing you'd like face even stronger competition?

Trey 6:37

I wouldn't say that, that gave me more confidence than actually getting like, the opportunity to go play. Because it's a lot of teams did pass up on me, you know, and a lot of colleges did pass up on me. So for me to go in, and, and get the opportunity to do things I go play scout ball that gave me the confidence because I see that I can play with those guys. You know, I go I go up and play scout ball on Sundays for the Mariners and then come back home and the competition would be way different. I'm like, Okay, well, I should be dominating this group. And then I got a fight when I get up to play with those bigger guys. You know, so my confidence going in was playing the scout ball and playing summer ball where I'm starting to see and hit 90 mile an hour fastball and, and see stuff like that. I've never seen it before. I'm not gonna have any confidence. So I think that gave me the most confidence.

Evan 7:23

I totally get that. I know you majored in graphic design in college. What was sort of the reason behind that?

Trey 7:31

Um, I started as a business major. And then I took economics class, and it just didn't go very well. I figured out that numbers were not for me. That's kind of not something I wanted to get into for the rest of my life. And I had always kind of doodled a lot. I was always trying to create things that I've never seen before. So for me graphic design, I was always a computer geek. And constantly on computers growing up, I was a big gamer growing up. So I figured I might as well try it out and see what I can do. And I ended up liking it a lot.

Evan 8:05

Yeah, that's really cool. So you were mainly a centerfielder In high school and college. What are some like unique skills and qualities that a player would need to have in order to play an outfield position?

Trey 8:17

Well, I actually was a catcher going into college.

Evan 8:19

Oh, interesting

Trey 8:20

yeah, I caught for a while. But as far as expanding on your question, for me, it was taking the flyballs during BP as serious as I could. The reason I got the job that I got in college was because I moved from catcher to outfield, and I would take fly balls. And one day, I just kind of took off on one and laid out because I knew I wasn't playing and I was just trying to kind of go do stuff and coach was like, Alright, we're gonna need you to get Outfielder glove for the rest of the year. And I was like, Alright, I'm cool with that. So I just kind of worked on it and was hitting better than some of the other guys. And that's how I found my spot. So I think taking those fly balls, as serious as you can makes the game so much easier. You don't really have to think as much, especially at your home field. If you're getting the same conditions over and over and over again. It should be like riding a bike. You shouldn't even have to think about jumps. You should just be able to kind of run and play around.

Evan 9:17

Yeah, taking practicing as hard as you can play.

Trey 9:20

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, don't get me wrong as you get older, you kind of slow it down a little bit. You know, you can't go as crazy as you would in BP because you're gonna be sore the next day, but I would say definitely trying to track down as much as you can if you don't think you can get there. Try to get there you might get there. You never know. You know, in the game. You'll take that. That extra jump to go get it if you tried to do it in practice.

Evan 9:45

Yeah, definitely. You currently play independent ball, which I learned is a first chance Second Chance league for baseball players. What has your experience been like playing there?

Trey 9:59

Um, I have I've been on the lower end of a majority of the independent leagues, a couple leagues that folded, played on the lower levels got to play in some of those bigger, bigger stadiums and bigger situations. So that was fun. But what I think I've learned the most and gotten the most out of it was, you really got to want to do it, you can't come out and think that you can train for two months. And then you get into a situation where it's a tryout and someone's been talking to you. And then you get there and you're not ready. Like you have to want to continue to play, you have to want to train year round, you have to want to do the traveling to get to where you're playing, you've got to grind it, you're not going to get paid much. That's just point blank period. So you got to really want to do it, you've got to be using it, try to get better and just loving the game.

Evan 10:50

Loving the game is why almost everyone plays. You gotta love it. You gotta love it,

Trey 10:55

you have to, you have to and if you don't, it's gonna eat you alive.

Evan 10:58

Would you say that independent ball was sort of what you expected going into it? Or has it been just a whole different experience.

Trey 11:05

Um, I've, I've had a lot of guys, a lot of mentors and stuff, tell me exactly what it was. So I kind of knew what it was going and I knew I wasn't gonna get paid much I knew I had a lot of work to do. And I was willing to make the changes, to just be able to play against some of these guys that had a big change in major league ball and then came down and played independent leagues, like I played against guys that have been in the major leagues. So it's like to be on the same field as them and to be able to compete and grind it and have an at bat against a guy who throws 95. And next thing, you know, you piece him up in centerfield. It's, it's that want to do it, you know. And for me, that experience is undeniably The best thing that's happened to me. So it's like, why not continue to go for it? You know?

Evan 11:51

Yeah, that's really awesome. So what would it really mean to you to sign with a major league organization?

Trey 11:57

For me, it would just be like, it's about time, though, that would be my first thought. But uh, you know, it would just kind of complete what. I wouldn't say complete, because obviously, you're going to still have goals after that. But it would complete the confirmation that I'm doing what I'm supposed to do. You know, if I'm taking care of my body, and I'm not missing games, and I'm doing everything I got to do, and I'm excelling at what I'm trying to do, then I can't be mad.

Evan 12:25

A lot of times for new youth baseball players and Baseball Players all over. Our goals are to play Major League Baseball, get drafted and sign

Trey 12:34

Absolutely. Even with where the games take me so far, like I'm having a great time. And that's what it's about. It's just having a great time. You do what you love, and you have a great time. Why not?

Evan 12:44

Definitely

Are you part of the swing down and get on top of the ball approach or the turning the barrel to like work slightly up through the zone, like elevate to celebrate?

Trey 12:57

I am, I would say a hybrid of both. I liked the turn to, for me, I did transform my swing into a more upward, but that was to create backspin and be able to hit balls harder, and get a little bit more lift out of it. But the swing down to me can be misconstrued into many different ways that make it kind of seem like it's hard to teach. You know, I can teach a kid to get on plane a lot easier if I'm teaching him to go up at the ball. Because if I'm gonna go Yeah, go down hill with your hands go down hill go down hill, then he's going to create a path that straight down. Now if he creates a path that's straight down and the balls coming straight down, he's going to completely miss or he's going to be really good in a really small portion of the zone.So for me, I want to try to turn

it gets a little serious when we talk about SCAP loading and doing all that stuff. But for me, I will teach a more upward barrel turn. But there's... when it comes to kids, you have to word it different sometimes.

Evan 14:14

Okay,

Trey 14:15

you know, everybody's not gonna know the exact same thing. So if I tell the kid to stay inside the ball, if I look at every single kid, they're going to give me a different answer. You know, and for me staying inside the ball it's more of just keeping my hands tight and turning and when I turn my hand should be inside the ball. The barrel is going to come after and we're gonna make damage. So I am kind of a hit it up in the air kind of guy. I train, I train high. I try to hit homeruns in BP. I do what I got to do, but at the end of the day, I'm still aiming for double because if I'm a little bit a little bit low, I'll hit base hit and if I'm a little bit high, it'll go out.

Evan 14:50

I love what you said about like the doubles and base hits are a home run if you miss it.

Trey 14:56

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

Evan 14:59

me recently I've ever actually been learning about like the SCAP load and like hands inside and the turn and like some more advanced movements. So could you maybe elaborate on the SCAP load a little bit.

Trey 15:13

Um, for me you can kind of think of, think of the SCAP load is two different things. I mean, for me, I like to focus a little bit more on my barrel because I don't really, I'm not very risky when I swing. So like, when I say risky I mean a lot of guys will kind of wiggle the bat around a lot. I basically when I load, I do my load over and over and over again. And that's my rhythm. So like when other guys are kind of just twirling the bat around and doing whatever they're doing, I'm literally just doing my load over and over and over again. So I feel it. And then when it comes, then I just do it a little bit more exaggerated, and I kind of just pull my back elbow is far behind me as I can without changing how my body is directed. Okay, yeah, that makes sense. So if that makes sense, I mean, I try to keep my body in parallel with the plate. And then I'm trying to pull my back shoulder or my back elbow is far behind me as I can while tiipping the barrel towards my head.

Evan 16:05

Okay, yeah, that makes sense.

Trey 16:08

So I mean, there's a little bit of the body. But yeah, for me, I like to break it down. Super simple. And I want to know where everything's at, like, I clench my hands right before I swing, because I want to know exactly where everything's at, I got a big leg kick, so my leg kicks got to go up, and then my body's got to be in the same spot throughout the whole, like, if it moves a little bit forward, we're okay. But if it moves, big forward, we're in trouble. So for me, I just like to keep my head centered, and try to get that elbow as far back behind my head as I can.

Evan 16:37

Knowing your body is super important. And yeah, being able to sort of realize, like, if I do this I'm not gonna do well, if I do this, that's what's gonna help me.

Trey 16:47

Yeah, and for me, it's like you find a thought that'll help you out a lot. I mean, as you keep working, as you keep getting stronger, you're gonna start to be able to feel movements that you never really felt before. Like, a majority, if not, every baseball player can probably flex almost every single muscle in their body without moving anything dramatically. You know, you tell them to flex their forearm, they can probably flex their forearm, just by closing their hands, you know, or you say, squeeze your LAT, they can probably squeeze their lat and you'll be able to see their lat a little bit more. So as you get older, and as you kind of figure out your body and start to be able to see, okay, this movement does this, and this does this, you'll start to be able to kind of evolve in your swing a little bit. Because like you learn how to use your legs, you learn how to use your hips, you learn how to use the scapula, you learn how to get that rubber band, by letting your body go first, but not losing your posture. There's things like that that can very easily translate.

Evan 17:44

Okay, yeah, thank you for that. And like, have you had like, I know you talked about this, like that was, there was a certain point in your career, where you sort of tweaked your swing and learn more about the swing and your body and different things like that. So like, like, what really impacted that decision to learn more about your body and learn more about maybe the proper swing sequence, and what are some of the things that you've changed?

Trey 18:11

Um, well, I was a toe tap guy for a really long time, I'd get my foot down early, and then would kind of just heal click and go. And I would hit a lot of topspin ground balls, or top spin line drives in the five six hole. In one year, I counted, I probably hit, I probably had 80 hits, I think 36 of them were in the 5/6 hole where the ball was crushed, and I was on time. But if I just backspin it, instead of top spinning, it would have been a home run or a double or something where it's a lot more damage done. So for me, I just wanted to get out of that realm of just hitting singles when i crush a ball. When I crush a bal Now I want it to go out or I want it to to line drive somewhere. Whereas back then I was okay with the topspin line driving the five, six hole because I was getting on base you know, it wasn't a problem, whatever, no big deal. And then as power numbers started going up and my power numbers weren't going up. When I knew I had the capability to do so it was about time to change something. So I went in the lab and I started figuring out how to get on plane and I started the sequence to the body and trying to figure out how to use my hips and you know what I needed to implement for myself to get the result that I wanted. So I work in the top corners of the cage now backspin in the top corners of the cage both sides and if I can do that, if I got a pitch up and in, middle in, belly button in or down and I should be able to put it in the exact same spot. Yeah, the angle of attack is going to be different. But I should be able to put it exactly where I want to with the backspin that I want. So if I work that way in the game, my body will be used to going down and getting those pitches from a different angle or staying tall and getting to that pitch up. Even though they think 92 and it was running in, you know, so you want to be able to train yourself and those angles by keeping the same principles of your kinetics.

Evan 20:10

Okay, that's really cool what you said and being able to no matter where the pitches, if it's inside, you hit it to the same place, and no matter the height, so that's really cool.

Trey 20:21

I think that's what what kind of changed everything was, was being able to backspin it for a double no matter where, you know, if you were a little early, it might get down the line, but you want to backspin it into that double zone. And then you can't get beat by anything.

Evan 20:37

So feel verse real, what do you understand that to mean when it comes to hitting.

Trey 20:42

So there are things that you'll tell yourself, that don't make sense. But for some reason, your body gives you the result that you want. So if I tell myself to pin my elbow to my ribs, and let the barrel come through late, someone else could do the exact same thing, and it will jack up their completely different swing, like their swing would just be all messed up. But for me, it could probably give me the perfect path. And I crush a ball.

Evan 21:16

interesting

Trey 21:17

when you're trying to feel something, you can't always get stuck on the same thought. You have to be able to like change your thought and see if you can get the feel to be a little bit different.

Evan 21:28

Okay

Trey 21:29

Because if someone's teaching you something, it's probably because you're doing it incorrectly, right. And if you trust, if you trust this teacher, they should be able to get you to feel something that's awkward. And it'll eventually become not awkward. And that's when you've made a change. You know where you'll get the feel, but it'll feel right instead of feel wrong.

Evan 21:54

Interesting. Yeah. And I know you've mentioned to me, you mentioned a mental cue. And I guess for you would that be like the pin your elbow to the ribs, and let the barrel come through a little late? Or would that sort of be different?

Trey 22:09

Yeah, it kind of depends on what I'm going through at the time, honestly, um, one a big one for me is just locking my front hip out. you always need to have some kind of braking system to let the barrel come forward the energy to kind of transfer over. So as soon as my foot gets down, and I'm ready to go, and I locked my knee and my hip drops back, and now my hands have a lane to go. And if my hands have a lane to go, my barrel is gonna probably be in the right spot when the right time comes. So that's a big one for me, but I can only use that one in BP because in the game it's just not, it doesn't really work out. But, in the end that's the crazy thing about everybody's gonna be different. Like, I can't think of something that intricate when I'm hitting LIVE or in a game. I like to think of something more along the lines of just turn into it. Turn into it, things like that. Get the foot down on time. If my foot's down on time. I'll go foot down on time, but I'm thinking about that anyways, a majority of the time. Cuz I think for me, pitch selection shouldn't be something you think about

Evan 23:20

you can't think about too much when you're at the plate. For a lot of people. Yes, simple, easy thoughts that could remind you of what to do. small things that, you just take what you know and what's second nature and you react to

Trey 23:34

an easy way for me to explain it would be you should have a process of thoughts before the ball comes. I have a process Everyone has their they come to the plate, they kick the dirt, they do whatever they do, but they probably are thinking about the same thing every time they do that, you know, for me, I get in. I like to get my hands in my posture locked in. That's my first thing I'm focused on at the plate. the posture should be right hands in the right spot. Flush that thought now I'm already feeling it. You know this is quick because you know you got a guy on the mound. So now hands are already thought about everything. Now my rhythm is on I'm focusing on just getting my foot down on time. I already know I'm looking for a heater. We're not looking for anything but a heater because I'm not trying to miss the heater. We don't want to see all the other stuff. So I should be down on time for the heater I can think about that ON TIME ON TIME ON TIME. And once you're down for that, it should just be GO. Shouldn't have to really tell yourself anything else. It should just be go or No.

Evan 24:37

That makes a ton of sense. And so I met you when you coached me at a tournament down in Florida this past winter. And I immediately picked up some great infield and hitting tips from you. Do you work with some young athletes back home?

Trey 24:55

I do. I work with the gorillas back home in Chula Vista, it's a small, Small program we got from about, I'd say 6U to, I got some high school kids as well. I've always been coaching always loved giving back and doing stuff like that. So it's just, it's just part of it now, I like to teach the stuff that I'd never had the opportunity to get taught when I was younger. And I think that's what makes me want to do it. Because I can implement some stuff on some kids that may not have the opportunity to ever hear something of that level, you know?

Evan 25:26

Yeah, that's awesome. That really is, when you work with young athletes, do you work with them with just everything? Or are there specific areas that you specialize in?

Trey 25:38

Um, for me, I've always enjoyed projects. So a lot, a lot of the time, it's a kid that I'm trying to revamp, and just give them a whole new approach a majority of the time, it's more mental. I'm trying to get into the mental of my kids, I want you to be able to go to the play and be equipped for the test. I don't want the test to come up and it looks like you never read the book. I want you to know, as soon as you get up there, what you're looking for, you know, and if you're missing it, then we got something to work on. But if you're not, then we're just gonna kind of pick and choose the things we want to change.

Evan 26:16

It's really important mindset is huge with a baseball player.

Trey 26:20

Absolutely.

Evan 26:21

For the youth baseball players, I know, we've been talking about more advanced movements in the swing. But for baseball players who are like just like getting ready for those advanced movements, can you share like one or two tips on what types of movements to really start with? Or maybe the proper parts of the swing sequence to work on first?

Trey 26:43

Um, I would probably work on let's see, that's a tough question one or two. I would say the lower half is obviously extremely important. I would focus on trying to get kids which seems to be the one of the hardest things to do is to let them know it's okay that after the swing, and your front leg is locked out, to leave it that way. Leave it there as long as you can.

Evan 27:13

That's interesting.

Trey 27:14

Because a lot of times the first thing that kids do is they collapse that front knee. And that's going to take a lot of power away. Because your body's still going forward. You never had anything to stop around it to make the swing come through and actually snap out front, so that locking of the front knee is very important. I like to work from the ground up the hands, you can always figure it out later. But I would I would focus on the front knee and locking that out. And then after that just learn how to stay connected. And keeping hands tight. And being able to go all sides. you got to be able to go all sides. Because oppo is where the money's at.

Evan 27:54

Yes. You got to be able to hit both ways. Both sides of the plate.

Trey 28:00

the fastball always seems to come on the outer half. So why not?

Evan 28:03

Why not

Trey 28:04

Hit the one out there.

Evan 28:06

Yeah.

And like in order to be an infielder. I believe you're an infielder. Now, am I right,

Trey 28:12

yeah, I transfer back and forth. But I take a lot of ground balls on a daily basis. So that's always good.

Evan 28:17

Okay, yeah. So not only do you have to be have great hands to be an infielder, but you also have to have great footwork. So can you share some like drills and different techniques that you've used to help you develop great footwork,

Trey 28:34

um, first thing I would do is hip bands. Hip bands are extremely important, because if you can't get low, then you can't get underneath the ground ball, it's not going to work out too nice. A lot of problems I've seen with kids is they just don't bend their knees far enough down. And a lot of it is hip mobility, and not being able to get low enough. So I would do that. And then from there is just to try to be smooth, try to stay smooth. Don't let your feet move too fast. Let that first step get you there. And then after that, try to slow everything down, a lot of kids want to go a mile a minute, slow it down the guys on TV, they never look like they're stressed out. So you should never look like you're stressed out.

Evan 29:20

That's great advice. So on the field we not only have to have great skills, but also have to be really heads up. What are some of the things that you tell your players to develop or things that they should develop to develop good baseball iQ?

Trey 29:39

Um, I would say always look where the sun is because at some point that first baseman is not going to be able to see the ball. And that's one of those things that's kind of important to me. A lot of kids you'll see at tournaments and stuff, the sun will be right behind the first baseman and then they're not getting a big leap. Well, why not first baseman can't The first baseman can't see the pitcher. So they're not going to pick you off. And if they do, you're probably going to get to third. So I like to tell them pay attention to the surroundings. Wind, things like that, can the team throw the ball to first base? Watch them during in and outs. Can they throw the ball to first base, can they play catch from the outfield, who can throw the ball all the way to a base, you know, things like that, that you can take full advantage of extra bases, the team that gets the most extra bases is probably going to win the game. You know, so if you can get as many extra bases as possible, then find a way to do it, especially if it's easy. A lot of tag ups, a lot of tags ups. I'm big on tag ups, don't be afraid to tag up from anywhere. Especially if they can't play catch tag up.

Evan 30:52

Would you say there's like a mentor or someone that you've looked up to, to help you develop a strong mindset over the years.

Trey 31:00

Um, for me it was my dad, my dad was always really big on just always being smarter than everybody else. you might not be the best on the field, you might not be the most athletic, but if you're smarter than everybody else, you can find a way. if you know the fastball is coming, you can't miss it. You know, things like that, where it's like, you can take advantage of a game just by knowing what's going on. You know, if I've seen this guy throw me three curveballs in a row, he's probably not gonna throw me four curveballs. You know, paying attention to counts and attention to things like that. Trying to get myself into really good counts. You know, not swinging at that borderline pitch early to see if the umpire calls it a ball and then getting that 2-0 fastball. You know, things like that. I feel like we're very beat into me earlier. My dad was like, you can control the game more than you think. It was definitely my dad for sure.

Evan 31:57

Yeah, that's awesome. Parents play big roles in mentorships. And, just helping us coaching us and everything really?

Trey 32:07

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Evan 32:09

So yeah, when you coached me this past winter, you often used the saying. "So what", when something didn't go our way? When did you start using this saying? And is this sort of part of your mindset when you started playing?

Trey 32:23

Yeah, it kind of kind of came out when I was playing. My first year of pro ball, I was playing out in a small town, super small league in the empire league out in New York. And stuff would just happen. I would just be like so what. So what it doesn't even matter. Doesn't matter. Like I wasn't playing for the first three months of the year I got benched for the first three or four games just straight off spring training, I was really expecting much. didn't play. In the first game, I come up, I get two hits. And then I go for a snide for like three or four days, I just could not figure it out. And then I was just like, you know, I just gotta get in the cage, I gotta swing it out. So what it is what it is, figure it out and everything started to roll in the right direction. Now it's every time something bad happens. So what.... You got to move on pitch to pitch, if I can make my adjustments pitch to pitch, instead of at bat to at bat, or day by day, we're going to be better if I swing over a slider in the dirt. I can't think about that slider in the dirt for the next four pitches, I got to be like, Alright, you know what, he might throw the slider again, because I swung at it in the dirt. So we got to be mindful of that. So what, we'll figure it out.

Evan 33:31

Yeah, I love that. I love that.

Trey 33:34

I appreciate it.

Evan 33:35

Um, and like when you hit it's important to clear and quiet your mind. So you're not thinking too much. What techniques would you recommend for youth baseball players in order to clear and quiet their minds?

Trey 33:50

Learn to breathe. Breathing is super underrated. Breathing is what slows down your heart rate, the better you can slow down your heart rate. I know everyone's had that one at that, where they can't stop their leg from shaking. Or, you know, everyone has it. It happens to everybody when the guys throwing super hard. You don't really, never really seen it before. You can't figure out how to slow your heart rate down. You have to breathe, you have to breathe. For me. It's a big deep breath then I get in the box. Take one more deep breath before he starts his wind up and then we're going. you know, you got to learn what works for you get your nice little deep breath in there. It'll slow your heart rate down. It's like snipers. What do they do? They hold their breath and do what they got to do. You know? That's how, that's how it happens. You know you got to slow all that stuff down.

breating is huge, it slows your heart rate down, slows almost everything around you. It's like stopping or slowing down time.

It's like the matrix man.

Evan 34:50

And I know that you were once asked if you could choose a famous baseball player to have dinner with it would be Willie Mays.

Trey 34:57

Yeah.

Evan 34:59

Why? Willie Mays, and what question would you ask him?

Unknown Speaker 35:04

I would ask him if he was cheating when, when he went to that ball, because I feel like you have to know that that was coming to be able to run stuff down like that. But no, I mean, he was just so influential, you know, growing up, seeing all the old school videos of that stuff, and just hitting bombs and doing all that. And the way he passed the game down to people that he mentored, like barry bonds, like guys like that, like you can tell they played a big role. And for me, those are all my favorite hitters growing up. So if he was the one that started it, then why wouldn't I want to watch him? And why wouldn't I want to talk to him and figure out what he knows? Because he obviously knows something that I don't so

Evan 35:48

yeah, learn from the best of them?

Trey 35:50

Yeah, absolutely. Why not? He started it all. So let's do it.

Evan 35:54

He was super influential in baseball, and the guys that he mentored and just

Trey 36:00

yeah, just playing the way that he played and it's a different different way of playing and you can't, it's hard to even play like that now with all the rule changes and stuff and being as crazy as he was. So it's cool to watch.

Evan 36:13

Yeah, definitely. So Trey, would you like to share anything else that you're working on, or where people can go to reach you.

Trey 36:24

Um, you can follow me on Instagram at trigger tray 15 trigggatreyy15 if you would, like we're about to start playing. So I'll be posting a lot more baseball stuff and, and probably at bat by a bat type things. But other than that, it's time for me to go. So I just been working out and I'm ready to ready to do some damage.

Evan 36:47

Yeah, ready to do some damage.

Trey 36:50

That's it. Other than that, everybody just needs to go out and have fun while they can be safe out there while everything's going on? I know. We're going to be taking measures. So I'm hoping you guys are taking measures as well. Yeah, definitely. So

Evan 37:03

well, Trey, I wanted to thank you again for coming on and sharing Amazing, amazing information.

Trey 37:09

Absolutely. No problem, man. Thank you for having me. I appreciate you guys are doing great things over here.

Evan 37:14

Thank you. I appreciate it.

Trey 37:15

Absolutely.

Evan 37:18

Thank you all for listening in. We really hope you enjoyed this episode. Be sure to hit the subscribe button and be the first to know when new episodes launch. Check us out at borntobaseball.com for free resources and new gear. And of course on social media @borntobaseball where we can connect live now let's play ball.