Host Jim Powell, co-host Tyler Flowers, and John Smoltz (aka Smoltzie) discuss college football, biological men demanding to play in women's sports, and much more. The conversation delves into Rob Manfred's "golden at-bat" rule proposal, the state of pitching and injuries in Major League Baseball, and how rule changes could incentivize healthier practices. Smoltz shares his insights on the advancements and pitfalls in pitching strategies, the impact of analytics, and the future challenges for the sport. The episode also features the "Get Off My Lawn" segment, where David Carroll advocates for more Ford Frick Awards to honor deserving broadcasters.

Be sure to enjoy Part 2, a special bonus Holiday edition with Smoltz and the boys coming shortly after Christmas!

IN THIS EPISODE:

• (0:43) Special Guest: John Smoltz
• (01:50) Golden At Bat Rule Discussion
• (03:15) Pitching Philosophy and Injuries
• (04:56) Future of Baseball and Rule Changes
• (15:32) Soto Contract and Player Valuation
• (17:33) Get Off My Lawn Segment
• (19:28) Closing Remarks and Community Engagement

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Baseball needs rule changes to address the high rate of pitching injuries.
• Modern pitching strategies prioritize max effort over sustainability.
• Player development should balance analytics with long-term health.
• High-profile contracts like Juan Soto’s reflect the evolving economics of baseball.

ABOUT THE GUEST:

John Smoltz, a Hall of Fame pitcher, is widely regarded as one of the most versatile and dominant players in Major League Baseball history. Known for his impressive career with the Atlanta Braves from 1988 to 2008, Smoltz achieved 213 wins, 154 saves, and a career ERA of 3.33. He remains the only pitcher in MLB history to record both 200+ wins and 150+ saves.

As part of the legendary Braves rotation alongside Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine, Smoltz was instrumental in Atlanta’s 1995 World Series championship. He also earned the 1996 National League Cy Young Award, thanks to his standout 24-win season.

Following his retirement in 2009, Smoltz transitioned into broadcasting, becoming a respected MLB analyst known for his insightful commentary. Beyond baseball, he is an avid golfer, a philanthropist, and a passionate advocate for youth sports development. Smoltz's legacy extends both on and off the field, embodying excellence, adaptability, and leadership.

RESOURCE LINKS 

Stay connected with us:

• X: https://x.com/Jim_Powell
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jim-powell-38715a5/
• Website: http://fansfirstpodcast.com/ 

We’d love to hear your thoughts! Send in your voice memos or written submissions to Jim@fansfirstpodcast.com and join the conversation on our next episode.

BaseballCommonSense, JohnSmoltz, FansFirstPodcast, PitchingPhilosophy, MLBInsights, GoldenAtBat, BaseballHealth, RuleChanges, MLBContracts, HallOfFame, TylerFlowers, JimPowell, MLBLegends, SportsPodcast, PitchingEvolution, BaseballTalk, AthleteHealth

FFEP10SMOLTZ

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His name is John Smoltz. Smoltzy, how are you?

John Smoltz: I'm doing great. Thanks for having me on.

Jim Powell: We are, uh, privileged to have you here and, uh, ready to pick your brain because you are always an interesting commentator. You've got good ideas and bad ideas, I'm sure, too, like we all do. But, um, but we're interested to find out what you think about a number of different topics.

I want to start, uh, off the top with this golden at bat rule proposal that's been thrown out by Rob Manford. How much, uh, have you paid attention to that, John?

The all star game has changed. Just like our game has changed. Guys don't go as long. Obviously there's a lot of things that go into that. Um, I'm a big, I'm a big believer that if you want to change the game in any facet, like they already did it with the three rule changes that have been made and they've, I knew nobody would balk at it.

They, they, they pushed back early because we had no action in our game. We had a bunch of basically analytical driven philosophies that slowed our game down. I would be okay if you wanted to get to an incentive idea like that by. Purposing it with a qualification. In other words, let me give you a crazy idea.

I would also tie it, let's just say, I said this four years ago and they thought I'd landed on the moon. I said, why not, why not tie your, uh, DH to your starting pitcher? Cause that's how you philosophically change the game. If I'm an organization that wants to keep going the way I'm going in the way that I choose to pitch, then you're going to pinch hit four times a game, three times a game.

Jim Powell: Interesting ideas. Um, I, I've read some things where people are saying, well, you know, what does this do to Craig Kimbrell?

I mean, he's chasing 500 career saves and now all of a sudden, every ninth inning, he's going to be facing Aaron judge or Soto or, you know, some superstar that they can just bring up for a golden to bat those guys get extra at bats may get 120, 130 extra at bats over the course of the season may change the, the criteria for, you know, winning an RBI crown, the home run crown, other offensive things, it does have, if they did this, and I agree with you, John, I'm not sure that, I almost feel like I was talking to Tyler earlier that Rob Manfred's just floating some stuff to get, keep baseball in the papers for the, uh, off season.

But, um, if they did actually make a dramatic move like that, I mean, there would be ramifications that would shake up the baseball encyclopedia potentially.

And how does he get the analytic philosophy out of the way pitchers are used? And how does he incentivize clubs to change that? See, I don't know. You are not going to be able to speed up pitchers unless you went to a pitch clock. You are not going to be able to have athleticism in the game unless you banned the shift.

You were not going to get stolen bases back in the game unless you increased the bases and gave them an opportunity to do it. Some clubs are going to do it, some won't. But when you allow clubs to take advantage of the current rules, And just in the area of pitching too many pitchers on one team, too many moves that you can make all these things can be shuffled and changed with new rules moving forward that I believe clubs will go.

We don't look on social media. We don't see who's pitching tomorrow. There's no attraction to it. And we have lost generational pitchers in the next two years. You'll never see a guy pitch more than 10 years again. That's the danger of our sport. See football. Got it right, even though there's pushback and everyone couldn't stand the defensive rules.

If they lost their starting quarterbacks, they don't have an NFL. So they made it very apparent that they want those guys upright. Well, pitchers in the game have become obsolete. And there, you know, I mean, we used to, I, as a kid, couldn't wait to see who's pitching tomorrow. That is not even in the forefront of anybody's brain anymore.

And that would be nice to get back.

Jim Powell: Tyler, jump in here.

But it kind of makes sense how you're saying pitching a little more old school, like not going 100 percent 99 miles an hour on every heater. Let's work in some first pitch to seamers down away. So we get a rollover at 75 percent effort. Then all of a sudden you open up the possibilities of going six or seven innings.

So that was that was interesting to hear that take on that. I was wondering where you're headed.

John Smoltz: Yeah. So we have the definition of insanity right now in pitching injuries and they I wouldn't say a word if the game was keeping guys healthier and let's just say it guys didn't went meant didn't go past five innings.

If you have the same thing going on over and over again and knowing that injury rates are going through the roof, you're not producing and developing pitching in the minor leagues, you're just developing arms. You're using the excuse that this is youth baseball problem and not a major league baseball problem.

You don't know how to fix it. So you're not going to talk about it. You're not going to address it. That is the bottom line when experts and people in the field have been banging the drum saying, you realize this is not good for the long term value of the arm and pitchers who have pitched like myself keep speaking to it and nobody listens.

That's just the way it is.

Tyler Flowers: You have any other ideas on how we could encourage them to make some of the changes? I mean, other than, you know, obviously it's monetarily driven right now, as far as the business of Major League Baseball and running your own organization. And I think there's so much of it that they don't really worry that much, right?

Like we have a surplus of arms throughout the minor league system and we plan on using. a ton of those throughout every season, which is kind of sad. But you have any other thoughts or ideas on that?

John Smoltz: Yeah. And this is where you have to have rule changes because if you don't make any rule changes and you beg every club, please, please change the philosophy of pitching.

But my point is, if you limit the rosters, now I have to think differently. If I have the luxury of having 13 pitchers, I'm going to have 13 pictures. Let's say we just change the world and go back to 11 pitchers. Do you think you're gonna have guys on the on the staff that can only go three batters? No.

You're gonna develop it. Yeah. Do you think you're gonna allow your starter to just go five? No. You'll develop it. See, we become addicted to run prevention and the eras in the 2.1. It's okay to have a 3.5 ERA and go seven innings. It's okay to pitch 220 innings and not have a bad year. It's impossible. But when you're emptying the tank every single time, you cannot expect these guys to go seven innings.

It's like being naked, right? And you're out there going, I don't know how to do it because you're not teaching that you're not going to get a guy that breaks down again in the game that doesn't have eye popping stuff. That's why guys like Bryce Elder, I could give you about 10 examples of quality pitchers that don't have eye popping stuff that is a great number three or number four and will pitch 220 innings.

And I think that's how it would do it.

Tyler Flowers: I think if you look at the teams that were in the postseason in the past lately, the majority of them, you know, say they had fortunate health. right? And then you look at the teams that maybe get out early and or don't make it. It's like, well, we had a tough break with health throughout the season.

I think that's a good point too.

John Smoltz: Well, what's gonna happen is and I don't, I hope I'm wrong. I haven't been wrong yet. Watch all the reliever injuries this next season for the long run. The team's made where they pushed them to the brink. Everybody, this is the one thing that makes my skin crawl as a broadcaster.

I hear this all the time. Well, the guys, that team made a long run and you know, it's the carryover effect. I'm like, really? I went 14 straight years to the postseason. Nobody told me each year that I could have a luxury of, of not being good the next year. And I think the injury rate that was happening at the starting pitcher is obvious.

You look at teams that make their runs. Now that's what I would have. I'd be concerned about certain guys like that when they've extended themselves and the short recovery, and they know they're going to go to them again. So, um, I I'm, I'm anxiously looking forward to the future to see how we eradicate all these injuries.

Cause as Jim introduced me as 21 years in the big leagues, that was a privilege. Guys, the, the career average. Length of a baseball, Major League Baseball is under three years. Now that has got to change. We were the one sport that of all the sports, the average career was supposed to be the longest. We got to get back to that.

Like this is, it's not that hard. You don't have to throw max effort every single time. And if you do, you're going to pay a costly price. It's, it's obvious to all of us.

John Smoltz: Yeah, we've entered a time and I think this is not just baseball. We've entered a time with so much information, so much technology, so much knowledge.

No one said, Hey, how did you would think management people in the industry would want to know how certain things were done so they can balance the knowledge, the technology guys look like they should be playing football and they're playing baseball, the workouts, the no body fat, the injuries are through the roof.

I guess everybody's okay with it. Because when you have all the answers, why would you ask any questions?

Jim Powell: That's a great point. Um, speaking of insanity in baseball, what about the Soto contract? I mean, it's almost like they've just gone ahead and skipped, you know, a decade or so of his future play. And he's off to the hall of fame as the richest man in the history of the game.

I mean, I was, I personally was flabbergasted by that contract.

Um, he's a generational player, but I don't know that he's a generational player of a 15 year contract that in the last six years, you're going to be okay with whatever he gives you. But that's what they had to do to get them. That owner has a lot of money. He wanted to change the landscape of the New York Mets.

He has, but I will say this in fairness. Yeah. Good for every player, right? That makes the money that they, they earned it. But I'd say that when you talk about Shohei Ohtani and what he can do for a ballclub, there are multiple facets that Jen, that, that, that validate that contract Soto really is a generational offensive player.

Barry Bonds never swinging the bat in his heyday made his lineup better, and that's kind of what Soto is. It took 15 years and a whole lot of money to land them in New York. We'll see how that, uh, if they don't win a championship, I don't know how it gets validate, but we'll guess we'll, we're going to find out.

Jim Powell: John, thank you so much for coming always. We really appreciate your time.

John Smoltz: My pleasure. We'll do it again. Yep.

Jim Powell: And now it's time for one of my favorite segments of our fans first podcast. each and every week. It's called Get Off My Lawn. Hey, get off my lawn. Back for a second try to sneak onto our lawn is David Carroll of Chattanooga, Tennessee.

They built the Braves radio network and they attracted tens of millions of fans nationwide on the TBS Superstation, America's team, remember? Well, sadly, all three have passed away long before getting nominated. And now they get rejected every year along with other great announcers. So Hall of Fame, how about a catch up year so that more deserving broadcasters can get into the hall.

It's only fair to their fans and to their families.

And I'm sure they'll get it eventually. Unfortunately, all have passed now. So it's just their families that would enjoy it the most and their fans like us. But David, thank you very much. I hope you serve as an inspiration to other viewers and listeners. We would love to have you submitting your videos and your audio tapes, your voice memos on your phone, or even just send us an email and we can read your comments right on the air.

That's our fans first podcast for today for Tyler flowers. This is Jim Powell saying so long, and we'll see you next time on fans. First, a sports podcast,

See you next time.