Dodgers News: Justin Turner Holds No Punches in Talking About Prospects Showboating
Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner was a guest on Barstool's Starting 9 podcast recently, and the irreverent nature of the show brought out a little bit of salty JT.
In addition to hinting that he's "hopefully a couple years away" from thinking about what he wants to do after retirement, Turner touched on a lot of different topics.
It's amusing to watch the whole interview, as early on, Turner bleeps himself when quoting Chase Utley telling him to stop consuming dairy products, saying Utley told him, "Why the F would you keep putting that in your body." But as he settles in and gets more comfortable, his language starts to sound more like a ballplayer talking to a couple of his buddies. (Which is a polite way of saying, if you're at work, make sure you have headphones on when you watch this video we're about to share with you.)
Turner was asked if he thinks there's too much information out there sometimes that can make things more complicated than they need to be, and his response ended up on a tangent about Masyn Winn's viral 100-mph throw from shortstop to first base in the Futures Game.
If you haven't seen that throw, here it is:
And now here's JT talking about that throw:
"There's more information in today's game than there ever has been, and almost to a fault. ... Think about the Futures Game, that shortstop, right? They're like, 'Oh, my God, this kid just threw a ball a hundred miles an hour across the diamond.' And it's like, who f***ing cares? It's like 45 feet, he doesn't need to do that. That just means he's gonna make a bunch of errors if he does that. Like, let's get under control, and let's hit the guy in the chest every time.
And, you know, I've had a lot of pretty good infield coaches ... and one of the most common things about them is your self-clock, that internal clock that you have going, and almost all these guys are like, 'Hey, you want to throw every guy out by one step. Whatever the timing is for that, if you get a routine groundball or if you get a rocket, whatever it is, just throw them out by a step.' ...
And I'm watching the Futures Game and this thing's all over Instagram, like, 'This guy threw a ball a hundred miles an hour across the diamond.' And I'm like, that's awesome, but let's — and I don't know anything about this kid, he might be a great kid, a super talented defender, but it's like, how many throwing errors does he have? Is that what we're gauging him by? Can he really play shortstop? Is he really gonna be in the big leagues? If he throws a hundred miles an hour, let's put him on the mound."
For the record, Winn does have 35 errors in 185 minor league games, so JT might be onto something.
The whole conversation with Turner is really interesting, a solid listen for any baseball fan. The full video is linked in the first paragraph, and JT's part starts around the 32-minute mark.
