Tom Glavine, Hall of Fame MLB pitcher

Let's go out to the guest line right now. We'll chat some playoff baseball and we'll do so with a MLB legend in the Hall of Fame, played for the Atlanta Braves, World Series MVP, and that is the great Tom Glavin here with us back on the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. Tom, always appreciate the time.

Thanks for it. How are you? I'm doing well, Zach. How are you doing?

Well, I'm doing fantastic. So we knew that the Braves had this great regular season. The expectation was to get back to the World Series and win it. They've met their kryptonite once again in the Philadelphia Phillies and they go down in four games. Just how did you react to that one last night?

Well, listen, I'm surprised as anybody, right? I mean, you know, you look at the season the Braves had and, you know, like I said to people all the time, you know, I know postseason obviously is tough and, you know, not necessarily always the best team that wins in a short series, right? If the team gets hot, then, you know, then another team is in trouble.

But having said all that, I always ended it with I'm not going to bet against the Braves. You know, they just had too good a team, too deep a team, you know, and I think they were the odds on favorite. Unfortunately, to your point, you know, the Phillies had a little bit better series. You know, their superstars rose to the occasion and, you know, really made the difference in that series. So, you know, it was a tough ending to a great season for the Braves. And, you know, it's something that they're, you know, unfortunately, and, and I've experienced it enough in my lifetime, too, they're gonna have to, you know, live with that deal with that over the course of the winter and find a way to put it behind them and be ready to go next year. You live in it both ways winning a World Series and we know the Braves have won a World Series and then people expecting more. Just what advice would you give to this Braves team moving forward so they go get another championship?

That's just the thing. You got to keep giving yourself chances. You know, listen, it was frustrating for the teams that I was a part of in the early 90s when, you know, we lost in 91, we lost in 92, we lost in 93. You know, but you keep giving yourself chances and, you know, to me, that's the thing, right? As a player, you want to have a chance every year and you hope it goes well or hope it goes right for you at least one time, which, you know, again, in my case, it did, but, you know, yeah, you got to keep giving yourself the opportunity. The only way you're going to do that is to approach each and every year as, as, as its own thing, right? You, you show up for spring training a year after you've lost, you know, a bitter playoff series, whether it be in the first round like this or in a World Series.

To me, it doesn't matter. You lost. When you show up, you got to find a way to put that behind you. There's nothing you can do about what happened last year. You can learn from it, but you can't do anything to change it. So all you can do is take what you learn, try to apply it to the next season and then go out there and, and bust your butt and try to give yourself another opportunity come October of that season and roll the dice again.

See what happens. Tom Glavin here with us. The Orlando RCS situation is fascinating to me because he said at a boy, the Phillies use that as motivation. And then I thought that the Braves really let that get to them and become a bigger deal than what it actually was.

And last night he's going at it with Phillies fans. Were you disappointed in the way that Orlando handle that entire thing? I mean, look, I think, you know, I wasn't really sure exactly what happened. I had just heard that he said something and, you know, my initial reaction is, you know, why, why do you allow that to happen? Right? Why do you say something that the other team or the other player, whoever it's directed toward, can potentially use for motivation?

You don't, you don't need that, right? No, I think the circumstances were a little bit different than I thought. My understanding was something that was said in the clubhouse. You know, and I think in the clubhouse, you know, you always want that to be your sanctuary a little bit, but hey, you know, at the same time, if the clubhouse is open, reporters are in there.

Who knows, right? That's why you got to be careful about what you say. And particularly in the postseason, you know, I mean, I know that's something that how many of those teams I was a part of that, you know, Bobby was the manager, you know, we worked really hard at trying to stay away from those opportunities. I'm not saying that we were 100% successful, but, you know, our mantra was always keep your mouth shut, keep your head down, go into town, win your series and get out and don't give that team on the other side, you know, any more reason to want to beat you than they already have. And, you know, like, who knows how much motivation that play, I don't know how much, I don't know how much motivation Bryce Harper needs to have a big series against the Atlanta Braves, right, particularly in the postseason. But, you know, I think it's probably fair to say it didn't hurt matters for him. It was just so bizarre to me last night, though, you're in an elimination game, and he's turned around and get it into with the fans and Acuna almost like he did grab them in that video.

He's like, What are you doing pretty much it was weird that the focus. I don't want to say wasn't on the game, but he was even like responding to the Phillies fans. Well, I mean, to your point, if he's if he's even engaging with them for a second, then his focus is taken away from what he should be doing right and I think that's, you know, that's the run the risky run when you have those kinds of situations I think that's the that's, you know, it's like, obviously done so many interviews now here in the postseason and talking about different things and you know that one of the things that inevitably comes up when people start talking about postseason and try to break things down is, you know, would you rather have talent or experience right and and look I'd love to have a combination of both. But I think I'm going to, I'm going to err on the side of experience just because of stuff like that right things like that when you've been experienced in the postseason. You know how to deal with that stuff I know for me personally my first postseason. It wasn't so much the games that was hard to deal with it was everything else, it was all the you know you're flying your family in and out of city, you're getting hotel rooms you're getting tickets. There's way more media than you're used to being around you're having to deal with that and all the while you have, you're trying to prepare and play games. And I would, I would say that the biggest thing in terms of having that playoff experiences is learning how to deal with all the noise and the distraction that goes around the game.

And when you learn how to deal with all that stuff. It makes it a lot easier to have your focus on the baseball game and just annoy all that other noise, I mean, ignore all that other noise. Tom Glavin here with us so you see the Orioles go down the Braves go down the Dodgers go down. I know that the Astros are still alive and every year they're in the ALCS it feels like a lot of people are now saying maybe this format changes in a good one and you win all these regular season games you have a lot of these teams go home personally I would say just do what the Astros do do you have a problem with the format and you think they need to tinker with it. I mean what I don't know what do you take her right hey, um, you guys won your division and you lost because you had off days we're gonna fix that.

All right, how do you fix that. What do you do, right, I mean, I don't I don't understand like I again I know I go back to some of my days of playing right and and you know we didn't have this off time, right, it, you know, like my first few years of playing in the postseason it was the LCS and that was it so you know you had a couple days off at the end of the season and you were right back in the soup again. There's something to be said for that there's no doubt about that but and I think every, every manager who is in a situation where they're trying to maneuver through off days will tell you that's the biggest challenge is keeping guys ready, keeping guys you know kind of geared up and having that intensity that you had to win your division in the first place but I still say that the format favors the teams that when their division you know you have home field advantage. You have off time you have time to get your guys healthy you have time to get your rotation set. But having said that too. I don't think that not having those off days is clearly the, the downside to those teams that have had to experience that either.

Right. I mean, to me I think the format that the format is fine. If there was one thing I would look at doing is I would look at receding the teams after round one, you know and again in this case, to me, and I'm not saying it doesn't matter you got to beat everybody but to some extent it matters a little bit right. Okay, so the Phillies win in Arizona wins well the Braves have the best record of baseball they should be playing the lower of those two seats.

Yeah, makes sense like football. Yeah, to me that's something I think baseball needs to look into. But as far as the off days go listen, I would, I would much rather be a team that wins my division has off days and can get everybody healthy and get everything set and take my chances with that versus having to win an extra series, talking to Tom Glavin Do you feel as if we're on a collision course with these final four teams of Phillies and Astros once again for the second year in a row in the World Series.

I mean, you know, who knows it's hard look, I don't. I don't know how you can discount anybody at this stage of the game right i mean the Phillies I think obviously are a team that maybe has, you know, a little bit, or at least on the side of the most star power. You know Houston certainly has their share star power, you know the Rangers and Arizona are two really good teams that most people don't know anything about.

And, you know, as much as it's a surprise to most people that, you know, don't follow either of those teams that they're where they are is probably not a surprise to their fan base you know I think you look at the Rangers the Rangers did had an unbelievable offensive year the only thing that overshadowed it was the Braves offensive year. Yeah, so there are really good offensive ballclub and they they're pitching kind of comes together you know I know they got some guys banged up but they're pitching has been good enough to give them a chance and I think Arizona. You know Arizona is a team that was pretty streaky during the course of the year, but when they were on the good side, I don't think there was anybody that really was excited about playing them, and and they're a team right now that clearly is on the good side. But again, they're a really good club a really good offensive club and pitching club that most people myself included can't tell you a whole lot about them. And, and I look at the Phillies you should have such great chemistry right now, and you know they are chasing to get back to that World Series and correct the wrong from last year but then you look at that Arizona team. You're right, they had a strong start, and then they were kind of forgotten about, and they have a good mix of youngsters and veterans and no one's expecting anything out of them. I think that makes them ease up a little bit and I think this could be a fascinating NLCS because all the pressure is down on Philadelphia to get this thing done. Yeah, I agree and again, it's really hard to factor in what the expectations of winning does to teams does to players right. You know the Braves again. Clearly the team that had the bullseye on the back right everybody expected the Braves to win and there's a, there's a ton of pressure that goes along with those expectations and conversely, you know when you're a team that really says much about or doesn't give you much of a chance yeah you kind of go out there with that carefree attitude like you know, truly like what do we have to lose everybody expected us to be there right so you know I think there is some benefit in that, being that team that kind of nobody's really paying attention to now, not saying for a second to Philadelphia is not paying attention Arizona course they are you get to this stage of the game, anybody can beat anybody.

But to your point I think Philadelphia is the clear favorite in that series and you just don't know how teams guys mostly individually, how guys are going to react to be in a favorite. Last thing I'll ask you has nothing to do with the playoffs, but for a tiny with his future if you had to take a guess right now. Where do you feel like he'll be playing next year. I mean you know I think it's a really hard call right now I think those waters have been muddied really badly now with his injury right and I got I don't, I don't know I mean it's the kind of thing is, is he going to be able to come back and hit and not pitch or is he going to have to take the whole year off I mean, I don't know enough about it but I mean look at I think obviously, obviously the bigger market teams are always going to be in the mix. But I think that it's going to be an interesting thing you know I mean surely from the pitching side. We've seen a lot of guys in the last couple years that have been traded or signed coming off of Tommy john so I don't think teams are overly concerned about the Tommy john aspect of it but I think for me the more intriguing side is, you know, is even going to be able to play next year, and if he's not.

How does that factor into a team signing him knowing they're getting nothing per year. Now I know he's not a pitcher but you saw Harper had the Tommy john and look he goes to first base they eventually and they use them in that da trial. The thing I wonder, because you know, if he could hit next year. And then when he wants to return to pitching, a year from now, do they maybe say to him, let's use you in a closer role or put you in a relief role instead of being a start I wonder if they make a choice for them. I mean it's possible Listen, I think it's going to be hard listening and I know people don't like hearing this because it you know he is such a player to watch on both sides of the ball there's going to come a time where he's going to have to make a choice, I think, you know, it's just, it's just too demanding to do what he's doing now is, is it the kind of thing where it alleviates some of that stress on him to be a closer. You know, maybe but, you know, it may be the volume right but if you're out there DH and every night and it's weighing on the back of your mind that at some point in time you're gonna have to come in that game as a closer, you know, mentally.

That's a lot for 162 games a year so who knows but you know I just, I just can't see him being able to continue doing what he's doing for the foreseeable future I think he can do it for a little while but I think there's going to come a time where just physically, it's going to get tougher and tougher to do both of those things. By the way, you think the Dodgers send the Braves like a gift basket because no one's talking about the Dodgers losing after what happened. Anyway, I mean they I'm sure they are in LA, obviously, but now I mean look at I think both of those teams, you know, there's some, some questions they have to answer right I mean look they're both super, super good teams. Yeah, but you know kind of fell to the same fate they took the same time off and they weren't the same team coming back that they were after that time off and, you know, again, that's, it's always a concern.

And clearly, you know, there's still some more questions that out there as to, you know, if you're the team that wins your division in this format, how do you how do you keep your guys sharp. He is the great Hall of Fame pitcher and Tom Glavin Tom always appreciate your insight. Thanks so much for doing this. Enjoy the weekend. We'll be right back. Have a great weekend. Appreciate it.