Episode 6: Series Preview with Seth Hoiland!

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to Hopscast, hosted by Jen Ellis, co hosted and produced by Sonny Fono. Each week we'll take you behind the scenes during the 2026 Hillsborough Hops baseball season. Anything can happen in minor league baseball and we'll bring it all to you. From exclusive interviews with players and coaches to roster updates, player call ups and even the craziest plays of the week. It's all right here on Hopscast Foreign. [00:00:31] Speaker B: Welcome back to Hopscast. We're back at Hopps Ballpark, the Hillsboro hops. We're on a long two week road trip. I'm Jen Ellis. I'm here with my co host and producer Sunny Fono and we're here to chat about a few things that are on our minds. Got a couple of fun things to talk about today. We're going to talk to Seth in a little bit but I wanted to bring this up before we start. I have a question for you, Mr. Sonny Phono. Okay, so a while back we were talking about immaculate innings and then later that night I was watching the D backs game and one of the D backs pitchers threw an immaculate inning. And then last time we were here we were talking about combine no hitters. And then later that day the Toronto Blue Jays affiliate a combined no hitter. Yeah. So I'm wondering what we're going to be talking about today that the baseball gods might pick out of our conversation to like come to make, come to fruition. [00:01:28] Speaker C: You know I keep saying this walk off balk wherever it happens. I want to walk off balk. I want it to be hilarious, I want it to be unlikely. [00:01:44] Speaker D: Walk off balk. [00:01:45] Speaker C: And if it happens here in walk off city usa, that would be great. I would love, I love walk off box. [00:01:52] Speaker B: That would be amazing. [00:01:53] Speaker C: That's kind of, that's kind of what I'm putting out into the ethers for the baseball gods to draw from. What about you? Maybe we need to come to a consensus or maybe it'll just be something that we talk about organically. [00:02:04] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:02:05] Speaker C: And then it just happens. But if you're listening, walk off Bach. [00:02:09] Speaker B: Yes, baseball gods, do you hear us? All right, we'll see what happens this week. So real quick, this week our promotions, we've got a couple of high school takeovers. We've got Beaverton and Hillsboro takeover, Beaverton tonight, Hillsboro tomorrow, and and then Aapi Asian American Pacific Islander night. You are going to have some awesome music for that one. That's going to be a great one. And then we've also got a drone show on Friday. I think that's our first drone show of the year. That's going to be really fun. [00:02:34] Speaker C: Yeah. At this ballpark. [00:02:36] Speaker B: And then halfway to Halloween on Saturday. I can't wait for that one. That's going to be awesome. [00:02:40] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm going to. I'm going to have you set up for that. You're going to be handling music this weekend, so I'm going to have you all set up for that. And yeah, my lovely wife, Toasty, help me with the Aapi night music. And there's going to be performances. Yeah. [00:02:55] Speaker B: Nice. [00:02:56] Speaker C: It's. It's gonna be great. [00:02:57] Speaker B: I'm excited. [00:02:58] Speaker C: So that should be really, really fun. Yeah, it's a. It's a pretty busy week already. It feels like opening day all over again after two weeks off. But we're here and at the same time, it's just like, okay, it's baseball. We're back to baseball. [00:03:10] Speaker B: Yep. [00:03:11] Speaker C: You know, they had a really tough road trip, and I'm hoping that they can kind of get right at home and win a series. [00:03:20] Speaker B: That'll be good. [00:03:21] Speaker C: Even the mini series. Right. Seth said you want to win two out of three. Two out of three. Two out of 3. I'll take the first two. [00:03:28] Speaker B: Yes, please. [00:03:29] Speaker C: You know, a win tonight would be wonderful. [00:03:31] Speaker B: Yeah. Cross fingers, hold breath, Baseball gods. You hear us walk off Bach. Maybe a walk off box, but yes. And then. Oh, also on Sunday is a classic animation with Mickey and friends, so that'll be another fun one. And kids run the bases all weekend long, so. [00:03:45] Speaker C: Yeah, and that's their special merch for that, for the Mickey Mouse. So, yeah, tons of stuff going on here. It seems like they're already in full swing with everything that they want to get going. So, yeah, we're. We're in good shape for another home stand. And I'm looking forward to. The weather's amazing. [00:04:04] Speaker B: Yeah, it looks great today. It's beautiful. Yeah. So cross fingers at. The weather will stick all, all week and the hops can get a couple of wins. And then, you know, we're also always on the lookout for weird baseball things. So if wacky stuff happens, we may have to update you in the middle of the week. So. So keep, Keep close to Hopscast and always, you know, like. And subscribe and follow us. We're at Hopscast on Spotify, Apple and Instagram as well. [00:04:31] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:04:31] Speaker B: And then we're gonna go chase down Seth and see what he has to say. [00:04:34] Speaker C: Yep. And before. Before we bring Seth in, I just wanted to make an observation with the lineup. So the Spokane Indians are back in town and that's who we open this ballpark against just about a month ago and looking at the lineups here, it looks like the Indians lineup has almost completely flipped. Where the guys that were batting kind of lower in the lineup at the beginning of this season are already starting to move up. So that's pretty interesting. And then also with the hops, at least today, Avery Owusu, I see a dude is batting ninth. So I don't know if that's one of those get a good hitter to bat the end of the lineup to turn it over type of thing or if they're just trying new things. But it's just interesting to keep an eye on throughout the season how guys end up lining up and, and how they move. But it looks like the Indians from my memory are almost completely flipped. [00:05:36] Speaker B: Yeah, looks good. Well, I, yeah, I haven't looked at the lineup yet, so I'm glad that you're, you're taking a look at it. I wasn't prepared for that. All right, cool. Well, yeah, we are, we're excited to, to start a new home stand. [00:05:49] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:05:49] Speaker C: Let's go hops. [00:05:50] Speaker B: Let's do it. Let's go Hops. [00:05:54] Speaker D: Foreign. [00:05:59] Speaker B: Hey, it's Jen Ellis and Sunny Fono. We are here at Hopps Ballpark. We're back a new series against the Spokane Indians. They're coming into town for six games. We have our wonderful guest and I don't know what, what should we call you the, the specialist for all of [00:06:16] Speaker D: our things on the road? [00:06:19] Speaker B: Seth is here to let us know what happened on the road. The hops were on the road for two, two week long road trip. So if you can fill us in on some highlights. What happened? We know it's, it's not great in the standings, but there are probably a few things to pick and choose that were, that were good on our side. [00:06:34] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean it's. Anytime you have a two week trip, it's kind of a grind. It was six games in Vancouver. They went four and six or four and two. So good start. And then lost the first five games in Everett. Avoided the sweep on Sunday with a good performance. But some tough, tough pitching last week against the Everett Aqua Sox. Again we talked about kind of the Eugene lineup and how loaded they are. Everett is pretty stacked with prospects as well. A couple tough starting pitching outings from Kyle Ayers and Brian Curley both. But you know, those things happen and they'll, they'll bounce Back. I'm, I'm sure of it. [00:07:11] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:07:12] Speaker D: The end of last week, Slade Caldwell kind of got going. He was really struggling with the bat. He continues to reach base at a high clip, but his batting average was down to like 120 at one point last week. But he, he got a long double in the final game of game five. Just missed a home run. Would have been his first home run of the year and then was 3 for 3 on Sunday. So, yeah, he's got four hits in his last five at bats and he's really starting to get going. And the Hops need that to have success offensively. [00:07:40] Speaker B: I saw that Burriga or Alberto hit four home runs. [00:07:43] Speaker D: Yeah, Barriga was phenomenal. He continues to be kind of the heart and soul of them offensively and defensively. I mean, if you listen to the broadcast at all we talk about, I mean, he has one of the best arms we've ever seen at any level. He's incredible. Defensively, he's very undersized, but that doesn't really matter. He's only five'8,190, but I mean, you look down on the field, he's the only guy out there right now taking, taking some practices behind, you know, behind the plate with his catcher's gear on. He, he's a workhorse and he's batting right around.300. Has an 11 game hit streak coming into play today and hit four home runs in 10 games last week. So he's really on a roll. [00:08:19] Speaker B: Yeah, that's awesome. And you talk about size wise. I mean, we're going to talk about Ryan Wald Schmidt making his debut with the D backs and I looked up late in the game yesterday and the entire outfield was former Hops players Walt Schmidt. Jose. What's his name? His name wrong. [00:08:36] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, Barosa. [00:08:38] Speaker B: I want to call him Jose Barriga. But who the hell is Jose Barriga? [00:08:41] Speaker D: I don't know who that is. [00:08:42] Speaker B: I'm just making up these names. [00:08:44] Speaker D: Baring is our catcher. So you're. [00:08:45] Speaker B: But his name is Alberto. [00:08:47] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:08:47] Speaker B: I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Jorge Barrosa and, and of course Corbin Carroll. And they're all under six feet tall and they're, you know, they're killing it in the outfield. But yeah, Walt Schmidt. We were super excited to see him make his debut. What do you think about that? [00:09:01] Speaker D: Yeah, I mean, really cool. Obviously, the Diamondbacks number one prospect making it up to the majors pretty quickly. He was the Hops opening day starter on last year's team of Course the hops last year had the outfield at one point of all first round picks with Ryan Waldschmidt, Drew Jones and Slade Caldwell. Obviously Slade still here. So it really just shows how guys progress at different speeds. It's perfect example though of, of Ryan being a veteran college player who you know, went to University of Kentucky, he played multiple seasons of collegiate baseball. And then a guy like Slade who was drafted around the same time, you know, high regarded prospect. Caldwell still just 19, but he's a high school guy. He's going to take a lot longer to get to the majors. But again as we've talked about before, you know, 19, 20 is, is really not becoming young anymore to make your major league debut. So I mean even Waldy, a little old probably for, for this day and age is 23, 24, but worked his way up quickly and definitely deserves it and, and had a, a big double and a big single driving home a couple runs in that game, a couple nice defensive plays. Kind of had a welcome to the big league moment in Game 2. I think he was.03 with three strikeouts. But I was glad to see that they threw him back in the lineup the next day because I think that's been one thing that I personally have seen in the Diamondback system is they'll, you know, they'll call up a big prospect and you know, they struggle or they go over Jordan Lawler being a perfect example where it feels like he never really had a chance to play every day. And I think for those guys to build their confidence, especially when they're young. Yeah, like you're going to go over three, even the best hitters in the world had overs. Like it's going to happen. And so I was really glad to see that he, he was able to play the next day and he came [00:10:40] Speaker B: out and yeah, and I think too, I mean they DFA'd Alec Thomas so that leaves room in the outfield too. So I mean and all the guys can play pretty much all the outfield spots anyway. [00:10:48] Speaker D: But oh yeah, and I mean the major league guys, I mean they see they, they know who's coming up, they look over their shoulder, it provides extra pressure and some guys, you know, they perform under it, some guys don't like it, but it really kind of forces, I mean Waldy forced the hand of the Diamondbacks to promote him. I mean he, he was performing in aaa. And then you look at, you know, a guy like Alec Thomas who had some great moments as a Diamondback, you know, was a dependable outfielder for many years. But Waldy forced the hand. And there's some other guys like Tommy Troy, Gino Groover. You look at their numbers in AAA, they're both hitting over.300 this year. Both very versatile defenders. So there's guys in the big league club now who see them coming and they know that they got a hit or they got to perform or there's going to be someone else ready to take their spot. [00:11:34] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. They're all coming. Breathing down your neck. Yeah, yeah. [00:11:37] Speaker D: In a good way. In a good way. I mean, it definitely provides, you know, that kind of competition which, I mean, with all these high, high level professional athletes, I mean, that's what they live for. They live for. They live for the competition. They live for, you know, that type of stuff. So I think it definitely brings out the good in a lot of the [00:11:55] Speaker B: players and that moment to be able to show, like, what they really can do. Like here. This is why I'm here. This is, you know, I'm here for a reason and this is it. [00:12:02] Speaker D: Watch. [00:12:03] Speaker B: Watch. [00:12:04] Speaker D: And I mean, as we've talked about before, a lot of times it's, you know, a player is just an injury away from getting called up. Like, I mean, if, you know, something happened to Perdomo or like Tommy Troy would probably in the. Be in the bigs a day later. I mean, you just never know, so. Exactly. It's a game of opportunities. And it's always, you know, it's always fascinating to see who rises to the occasion. And like Jose Fernandez, former hop, he got called up at the beginning of the year, just kind of as a filler. [00:12:29] Speaker B: Yep. [00:12:29] Speaker D: And. And he's performed and same thing. He's forced their hand to keep him in the bigs and, you know, he's in the lineup every day. [00:12:35] Speaker B: Yeah. And, you know, you. I usually like to watch the opposing teams broadcast to hear what they're saying about the guys on the D backs and tons of other teams are talking about, you know, Fernandez, he, I mean, he's just a spark plug and he's really good. So if, if you know, Keith Hernandez from the Mets is paying attention to him, he's probably pretty good. So, you know, I mean, that, that's always fun to hear what other, other teams are saying about us or, you know, quote unquote us. I know it's not really us. [00:13:02] Speaker D: Absolutely. [00:13:04] Speaker B: But yeah, I have to give credit to our PA announcer, Jason Swigerd. Swag. He did call it at the beginning of last year. He was at media day last year and he came in the next day. And he was like, man, Wal, Schmidt has it all put together, like he is going to make it to the bigs. And I was like, all right, let's see when he does. And sure enough. So we'll give him credit for it. [00:13:22] Speaker D: Yeah, no, definitely. [00:13:24] Speaker B: I mean, yeah, for sure. [00:13:25] Speaker D: You could tell. I mean, just the way that again, being a veteran college player, you can tell the differences. Extremely mature. I mean, if you watch any of his postgame interviews from his first week in the majors, I mean, there's reporters two feet away from him in his, you know, in his locker, and he looked like he'd done it a million times. I mean, he's a very mature, very baseball smart guy and that definitely helps his cause. I mean, there's guys who, again, we're dealing with literal kids sometimes, you know, 18, 19 year olds and they're just immature and it's not, it's not in a bad way. It's just, it is how it is. And, and you could tell that he definitely stood apart and that that's a huge part to his success, I think. [00:14:04] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure. That's awesome. Well, we want to know a little bit of dirt. Do you know what happened with Mark Reed's ejection? [00:14:12] Speaker D: Oh, gosh. [00:14:13] Speaker B: Anything about that? It went viral. [00:14:15] Speaker D: Yeah, it did. Yeah. So I mean, basically what happened was, uh, the bases were loaded. One of the, the Mariners top prospects, Felman, Celeste, and he was having a really big week. He was at the plate, switch hitter, batting from the left side. It was a 12 count, I think, and he got hit in the back foot with a pitch. Um, he clearly got hit. There was no debate about that. But the home plate umpire, Patrick McMorris, he, he didn't make a call. And so the home plate umpire, you know, being a foot away from the battery, he appealed to the base umpire and the base umpire said, you know, yes, he got hit. [00:14:51] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:14:51] Speaker D: And Mark took exception to that. Not, not the fact he knew that the batter got hit, it was the fact, like, why aren't you making the call? You're right there. [00:15:00] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:15:01] Speaker D: And he had already got ejected from a game earlier in the week. Wellington Aracena, our hardest thrower, hit one of their players in the head with 100 mile an hour fastball. And same thing. It's like there was no intent. There were no previous warnings issued. There was no turmoil. It was a one run game late in the inn. So there was kind of some confusion there and it kind of boiled over. And then obviously the hop's not playing well. So I think just some boiled over frustration. But yeah, reader was toeing the line a little bit. I think based off of what I've heard of what was said. You know, I don't know what usually, what usually the magic word is quote unquote, to get ejected. From what I was told, it didn't sound like it was anything that should have got him ejected. He basically went out, he argued, was walking back to the dugout, said something again to the umpires, then he got ejected, and then that video transpired from that. [00:15:52] Speaker B: So I think he had to get his money's worth. [00:15:54] Speaker D: Yeah, I think a combination of things, you know, kind of boiled over to that point. But, you know, seeing it on social media, at first I was like, oh, man, this, this isn't. But it's kind of funny to read some of the comments and stuff. Like, mostly people were like, you know, we haven't seen this in a long time. Like, it's just not something that you see very often. [00:16:11] Speaker B: Right. [00:16:12] Speaker D: Exactly. Anymore. Um, I do know that he didn't get suspended, so he will be, he will be coaching. That was a concern just because it's something that doesn't happen. You know, the league office in New York will look it over and review the tape and, and they, you know, the umpires provide a full report after the game of what was said and xyz and then the manager will provide that as well. And that's a normal thing. So other than that, nothing. Nothing more to it. [00:16:36] Speaker B: But does he have to pay a fine or something? [00:16:38] Speaker D: There is a fine. There is a fine. Any player or coach who gets ejected from the game gets, gets a fine. It's nothing crazy, nothing like you would see in the big leagues, but obviously they want to, you know, they want to have some sort of, some sort of way to say, hey, don't do that again. [00:16:56] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Get reprimanded a little bit. [00:16:58] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:16:58] Speaker B: Make sure. [00:17:01] Speaker C: When's the last time you saw somebody, like, kick dirt on a plate and all that? [00:17:04] Speaker D: Like, I haven't seen it fit like that. It's been a really long time. I, I, I haven't seen it in the, in the minor league level really at all. I mean, I've seen videos on, on social, of course, but I think that's why it caught, it caught so much headwind on social media. There are some pretty big pages that were reposting it and stuff. [00:17:23] Speaker B: Exactly. You know, I think, yeah, I saw it on some national pages. [00:17:25] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:17:26] Speaker B: So I was just like, oh, wow. [00:17:27] Speaker D: It's getting some traction. I mean, you. You rarely. I mean, you'll see. I was actually talking about it on the broadcast because I was trying to think back. You. You don't really ever see players get ejected. The only time you'll see a player get ejected is if somebody gets hit by a pitch or something like that. But, I mean, speaking of umpire and players, just even since COVID really, like, the leash between the umpires and players has gotten way longer than it ever was before. I mean, there were guys last series who, after a called strike, would, like, turn to the umpire and, you know, again, I don't know what they're saying, but arguing balls and strikes or pointing at the plate or. I mean, there was a couple times that years ago, you'd be tossed in two seconds. [00:18:09] Speaker B: Right. [00:18:09] Speaker D: So I. I don't know if that's something from the League office that they're telling the umpires to be more lenient with, but I've never seen a player get ejected for arguing anything other than I've seen two players get ejected for hitting somebody. It was Arsenal last week and then Ricardo Yan last year. [00:18:24] Speaker B: Right. [00:18:25] Speaker D: Which Mark also got ejected in that game as well. Um, but, I mean, it's definitely. I mean, nobody goes out there, you know, obviously, sometimes, you know, a manager or a coach will, you know, try to fire their team up, get ejected, but, I mean, at the end of the day, they don't. They don't want to. They don't want to pay a fine. They don't want to, you know, have to answer to. To the top guys of, you know, what happened. And so it. Overall, it's something that they definitely don't want. But, you know, sometimes. Sometimes your emotions get the best year, and it just happens to be that there's 2,000 people watching you at the same time. [00:18:56] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. [00:18:57] Speaker A: I did. [00:18:58] Speaker B: I do remember one with vihe. He got. He got really into it. [00:19:02] Speaker D: I think Ronnie had a good one. [00:19:03] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I missed that one, but I was definitely there for. [00:19:06] Speaker C: Yeah, she. [00:19:07] Speaker D: She had a good one. What, 20, 23, whatever year that was. But it usually. Yeah, it usually seems to happen, you know, once or twice a year. You'll see something like that. And a lot of times, it's just. [00:19:17] Speaker B: I always like to put the Benny Hill music behind it. [00:19:19] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just kind of boiled up over a series or something happens. But I. I bet we won't see that. I mean, I. He. I would be surprised if we see that again this year. Kind of One and done type thing, but you never know. You never know. [00:19:34] Speaker B: Any insight on the Indians right now? How are they doing? [00:19:39] Speaker D: Yeah, they, they come into, into play. Let's see, there are a couple games under.500 on the year. They have some top prospects. We saw them in that opening series. [00:19:48] Speaker B: Right. [00:19:49] Speaker D: Actually their starter tonight is a guy named Jackson Cox. He was a second round pick in 2022 and he's out of Tootle Lake, Washington which is just north of Vancouver. [00:20:00] Speaker B: Oh, right. [00:20:00] Speaker D: And so it was pretty cool he pitched against us in that opening week series and I noticed he had a [00:20:05] Speaker B: bunch of friends, a bunch of people here. Why are they all cheering for the other. [00:20:08] Speaker D: So I would assume he'll have a big cheering section again tonight. He's pitching tonight for, for Spokane. He's, he's a, a good pitching prospect. And then they have a couple of hitting prospects. One of their top players right now is actually an undrafted guy out of Vanderbilt, Jacob Humphrey, the outfielder. He's batting third in the order today, but he's atop the Northwest League leaderboards in pretty much every, every offensive category. He's been really, really good for them. And then their other high draft pick is out of University of Texas, Max Ballou. He's not in the lineup tonight on Tuesday, but he's, he's one of the top hitting prospects for, for the Rockies. He was a second rounder in 2025. But I've been intrigued with Humphrey because again, you know, as talked about before, it's like the free agent players, you know, it doesn't really matter where you come from. Trent Youngblood on our team, he's been hitting top three in the lineup. One of our best hitters. He went to D3 school and obviously Humphrey going to Vanderbilt, that's one of the powerhouses of college baseball. But being undrafted and they put him out there and he's performed and he's getting the chance and he's kind of a five tool player. He's a speedy outfielder, but he's got some power. You don't want him on the bases. Really good defensively, so he's definitely an intriguing player to watch. [00:21:22] Speaker B: Good, awesome. Good stuff to look out for. Well, Seth, thank you so much for always being here. This is amazing. You always give us so much info that we didn't know we needed, but we're so excited. We have. [00:21:31] Speaker D: Yeah, absolutely. Anytime guys. [00:21:33] Speaker B: Cool. Thank you so much. [00:21:38] Speaker A: Thanks for listening to this episode of Hopscast hosted by Jen Ellis and co hosted and produced by Sunny Fono. Join us again next week as we take you inside the 2026 Hillsborough Hops clubhouse. Don't forget to rate, review and subscribe.