Episode Transcript
[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.
[00:00:41] Speaker B: What up, what up, what up?
[00:00:42] Speaker C: All right, we're back, we're back, we're back. What up?
[00:00:45] Speaker B: That's it.
[00:00:47] Speaker C: All right. I don't even know what homestand this is anymore. I think this is a fifth home stand, sixth home stand.
[00:00:52] Speaker B: Something like that. Yeah.
[00:00:53] Speaker C: We are back.
[00:00:54] Speaker B: Another episode.
[00:00:55] Speaker C: We're in the club level. We're in the meridian today because the, the press boxes. The press box is occupied. Tons of scouts. The trade deadline must be looming.
[00:01:08] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:01:08] Speaker C: So we're back in the building. Have you been?
[00:01:11] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:01:12] Speaker D: Good.
[00:01:12] Speaker B: It's interesting to see the scouts around because it's like the. When we were over at the old ballpark, the scouts were not in the same room with us. So it's cool to, you know, see what they're looking for, hear them talking and stuff. But anyway, yeah, I'm good.
[00:01:23] Speaker C: We might have to grab some of them and, and just get them to chat and tell stories or something when we have time. Maybe, maybe during this week I'll grab this guy even. Even though he's. Even though he's from the Dodgers.
[00:01:34] Speaker B: No, he's cool. He's cool.
[00:01:35] Speaker C: Yeah, no, he's cool. And the guys that were here last time are very cool.
[00:01:38] Speaker B: Yeah, everybody's.
[00:01:39] Speaker C: The White Sox and the Tiger scouts were very.
[00:01:41] Speaker B: The Tigers guy was nice.
[00:01:42] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:01:42] Speaker B: The San Diego Padres guy was nice too. Yeah. But anyway, back to Hillsboro hops. We're back. Yes. Here we go. Another home stand. We're starting a tri City series tonight and the Hops did gain a little bit of ground in the. In the standings during the road trip. So that's good. We'll talk to Seth about a little bit of that. There's been a lot of roster moves and a lot of guys got called up not just from here up to double A, but also AAA and guys going up to the big. So, you know, I'm so excited to, to hear about what Seth has to say about, you know, Lou James, Grover and Tommy Troy getting called up to the D backs was so awesome because those guys were here last year, you know, and it's like, I know A lot of people get sad about, like, I don't want to follow a team if the guys are just going to leave. And it's like, no, just follow them. It's so cool to see them advance and get there. It's super sweet.
[00:02:31] Speaker C: I've said it before, and my own personal, painful fandom aside, I'm just rooting for all of these kids. I don't even care what team they're playing for. I want them all to, like, make it. I know they say that all of the big leaguers couldn't even fit into a major league stadium.
[00:02:51] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:02:52] Speaker C: So I'm rooting for all these kids. They work so hard at it. And I know anytime that somebody gets called up, even for a cup of coffee, I'm super stoked. So.
[00:03:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:03:00] Speaker C: Lou James, Groover.
Very cool. Because I put together a bunch of clips from Earth, Wind and Fires. Let's Groove tonight.
[00:03:08] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:03:08] Speaker C: And would play those, like, in between pitches for him every time.
[00:03:12] Speaker B: So, yeah, when he was at bat, it was super cool. Yeah. That was always such a good. You know, felt so good to hear that stuff going on.
[00:03:18] Speaker E: It.
[00:03:19] Speaker C: Let's Groove Tonight.
[00:03:19] Speaker B: Yeah, it's good. I love it.
[00:03:21] Speaker C: Congrats to him. And then we got a couple guys that have gone. A lot of guys that went up to double A. Yeah. Just in the last week we have left.
[00:03:30] Speaker B: Looks like Slade's still here. Avery's still here. Trent Youngblood for our outfielders. Those guys are still around.
But, yeah, it seemed like every time I looked at Instagram, there's another guy, you know, congratulations. Moving up to Amarillo, I'm like, oh, man, this is. Everybody's going. But yeah, I. I'm excited to see who's coming up after them to see what we can experience here in Hillsborough.
[00:03:51] Speaker C: Case Cunningham will make his hops debut tonight.
[00:03:55] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:03:55] Speaker C: Wearing number 22. I just put his walk up song so nice. He's all set to go.
Yeah.
[00:04:02] Speaker B: Talk to the players and see what, like who besides their own walk up song, like, who on the roster, who in their clubhouse song do they like the best? You know? Like I want to know.
[00:04:11] Speaker C: That's a good question.
[00:04:12] Speaker B: Like who. You know, what if they're on a long road trip? Like, who would they be allowed. Who would they allow to.
[00:04:17] Speaker C: Or who are they jealous of and stuff. And then like, who's in charge of playlists, music, all that stuff.
[00:04:24] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly.
[00:04:25] Speaker C: Really interesting.
[00:04:25] Speaker B: Who gets the ox?
[00:04:26] Speaker C: Is the ox by who gets the ox Cord.
I don't even know that's a thing anymore.
[00:04:31] Speaker B: I Know, it's not. If you said that to any of those guys down there, they'd be like, what the hell are you talking about?
[00:04:35] Speaker C: You can tell we're Gen X because we're like, yo, let's. What's up, Seth?
[00:04:38] Speaker D: Oh, hey.
[00:04:39] Speaker B: What up? It's all right.
[00:04:42] Speaker C: Seth will be back. He said in two minutes. So I think in about 10 minutes. Well, we'll be joined by Seth Hland once again for another little homestand preview.
Yeah, tons of guys up and down. I have some more clips from our on concourse or in stadium correspondent. Toasty was here for Indigenous cultures night.
[00:05:02] Speaker B: I know. I want to hear more of that.
[00:05:03] Speaker C: She got a ton of stuff nice from that night, so that's going to be really fun to listen to. Keep an ear out for that.
And hey, hey, Yvonne, you want to
[00:05:14] Speaker B: talk about Sonia Dores real quick?
Will you let us know about what's going on?
[00:05:19] Speaker E: Hello, everybody.
[00:05:19] Speaker B: Yeah, this.
[00:05:20] Speaker E: I was seriously live.
[00:05:21] Speaker B: Not live, but live.
[00:05:23] Speaker D: Oh, okay.
[00:05:24] Speaker E: And I was like, oh, no.
[00:05:25] Speaker B: Friday, we have Spanglish night.
[00:05:27] Speaker D: Spanglish.
[00:05:28] Speaker B: I'm so excited. Tell us about it.
[00:05:29] Speaker E: Okay.
[00:05:30] Speaker D: Okay.
[00:05:31] Speaker E: Hello, this is Ivan with the Hillsboro Hops.
Friday, June 12th, we have our Spanglish night. And, well, I'm very excited for this night. We're doing a little collaboration, our first time doing a collaboration with Teatro Milagro there in Portland.
And they, you know, a lot of their plays. That's right. That's right. And they're, you know, a lot of their plays are in Spanglish. So I think it's just an organic collaboration here with them.
But we'll do an in game interview. Interview with some of their puppets. Their founders will be throwing the first pitch, and we are just getting our, you know, our toes in the water for this collaboration.
We're hoping that we can do more. As you may know, you know, they have a lot of performers and the.
Their time is, you know, they're always busy, so we. We. We're not able to do a lot with them, pero. But this is a good opportunity to, like I said, you know, to start something and hopefully, you know, grow it and, you know, have like, I don't know, skits between innings or maybe like a. Some performance, you know, before the game. I don't know. I mean, my. My brain goes. But I thought all over the place.
[00:06:40] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:06:41] Speaker E: But, yeah, I'm very excited for this.
And plus, I. I think we're gonna have a great crowd because kids are out of school.
[00:06:50] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:06:50] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:06:51] Speaker B: I mean, that'll Be great.
[00:06:52] Speaker E: Oh, yeah. We're gonna have a large crowd. Muchisa magenta. A lot of people. So I'm very excited.
[00:06:57] Speaker B: I grew up in Southern California, and then my family moved to Miami. So I'm very familiar with a lot of the, you know, Spanglish type of language used. And I always thought it was just like kind of a, you know, a jokey word, but it's. I mean, this is for real. I love it. This is amazing.
[00:07:15] Speaker E: It is. It is a thing. I mean, think about someone who. I mean, and I'm sure, I mean, we use Spanglish as an example, but I mean, think about all the folks that. I mean, the US Is the capital of the world. Like, think about all the different combinations of English, like English, Spanish, English and Chinese, like in Korean, like, all these different languages. And I. Now that I'm. Now that we're having this conversation, I'm thinking, what are. What do other communities call their combination of their language with. With English? I mean, for us Latinos is Spanish.
[00:07:43] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly.
[00:07:44] Speaker E: Well, there. Well, mi gente, if you're listening to this Spanglish, El do The Junio, Friday, June 12th, here with us.
[00:07:52] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:07:52] Speaker E: Adios.
[00:07:53] Speaker B: Adios. Thank you so much, Ivon.
[00:07:55] Speaker C: Thanks for the time, man.
[00:07:56] Speaker D: Hey, all right.
[00:07:57] Speaker B: Thanks, dude.
[00:07:58] Speaker E: Of course they did.
[00:08:00] Speaker B: He's the best.
[00:08:01] Speaker C: Yeah. That's great. Well, I saw Seth dip out on the elevator. So we had the Tri City Dust Devils in town.
[00:08:08] Speaker B: And I have to say that some of the behind the scenes stuff that we get to see that not everybody gets to see, that's just a ticket holder.
We get to kind of like walk through the bowels of the ballpark. And I was walking downstairs through the Tri City, you know, the visitors area, where they stretch out and stuff in their office. And this dude came walking in Tri City uniform, the tallest human being I've ever seen in person in front of me. Look it, he's 6, 11.
I can't even believe it. I wanted to ask Seth about him. Oh, what's his name? O. O. Olenic.
[00:08:44] Speaker C: Yeah, Peyton Olenk.
[00:08:45] Speaker B: He's 6 foot 11. Have you ever seen a human that tall right in front of you?
[00:08:50] Speaker C: Yeah, man, I did.
[00:08:52] Speaker B: It was almost scary.
[00:08:53] Speaker C: I was working for the Blazers and I almost got. I almost got steamrolled by Joel Embiid, who I think 72.
[00:09:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:09:01] Speaker C: And, yeah, that was scary.
[00:09:04] Speaker B: Yeah. But, yeah, 611 is almost seven feet tall. I'm like, God dang, that guy's tall.
[00:09:08] Speaker C: Yeah. Would you stand in?
[00:09:10] Speaker B: Yeah.
What?
[00:09:14] Speaker C: Stand in on the stand in against a 611 pitcher. I mean, this is so imposing.
[00:09:19] Speaker B: I think that's.
Yeah, no, that freaks me out.
All right, cool.
[00:09:26] Speaker C: All right, well, what are we gonna do? I don't know. I guess we gotta get going. Tuesdays are. Been a little bit hectic around here the last couple weeks, so if we can catch Seth, we'll snare him. If not, we'll catch you next week.
[00:09:37] Speaker B: Come out.
[00:09:38] Speaker C: We've got a Sonodores Night, the Spanglish night. What else is going on this weekend? Youth sports weekend again, which we hosted. Play ball weekend.
[00:09:47] Speaker B: Yeah, this one's youth sports weekend. And then also, I forgot, on Thursday is craft beer night. And for those of you who do not partake, like us, there is craft root beer, which is delicious.
So come on out to craft beer night on Thursday. If you do not partake, there's craft root beer, which is awesome.
[00:10:03] Speaker C: I need a remote control so I can just go down there, get something. Get root beer. Root beer floats. And then I felt like something was happening on Saturday, but maybe it's just a regular, regular old Saturday game.
Anyway, we're going to get some hot weather.
[00:10:18] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:18] Speaker C: I think everything's kind of coming together for us to have a great weekend here at the Ballpark. I'm excited.
And if you don't hear Seth after the break, then that's it for this episode of Hobcast. Thank you so much for your time.
[00:10:30] Speaker B: All right, and we'll see you next week.
[00:10:32] Speaker C: And, yeah, we'll see you guys down here. And look out for some of Toasty's interviews. We're kind of taking a little bit of extra time producing them.
[00:10:41] Speaker B: Spanglish night, too, if she could.
[00:10:43] Speaker C: Yeah, we'll see which game she can come out to. She'll probably.
I mean, she'll probably come to a couple games this week.
[00:10:49] Speaker E: We'll see what we can do.
[00:10:50] Speaker B: Nice.
[00:10:51] Speaker C: All right, thanks.
[00:10:52] Speaker B: Thank you.
Peace.
Live. All right, cool. Hey, Seth. What's going on?
[00:11:09] Speaker D: Hey. Not a whole lot. Just got back from Spokane yesterday, so.
[00:11:14] Speaker B: Sounds good. Yeah. How was the road trip?
[00:11:15] Speaker D: It's a good trip. Yeah. I mean, I. Spokane is probably my favorite road venue to go to.
They have a really, really cool ballpark.
[00:11:23] Speaker B: Yeah, I like that. Ballpark.
[00:11:25] Speaker D: AAA style ballpark. That has a lot of new renovations.
And so even as of this year, they have a new video board in left field.
They do a really good job of their game production and sell out the place almost every night.
[00:11:36] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:37] Speaker D: Fun place to watch a game. And we played well, so that helps
[00:11:39] Speaker B: as well, that's good. Yeah, I love that ballpark. It's so cute. And like the little trolley out in right field. I love it. So good. So good. So good. We did gain a little bit of ground in the, in the standings, I saw.
I mean, you know. Yeah, it kind of differs every, every week.
[00:11:53] Speaker D: I mean, for what it's worth right now, obviously with the first half ending next week. So we'll play this week, first three games of next week and then the first half will end on Thursday and then the second half will begin on Friday in every.
[00:12:06] Speaker B: So. Okay, nice.
[00:12:07] Speaker D: All these games really just practice, I guess you could say, leading into the second half. Obviously, you know, the guys are out there trying to get some reps and.
[00:12:16] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly.
[00:12:18] Speaker D: You know, winning is part of it. And I think everybody's excited for the second half to begin. Kind of feel like there's some traction with, you know, the pitching step that we have starters actually being able to throw more than, you know, 50 or 60 pitches in an outing. And you look at our rotation, we have four of our five starters or Diamondback's top 30 prospects with the addition of Patrick Forbes last week. So.
[00:12:39] Speaker B: Right.
[00:12:40] Speaker D: Yeah, I mean, I think it's exciting and just kind of looking forward to the second have for the season.
[00:12:44] Speaker B: Starting nice. Yeah, some of the. I mean, Jeremiah and I were talking about it earlier. It's like every time I looked at Instagram this week, it seemed like there was another guy getting bumped up to, to Amarillo. Can you tell us a little bit about some of the roster moves that were made? Some guys that went up and some guys that came up to us?
[00:12:59] Speaker D: Yeah, I mean the, the main guy that we lost is Junior Sanchez. He was on our pitching staff the last two seasons. Young pitcher, 20 years old, posted some really good numbers this year. So he got a much deserved call of the Double A reliever. Dawson Brown also went to Double A and then we had a couple back and forth. Zane Russell went to Double A and then came back in about the span of three days. So that's how it goes sometimes.
Alejandro Rios, one of our catchers, is filling in AAA right now. And then the big one is the Diamondbacks top minor league prospect. Case in Cunningham, he's the Diamondbacks number two prospect behind Ryan Walt. Schmidt courses in the major, so we're calling him the number one prospect B. He won't be the number one for much longer once he gets enough at bats to. To not qualify for that list. But Kason Cunningham, really, really impressive start to the season in Visalia. He's 19 years old, so you can add him to the list of young infielders. On that list.
He hit.380 to begin the season in Viselia at an on base percentage almost.500. Okay, so just some, some video game numbers from him.
And again, again, just getting him before the start of the second half. You know, give him 10 games or so to kind of get acclimated to, to high A. And you know you have him and Slade in the same lineup batting back to back a lot of nights. Case is batting third in the order tonight playing shortstop, so it'll be his debut. Slade's batting leadoff, but that's, I mean the Diamondback second and third ranked prospects or you look at it the minor league way, it's the first and second ranked minor league prospects. So a lot of talent. And again, I think you kind of just pinpoint that started the second half and I think everybody's really excited with the group they put together.
[00:14:35] Speaker B: Yeah, very cool. I'm super excited. Well, I was, we were talking about it earlier. Some of the things that we get to see that people in the stands don't get to see. You know, we get to walk in behind the scenes. And I was walking downstairs and I saw the tallest human I've ever seen in person. Like in like a foot away from me.
[00:14:54] Speaker D: Sure.
[00:14:54] Speaker B: And we were talking about him. What, Tell me, can you tell me anything about this 6 foot 11 pitcher? Yeah, yeah.
[00:15:00] Speaker D: They have a couple, a couple guys who you know, you look at, you look at our roster. It's kind of funny because the pitchers, we have some really tall pitchers as well on our team.
Who is it on their team? That's, that's listed at 6:11.
[00:15:13] Speaker B: It's Peyton.
[00:15:15] Speaker D: Oh yeah, Peyton Olenek.
[00:15:16] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:15:16] Speaker D: So yeah, Peyton Olenek. Yeah, he's, he's one of their starting pitchers. Their, their, their big prospect is the number two overall pick in last year's draft, Tyler Bremner.
[00:15:26] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:15:26] Speaker D: He's kind of a tall guy too. I don't know what he's listed as. Let's see, he's six two, so o, I guess average. But he's at a UC Santa Barbara. He'll be starting on Sunday.
[00:15:34] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:15:34] Speaker D: Really looking forward to Sunday's game because Brian Curley is starting for us and then Tyler Bremner, who's one of the top prospects in all minor league baseball, he'll, he'll get the start for Tri City. So he's definitely the guy to look out for.
[00:15:45] Speaker B: Okay, cool.
[00:15:46] Speaker D: You look at their position players. They have a lot of more tenured guys. You know, you look at the birthdays on there, it's a lot, a lot older players. Simply Ryan Nicholson, Matt Kooten, a couple guys who will be right in the middle of their lineup. Both of them are older players. I think Matt Coot, he might even be 26 or 27 years old.
Guys who.
[00:16:04] Speaker B: Gosh, he's old.
No, I know. Well, yeah, and a lot of some of the guys are. Names seem familiar. They've been here before.
[00:16:11] Speaker D: He was, he was one of their top prospects back in 2022. And so you just, you never really know. He's still young, he still got some time, but, you know, he's a guy who's a fifth, six year pro. So. Yeah, just, you know, goes back to the whole roster conversation of how it's fascinating. You know, all these guys come from different areas, different, you know, levels of, of pro ball. You know, you mix in some 2006 birthdays with some 1999 on there. So I think their catcher, Juan Flores was. Yeah, I think he was born in 06.
Yeah. So he's, he's a youngster.
[00:16:41] Speaker B: So for sure.
[00:16:42] Speaker D: It's just fascinating to see how, you know, the overall blend kind of works from top to bottom.
[00:16:46] Speaker B: Yeah, totally. Also, just real quick before we go touch on Tommy Troy and Lou James Grover getting called up to the db,
[00:16:53] Speaker D: I mean, it's, it's so cool. Every day it seems, I mean, you said like every day seems like we have somebody called up. And a lot of times a player getting called up to double A or AAA above us causes a ripple effect. So that's why we have roster moves too. And anytime you, you know, see one of our former players get called up, it's always, you know, it's always cool. And it seems like all of them have been doing really good early in their career. I think, if I'm not mistaken, I think Jose Fernandez, Ryan, Walt Schmidt and Tommy Troy all had hits and their first career at bats.
I don't think Gino or Lou James did. So he's behind the ball, I guess. But yeah, he picked up a hit quickly.
[00:17:27] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah, I, I was watching. I don't remember, you know, if it was his second at bat or what, but I was watching the game and the Diamondbacks, like in Stadium correspondent, I can't remember what his name is. He was sitting with Gino's family, with his parents, and it was so cute. And you know, he's like, well, good things tend to Happen when we sit with the family. And sure enough, he rips it. You know, I think he got a double with an advanced on an error, but he got to third base anyway. And it was just adorable to see them all hugging each other. It was really sweet.
[00:17:56] Speaker D: But that's the thing. I mean, all those guys, I mean, having, having success early, I mean, I think Tommy's still hitting around.300. Wall do the same thing. So not only making it to the majors, I mean, obviously getting to the majors is a huge step, but then, I mean, the amount of pressure that you have to immediately perform too for, for some of those guys. I mean, you know, Jordan Lawler, he's. He struggled with injuries and you know, he's still one of the Diamondbacks top prospects. But the problem with, with that is, you know, he'll get up in the majors for 20 or 30 at bats and get a couple hits and he's playing every other day or I mean, there, There's a lot of pressure on them too, to.
Especially the top prospects, you know, that's why a lot of times you see the guys who aren't quote unquote, top prospects get up quicker and, and actually perform better because they have less pressure. There's not as much in the line as a guy who's a first or second round pick who's, you know, immediately expected to perform.
And so that's why I think it makes it that much more impressive that they kind of hit the ground running.
[00:18:50] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:50] Speaker D: Can't even really tell if they're rookies when they're out there. We talked about the maturity of Ryan Waltrin. I still think that when watching him in the majors, you know, he, he seems like a player who's been out there for years, so.
[00:19:00] Speaker B: Yeah, he does. It's really awesome to see. I love it. Well, Seth, thank you again for always helping us out with all the good stuff and all the info that we need.
All right, cool. Take it easy. Thanks.
[00:19:11] Speaker E: Well, leave.
[00:19:12] Speaker C: Let it go.
[00:19:13] Speaker B: Let it go. Oh, I didn't stop it.
[00:19:15] Speaker D: All right, cool.
[00:19:15] Speaker B: That's it. That's the episode word. All right, thank you.
[00:19:21] Speaker D: All right, cool.
[00:19:21] Speaker B: Have a good call.
[00:19:22] Speaker C: Riv City right on the mic and
[00:19:27] Speaker B: then at Hopscast on Apple and Spotify, follow us and like us and all the good things.
[00:19:34] Speaker C: Yeah. Liking us is easy.
[00:19:36] Speaker B: Yes. Listening to us.
[00:19:38] Speaker C: Listening to us is hard.
[00:19:39] Speaker D: All right, have a good.
[00:19:40] Speaker C: Have a great game. Zen.
[00:19:41] Speaker B: All right, YouTube, keep an ear out,
[00:19:43] Speaker C: guys, for those toasty drop ins.
[00:19:45] Speaker D: And yeah, let's, let's just. Let's Go Hops. Yeah.
[00:19:48] Speaker B: Go Hops.
[00:19:55] Speaker A: Thanks for listening to this episode of Hopscast, hosted by Jen Ellis and co hosted and produced by Sunny Phono. Join us again next week as we take you inside the 2026 Hillsborough Hopps clubhouse.
[00:20:07] Speaker B: Don't forget to rate, review and subscribe.
