[00:00:15] Speaker A: Hello.
[00:00:15] Speaker B: Welcome to the Roundhouse podcast with Paul Solentrop of Wichita State University Strategic Communications. Thanks for listening. Today we're going to talk baseball with Tad Rada. Tad is Wichita State's Director of Operations. Video analytics. He joined coach Brian Green's staff in June after spending 13 years in Colorado with the Cage Rat. That's a great name for a youth baseball program. The cage rat youth baseball program. Before that, Ted coached at West Virginia. He coached at Air Force. He played for the Shockers in 2004 and 2005 before finishing his career at the University of Indiana. We'll update you on the Shockers. They are almost wrapping up fall practices. They have played two scrimmages this fall. They defeated Cali College 19 to six in 14 innings earlier this fall. Saturday went down to Dallas Baptist and won that 14 inning scrimmage seven to six. They have their three game fall series on Friday at five and Saturday and Sunday at 01:00 P.m. At X Stadium. And of course, fans are welcome to come out and check out the Shockers for all three of those. Tad, let's start by giving us your job description. What all does the director of operations do at Wichita State?
[00:01:27] Speaker C: Yeah, so the main things I do are travel for the guys when we go on the road, flights, hotels, things like that. I help with scheduling other opponents. We've been working on 25, 26, things like that. And then I help with all the on campus recruiting as well.
And then anything else Coach Green needs, but kind of a jack of all trades and do a little bit of everything.
[00:01:52] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:01:52] Speaker B: Scheduling is something fans always interested in. Give us an overview. Is there a guiding philosophy? What might people see from Shocker schedules.
[00:02:00] Speaker C: In the I think, you know, Coach Green and I have just been working through what we've done in the past and what's worked for us. And obviously we have to wait on the American Conference schedule to come out first before we can kind of book the midweeks and things like that. But I think doing what we've always done, I think it's worked and we'll keep doing it.
[00:02:20] Speaker B: So, when you coordinate a recruiting visit on campus, give us some highlights. What do you make sure that I guess, obviously the baseball facilities are very important. What else do they see on campus? What's kind of the day? Like, for the next great shortstop from wherever?
[00:02:37] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:02:38] Speaker C: So we'll do a tour around Eck, show them the All American Club, all the facilities we have. We'll take them over to academics and they'll see Gretchen or Lucy over there. Usually we'll take them to the dining hall, the kind of walk around campus, the dorms, kind of depending if they're junior college or freshman, what they're going to be doing, see what major they are, take them to the new business center or depending on what they're looking for. And then they'll usually watch practice go to lunch, things like that as well.
[00:03:06] Speaker B: Okay, tell us about your connection with Brian Green and what got you here to Wichita State.
[00:03:11] Speaker C: Yeah, I've known Coach Green since 2008. He was at Kentucky when I was at West Virginia, and then my brother actually played for him. He was a starting shortstop in Kentucky for four years. And so Coach Green was the hitting and the infield coach there. So I really got to see him and how he coaches and gets to know him then.
[00:03:29] Speaker B: So you're back in college baseball. What got you back into this part of the game?
[00:03:34] Speaker C: Wichita State. So when we got out in 2014 from Air Force, we started having kids. And so it's a very time demanding job. But we always said that if Wichita State ever somehow opened, it would be the only job we would leave for. And so when I heard Skip was going to get the job, my wife and I had a quick talk and it was a pretty easy, hey, if this is not a real opportunity, we want to do it.
[00:04:01] Speaker A: Okay, that's interesting.
[00:04:02] Speaker B: What about Wichita State was out there as the carrot as something that would be that it's.
[00:04:09] Speaker C: I'm actually originally from Wichita, so it was kind of coming home.
The program I played here, it's an unbelievable opportunity and all those factors. It was a great opportunity to come back and be a part of something great.
[00:04:24] Speaker B: So tell us about video and analytics. That seems like a fast moving part of the game. I don't know when it really began to take hold in college baseball. Maybe probably 15 years ago.
How do you describe what goes on in that part of the behind the scenes part of the program?
[00:04:42] Speaker C: Yeah, so we actually have emilio does a lot of that as well, but it's a lot of track man collecting data.
The facility has camera systems all around, so we can kind of look at guys swings and coordinate with the track man data and just look at every piece of data you can imagine.
[00:05:04] Speaker B: I guess you'll run across coaches who have different philosophies. Some of them use it a lot.
Some of them will say, well, there are certain players who you want to stay out of their brain, just tell them to go hit the baseball. They do less video with them. How does this coaching staff approach that whole field?
[00:05:20] Speaker C: Yeah, I think when guys want to take a look at video, we do it kind of like you mentioned. You don't want to overanalyze anything, so we really do it on a case by case basis, and unless there's something really wrong, we don't go to them a lot. It's more, hey, Coach, can I go and look through that swing or look through that a bad and see what I'm doing? That's kind of the approach we've taken.
[00:05:41] Speaker B: What was video like in 20 04? 20 05 20 06 when you were a college baseball player.
[00:05:47] Speaker C: We had a video room down in the old locker room. It was the old VHS tapes. And so we would take it and try to pause and start it at the exact time, and then we would take Old Shocker from the put their videos in. So definitely the technology was not there to do side by side comparisons, but it was good enough for the time, and we didn't know any better than anyway.
[00:06:09] Speaker A: Right.
[00:06:09] Speaker B: I remember that little room. Yeah, there was maybe room for two people to be in.
It was quite small, but there was some video going on. So a lot of new players, obviously, new coaching staff here at Wichita State. What is your role in assembling this whole thing and building chemistry, building bonds?
[00:06:29] Speaker C: Yeah, it's just being part of the staff and doing whatever I can and am asked to do to help. So I'm part of the day to day. I'll be on the field and dugouts, things like that. So just being a part of it and doing whatever I can and Coach Kareem and the rest of the staff need me to do.
[00:06:46] Speaker B: So when you're around town and you bump into somebody and they find out you were working here, Shocker Baseball, and they say, tell me about that Brian Green guy. What's he all about? What's his coaching philosophy? How do you explain that to people?
[00:07:00] Speaker C: Great human being first. He's just an absolute great leader. And I've learned a ton about how programs are ran, even though I've been a part of a few. He's just really opened up and shown us the leadership style that I haven't seen, which I think is going to really be effective around here. Outside of that blue collar, hard nose, all the things that Jane used to preach, skip is the same way. And so if the guys play hard and they're very process driven and have a professional approach, they'll play well here.
[00:07:39] Speaker B: So we are many weeks into fall practices. You've had the two outside scrimmages, many, many inner squad scrimmages.
Give us some highlights, some impressions of fall practices. What stood out? Who stood out?
[00:07:54] Speaker C: I think having so many new guys, the young guys have a lot of energy. They're not scared. There's a lot of confidence. And I think the returning guys have shown a lot of leadership skills to be able to harness that energy from the young guys and not let it get out of control and let them be themselves as well. So, just overall, there's been a lot of maturity for how new the team is together. And they've bonded very quickly. And when we went to DBU, you could kind of see that nobody was really sped up. The guys just kind of played their games and the confidence was there and they just competed.
[00:08:35] Speaker B: I've heard good things about let's see, I'll start with Ryan Callahan.
Give us some impressions of him in the fall. He seems like a guy who will be a middle of the order bat for the shockers.
[00:08:45] Speaker C: Yeah, you could see him two, three, four, kind of depending on what Coach Green wants. But he's a guy that likes to let the ball travel go the other way. But if you put a change up in, he can hit a ball out pull side. So just a great overall approach. He's going to take a lot of walks, going to get hit by a lot of pitches. He is not afraid to get hit by pitches. And he's one that I think he's been hit by as many pitches as he's had strikeouts this fall. So that's a pretty impressive stat. And it kind of goes back to the hard nose, blue collar thing that we want to teach here.
[00:09:19] Speaker B: Who else has jumped out as a guy, you think, yeah, that's a guy that will have a good shot at being middle of the lineup for, you.
[00:09:26] Speaker C: Know, Seth Stroh has has really had a really good fall. I know he's a returning, actually, his swing and miss has gone down a lot. His approach has changed.
Derek Williams, he had a lot of home runs in junior college. And his approach, he has not struck out a lot this fall. And he's going the other way a lot as well with some authority. So those two guys, I think, are going to be there. Jordan Rogers has had a great fall as well. A ton of bass speed, his balls very hard consistently. Where he'll be in the lineup, you don't know, but he'll definitely be there as well.
[00:10:04] Speaker B: Okay, how about the pitching staff? I know Kaden Favors pitched well down at Dallas Baptist. He's a returner who I would think would have a really good shot to have a prominent role on this staff. Who's jumping out at you on the pitching side?
[00:10:17] Speaker C: Yeah, we've got a lot of guys that have commanded the zone and pitched well down in Dallas. Daniel Zhang is a junior college transfer from up in Minnesota. Freshman Tommy Laporte, you know, has looked really know, so you can keep going on and on, but there's a lot of guys that just pound the zone and compete and allow our defense to work.
[00:10:37] Speaker B: Okay, since you're the guy who's in charge of the road trips, give us some road trip secrets. Do you have a go to item that you have to use to survive? Is it snacks? Netflix show? Do you take a good book? How do you while away the hours on a bus or a plane?
[00:10:55] Speaker C: Just put the air pods in and I like to listen to podcasts or just can't listen to too many podcasts in a row. But when you've had enough, you go to country music and just put it on and try to go to sleep.
[00:11:08] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:11:08] Speaker B: Favorite podcast?
[00:11:10] Speaker C: Oh, man. Anything business or finance? I just find really interesting like Dave Ramsey's, the Entree leadership and things like that, but I'm open to listening to other things as well.
[00:11:23] Speaker B: Almost anything.
[00:11:23] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:11:24] Speaker B: How about country music singer? Do you have some favorites?
[00:11:26] Speaker C: I'm ninety s two thousand. Brad Paisley chris Kagle that kind of era.
[00:11:32] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:11:33] Speaker B: So you would probably remember Gene Stevenson, Brent Kimmetz, famous for playing spades on bus trips. Did they do that in your era?
[00:11:43] Speaker C: I don't know if they did that. I knew they did. I don't think they did that during my okay.
[00:11:48] Speaker B: That was a big deal. Anybody play cards on the road trip to Dallas?
[00:11:52] Speaker C: On the road trip to actually, Anthony Miller and I drove ahead.
We had a lot of guys going on this trip, so we drove his car. So I'm not sure exactly what they were doing. We went and got the hotel ready.
[00:12:03] Speaker B: Okay. You were the advanced team? I was, yeah. Favorite major league team.
[00:12:09] Speaker C: Growing up in central Indiana.
We had the Cubs.
They were on WGN, so I got to see them every day.
The Reds were kind of the go to when we went to a game, but I watched a lot of Braves baseball back then as well, and they were kind of my favorite team.
My first game I actually went to was Bret early 90s because I'm from Wichita. So we'd go to Worlds of Fun and do a trip there and then we'd always do that. The Royals games.
[00:12:40] Speaker B: That was the typical Wichita vacation. Yeah, that's a go to. Who's your favorite big league player?
[00:12:48] Speaker C: That's a good question. Favorite big league player of all time is probably George Bret. Just loved his know, loved how he played the game.
[00:12:57] Speaker B: That's a good one. That's a good one. There would be a lot of those around here. Who is the best pitcher that you've faced? Any level, any kind of game? Who sticks out in your memory?
[00:13:09] Speaker C: Probably Pelfrey and inner squad.
He was a tough guy to face.
[00:13:14] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:13:14] Speaker B: What was it about him that you.
[00:13:15] Speaker C: Remember being the ball just got on you so quick. I mean, he threw hard, but it had a lot of run to it. And him being six, seven, or whatever he is, that ball really could get onto you in a hurry.
[00:13:25] Speaker B: That's a good one. That's a good one. All right, I've got a couple trivia questions from your time as a shocker. So if I were to take you back to April 3, 2005, and I were to ask you, were you safe at first base in the 10th inning of a game against Evansville, what would your response be?
[00:13:43] Speaker C: I'm sure I was safe.
[00:13:44] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:13:45] Speaker B: This was a big I ran across this prepping for this. This was a big controversy. 10th inning of a game against Evansville. First base umpire called you safe. He went to the Evansville coach, Dave Shreg asked him to ask for help. The home plate umpire called you out and then Evansville won later in the 10th inning. The game story from the Eagle describes trash being thrown on the field. Gene ejected JT ejected I guess it was just a big thing. Do you remember anything about that?
[00:14:16] Speaker C: Honestly, now that you mentioned, you know, Gene and JT and Brent could get really animated in the dugout, and I'm sure it was a worthy ejection is all I could probably say about that.
[00:14:28] Speaker B: Yeah, that was quite an interesting Evansville. That was when they were making their move. They had some really good teams.
[00:14:35] Speaker C: They did.
[00:14:36] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:14:36] Speaker B: You hit one home run as a Shocker. Do you remember who you hit it off?
[00:14:40] Speaker C: I do.
Jared Hughes, Long Beach State 10 fastball. I was sitting on a two seat kind of ran ball in and I was sitting on a hit down the line.
[00:14:49] Speaker B: Excellent.
[00:14:49] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:49] Speaker B: If you're going to hit one home run off a future big leaguer against Long Beach State, that's a good one to hit. A three run home run and a seven to zero victory over Long Beach State. So that was a good one.
[00:15:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:01] Speaker B: All right, we'll wrap it up. Favorite book? Give the people something to read as it's getting cold and they need to be inside.
[00:15:09] Speaker C: Favorite book? Oh, man. Again, I go back to the business. Just something fascinates me about it.
First book I really got into was again, go back to Dave Ramsey and the Entree Leadership. And these days it's Jocko and his leadership books, but that's kind of where I'm at right now.
[00:15:28] Speaker A: Okay, very good.
[00:15:29] Speaker B: Ted Rada, thank you very much. We'll remind you again, the Shockers have their fall series this weekend. They play Friday at five and Saturday and Sunday both at one. They had the draft yesterday. Yeah, that seemed like a big deal. I'll take us inside the draft. So you split up two captains on each team. Right. Give us a little bit about the process for picking these teams.
[00:15:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:52] Speaker C: So it was Stro and Mauricio were one side and Jordan Rogers and Kaden Favors were the other, and we were actually in here in the classroom, and it was an intense draft room for sure.
We flipped for who was going to get drafted first, and both teams knew who they wanted and it was the same guy.
But yeah, it was a lot of fun. The guys really took it seriously.
Seth was wearing his jacket, so it was a professional day, and it's going to be fun to see how they handle the next few days. We kind of let them. It's a leadership exercise, so they'll be running practices today and they'll be writing lineups and all of that, so it'll be a fun next five days.
[00:16:37] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:16:37] Speaker B: I saw the pictures. I noticed Seth in his jacket. How about during the games? Are the players running things into? Will the coaches just be observing?
[00:16:47] Speaker C: I believe the coaches are just going to be we might be sitting behind home plate observing and watching and kind of letting the players really understand riding lineups and when to send players know, do the whole leadership and coaching thing.
[00:16:59] Speaker A: Okay. Interesting.
[00:17:00] Speaker B: I saw and Alex Burge was the first pick. He was now, as we were over in the offices over there, was that strategic because Mauricio Milan is one of the captains. So if you needed, you wanted Alex because he was the catcher, also.
[00:17:13] Speaker C: Correct.
[00:17:13] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:17:14] Speaker C: That's both teams wanted Alex as the catcher. And fortunately for Kaden and Jordan, they got him because he's got a great arm, he's a great receiver, and a good left handed bat as well.
[00:17:28] Speaker B: As you were watching the draft unfold, was there somebody who you thought was really undervalued that went later and you thought, oh, boy, that guy has a chance to make an impact here, and he went in the lower.
[00:17:40] Speaker C: Williams went pretty late.
But one team really put a high stock on pitching, and one team is kind of pretty balanced. So we'll see what strategy plays out well for who.
[00:17:53] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:17:54] Speaker B: I know over the years the stakes have been different for a long time. I think it was losers had to serve the winners a meal, a steak meal, I think. And I think there was also a time when it was had to clean up around the stadium, that kind of thing. Has any kind of reward or disincentive been established?
[00:18:15] Speaker C: It'll be a post game meal. I think we're going to biggins and one team is going to be really happy with what they get. And the other team maybe not so much.
[00:18:27] Speaker A: Okay. All right.
[00:18:28] Speaker B: Good stuff. Shocker series friday, Saturday and Sunday. Friday at five. Saturday at one, sunday at one at X Stadium. Tad, thank you very much for your time.
[00:18:36] Speaker C: Thanks, Paul.
[00:18:53] Speaker D: Hi. This is Rick Muma, president of Wichita State University. Check out the latest episode of the Forward Together podcast. Each episode I sit down with different guests from Shocker Nation to celebrate the vision and mission of Wichita State University. Listen.
[00:19:32] Speaker C: Wherever you get your podcasts, you can find more roundhouse
[email protected].
[00:19:39] Speaker E: It's over. It is over, ladies and gentlemen. Say it slowly and savor it. Wichita State is going to the Final Four for the first time in 48 years.
[00:19:53] Speaker B: Unbelievable. What a scene, folks.
[00:19:55] Speaker E: The Shocker fans are just going crazy in the sand. Just may be the greatest win in the history of Wichita State basketball.
