Right before Wednesday’s series finale between the Atlanta Braves and the Los Angeles Angels, I got a chance to chat with former Braves reliever and current BravesVision TV analyst Peter Moylan. Moylan was gracious enough to share some of his time with us and so I got the chance to ask him some questions about the past and also about the future of the sport as well.
As Braves fans, we’re all familiar with the Australian hurler who became a bit of a cult legend no matter where he went. He’s been all over the place as well, as he even had a stint in the Czech Republic. There aren’t too many people who can say that they’ve played baseball in MLB, Australia and Czechia so when you get a chance to chat with someone who has, you absolutely have to take it.
Here’s our interview with Peter Moylan and I hope y’all enjoy it!
This interview has been edited for clarity when needed
Demetrius Bell: So, about [Tuesday] night! You were a teammate of [Jorge] Soler’s and you played under Walt Weiss when he was a coach here. What were your thoughts on the fight?
Peter Moylan: I don’t know what ticked Jorge off — obviously there’s a little bit of history there with Reynaldo. I think [the pitch] might’ve been a little too close for comfort for him and I think something sparked when there was a little break. Everybody was caught off guard and honestly, I’ve never seen Jorge look like that! He’s such a mild-mannered guy so something obviously ticked him off. But Walt was able to defuse the situation! They were not pushing and shoving, they were throwing haymakers! I think Walt’s thought process was ‘I just want to get Soler on the ground and hopefully everything can calm down after that.’ It kind of did but it was mad crazy!
DB: Yeah, it was absolutely crazy. It was also a good thing that there was somebody with Taekwondo knowledge in there to deal with the situation.
PM: Let me tell you something: No one’s going to mess with Walt. Everybody knows that Walt spends as much time as anybody in the weight room and he’s not just doing band work. He’s throwing some serious weight around and he definitely knows how to take someone down as we saw.
DB: Yeah, that was an absolutely crazy incident. But now that we can get to the actual questions for this interview: How does your preparation go for every game? What’s the process like for you when it comes to getting information ready to share out to the fans?
PM: I like to get to the studio or the field about three hours before the game. I’ll check the lineups if we have those. Then I’ll just run through a checklist: I’ll check out the starting pitchers, I’ll check out the opposing lineups, who’s hot, who’s not, potential base stealers, any little features that we want to work on. Anybody who’s been hot for us, we usually do some sort of story on. Recently it’s been Drake Baldwin and Mauricio Dubón for most of this year. It all depends on what’s happened in the couple of days before and where we’re at in the series.
For instance, this [the series finale vs. the Angels] is the last game of the series. We want to win this one today obviously to come home with a positive road trip and then they have the first day off of the year following that. So this is a big game today.
DB: Moving on, so you have experience as a coach in Australia. Has that changed your perspective on the game as both an analyst and a former player?
PM: Let me tell you: As a manager, the game speeds up on you so fast. You’re just worried about so many different things — the pitching changes, moving the infield, placing the outfield, do you put a bunt down, are you going to hit-and-run in a certain situation, do you pinch-hit for a guy? There’s just so much information getting fed to you so quickly. In close games and tight games, that’s where it gets really interest. I’ve got a whole different level of respect for managers and coaches in general, for sure.
DB: Right? I remember seeing of yours from the past where you said that you felt more nervous as a coach than you did as a player.
PM: Well, it’s because you can’t control anything. You just hope you’ve done enough to get these guys prepared so that when they get in a situation where they have to either perform or not that they can perform. Your hands are tied at that point once the game starts — you’re just sitting back and hoping that you can do what you taught them.
DB: Right, it’s a very different situation. Even though you have control of the tactics, it’s still different from being actually on the field to actually do it.
PM: I can have the perfect ‘pen night lined up but if one guy comes in and he doesn’t have his best stuff that day and he struggles then all your plans are gone and you’re going to have to try to figure it out after that.
DB: So, from your experience in Australia to playing in places like the Czech Republic, how did that time in the Czech Republic influence your thoughts on baseball? Have you carried anything with you from that experience?
PM: It’s interesting because growing up in Australia, baseball is not the number one sport. Obviously our facilities have never been the greatest. So when I went to the Czech Republic, it was very similar to what [I had when] I grew up playing so it was very comfortable for me. To go over there and experience that level of the sport like I did when I was growing up, I think the Czech Republic and a lot of European nations are really putting a lot of effort into improving their baseball teams and they’re very passionate about it.
Much like our Australian Baseball League, a lot of the guys that are on those teams [in the Czech Republic] have regular jobs. They’ll have a 9-to-5 and they’ll show up to training a couple of times a week. They played more games on the weekend and train a couple of times a week, so they’re really into it over there. It was just such an amazing experience.
I’d never been to Europe before! I’d pitch on a Friday night and then I’d travel Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday somewhere around Europe and then I’d come back and pitch again on the next Friday night and try to get a win for the guys. It was just incredible.
DB: Did you play with any of the players who were on the Czech team during this most recent World Baseball Classic?
PM: Oh yeah, definitely. The team I actually went and played for had about eight or nine representatives for the Czech National Team. The reason why I was over there was because one of my really good buddies from home is the pitching coach for the National Team and he was the pitching coach for the [club] team that I went and pitched for as well. So the connection was there and it was a really fun time.
DB: In terms of your experience in playing across all types of countries and continents, you’re really a unicorn in the baseball world, so that’s a really interesting thing to take with you.
PM: It’s a great game. It’s a great game at any level. The passion you see at those kind of local levels is just incredible to watch.
DB: Going back to yourself, if you could go back in time and commentate on yourself as a pitcher, what would the present-day version of you think about the pitcher version of you?
PM: I think I would’ve liked myself! That sounds funny to say that but I honestly think I would’ve enjoyed breaking down my appearances for sure. The Ryan Zimmerman home run that I gave up, I would’ve absolutely ripped myself for that! I think there’s been a few outings where I’ve had a bit of success where I would’ve loved to have broken it down. I would’ve said that I was a nice piece to a bullpen. Obviously often injured but when healthy, I was pretty good at my job.
DB: When it comes to your approach as a pitcher back then, do you feel like it would work in today’s game or would you have to adjust to what’s going on today?
PM: That’s a great question. I think, sure; I faced a lot of right-handed hitters and my strength was to face right-handers since we didn’t have the three-batter minimum when I was playing. We didn’t have the technology that they have available now but if we did, I would have probably added a couple of more pitches if I was playing today. I would’ve liked to have had something that cut and maybe something that stayed true to the top of the zone so I could work all four quadrants. I mainly worked down in the zone for most of my career.
I think if I was pitching now, I would learn how to elevate and I’d learn something else to get left-handed hitters off of my stuff. I think I would’ve adapted to it but it certainly would’ve been a lot different. I had a lot of one-pitch outings, a lot of one-out outings so you just don’t see them anymore unless it’s ending the inning.
DB: Like you mentioned with the three-batter rule, you’ve got to be out there for a little bit longer now.
PM: I called myself the original right-handed specialist, because there weren’t a lot of us! [Laughs]
DB: So again, coming from Australia, you probably didn’t see baseball a ton of TV. If you did, though, who was your inspiration as a broadcaster?
PM: When it comes to broadcasting, Vin Scully – you really can’t go past him. But, we did used to get some [coverage] on the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). They’d show us highlights of the World Series and I remember the VHS tapes that they used to send out of every single World Series. I would get ahold of those anytime that I could going back to the ‘89, ‘90 [World Series], right the way through the ‘90s with all of the Braves success. I would still try to keep up with it even from over there.
I remember specifically when [Mark] McGwire and [Sammy] Sosa were chasing down the home run record and that was everywhere. That even got to us in Australia. I went online once and bought one of the newspaper clippings from the St. Louis newspaper when McGwire finally broke that record. We were far enough away from it but because I was so interested in the game as it was, I tried to get my claws on it over here [in Australia] as well.
DB: That had to have been a pretty big task since there’s a pretty loaded sports environment out there in Australia with footy, rugby, etc.
PM: Big time. That’s why we don’t get the best athletes trying to play baseball in Australia because they’ve all had to funnel down from Australian Rules football, rugby, cricket, tennis, basketball and soccer. It’s a sporting capital where I grew up and everybody loves their sports.
DB: Going back to your current career, what made you realize that commentary was a viable path for you as a post-playing career option?
PM: When they called me once I announced my retirement and said ‘Hey, do you want to give television a go?’ I didn’t see myself doing this and I didn’t plan to do this right after I left. But when I got that call, I thought to myself ‘I’m going to have to do something and this is worth a try.’
I was totally uncomfortable the first couple of times doing it, obviously as most people would be. But as I got into the groove, I really enjoyed still being able to be around the guys and breaking down the game and honestly watching it evolve. It’s just evolved so much over the last few years with all of the rule changes that have been introduced and all of the different technologies that guys have now. I still really love the game! I love the game at its purest form but I also really appreciate the improvements that have been made to it.
DB: When it comes to the rule changes, which ones do you like the most so far?
PM: Obviously, the three-batter minimum would’ve affected my career the most out of all of them. I love the pitch clock and I especially love the [ABS] system now. I think being able to challenge balls and strikes has added a whole new element to the game. There’s still a level of frustration because we’re not getting 100 percent of the calls right but I think the fact that they have the ability to challenge in big situations and you have to figure out when you want to do that and when you want to risk it [adds a lot to the game].
We saw a game earlier where the Braves lost all of their challenges within four outs of the game. That was obviously huge [that they ended up] winning that game but that could come back to bite them. I think it’s a whole new element. I think every rule change that has been introduced, I was a little skeptical to start off with but since they’ve been implemented, I really enjoy them.
DB: It’s very interesting to talk about the strategy when it comes to challenging. Do you feel like you’d follow in Chris Sale’s footsteps to where you’ll let the catcher do all the work when it comes to challenging or would you get involved?
PM: I think I would want to challenge most of the pitches that I thought were close, so I would be on the Chris Sale program probably implemented by my coaches and managers where they say ‘Peter, you’re an emotional man. Let’s go ahead and hold the challenges to the catchers.’ If I was a batter, I’d probably have a little more confidence but as a pitcher, I’d feel like everything I’d throw is a strike.
DB: Yeah, that sounds about right for a pitcher! [Both laugh] So, winding down, what’s the most exciting or favorite event that you’ve gotten to call or work during your time as an analyst?
PM: Well, we got to cover the World Series. That was so out of the blue. We all know how the Braves were going that season. They were just trying to scrape into the playoffs in 2021. They ended up going on a run after the All-Star break and after the Trade Deadline that was just incredible. Just to be a part of that, you could just sense the energy change as the guys started to play better, as they started to look like they were going to make the playoffs. I guess the lack of expectations for them to do any damage in the playoffs just let them hide under the cover of night and run through the playoffs like they did.
The Battery at the time and the energy of Atlanta was just incredible. I just know that everybody involved here wants to get back to that.
DB: Jumping off of that, I don’t want to put you on the spot here since you’ve played in many spots but which one would you consider to be your favorite ballpark that you’ve played in or just visited?
PM: I got lucky enough to pitch in Truist Park after they built it. It’s a great stadium. The facilities are still just incredible. However, I like the old stadiums. I love Wrigley Field, I love Fenway Park. When it comes to success, I also enjoyed pitching in Miami. I had a lot of success down there even if the [old] stadium wasn’t the best. I can tell you where I didn’t like pitching and that’s Philly.
DB: Sounds about right [laughs]. So yeah, that’s about it. Can you tell everybody where they can find you and how they can get set up to watch the Braves on TV?
PM: Of course. You can sign up at Braves.TV. We’re obviously new with BravesVision. We are learning at the big league level but we are all excited to bring the product to as many faces as we can. I know it’s been a struggle for people to find Braves games in the past. I think we’ve done a really good job to partner up with a lot of the major cable companies and a lot of the smaller ones as well.
More eyes are on it and that’s been the goal from the start of this — to get as many eyes on Braves baseball and the Braves product as you can. We’re going to try to bring you an entertaining product and as the season goes on, I’m sure the team on the field and off the field is going to be just as good.
DB: Alright, thank you so much for your time!
PM: Of course, mate!
