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John Mozeliak Discusses Top Cardinals Storylines · Kenny Wallace Media

• 0:00
  First off, welcome all you guys to Jupiter.
• 0:02
  It's always exciting time. You know, I don't want to dwell
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  on on 2023, but but obviously getting here and and starting
• 0:10
  today, I think we've officially put in the interview mirror and
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  I think like everybody inside players, coaches, staff,
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  everybody's excited to do that. And so we certainly welcome 2024
• 0:21
  in a fresh way. And also I think when we look
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  back at at our offseason, we definitely felt like we were
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  able to accomplish a lot. We looked at our forty man
• 0:30
  roster. We had 15 new additions.
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  So it's close to 38% turnover of that roster.
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  And obviously coming off the year we had, we felt that was
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  important. And you know as we as we begin
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  anew today, you know there's going to be some fresh faces.
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  There's going to be real competition in this camp and we
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  think that's healthy. Meeting with the staff
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  yesterday, they're they're, you know, super excited to get this
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  going. And so we're, we're ready to go.
• 0:59
  A couple quick updates real quick on Middleton.
• 1:04
  Kanan. Middleton will not be at camp
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  today. He's dealing with a stomach bug.
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  And then I also want to just touch on Yadi and Molina, given
• 1:12
  the fact that his season in Puerto Rico just ended.
• 1:16
  We're going to give him a few weeks before he actually
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  reports. So that'll be more of a TVD, but
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  also we'll keep you guys abreast for where that happens and it'll
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  probably parallel when the minor leagues are going as well.
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  So he can double dip. But at this time, I'll be happy
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  to take questions everybody. We do.
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  We talked about veteran getting veterans who've been there, done
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  it, done there before leadership.
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  Nice. Was it to see Sunny grade, you
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  know, very vocal yesterday that others watching him and he said,
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  you know, I'll take questions from anybody to to be that vocal
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  leader that you've kind of been looking.
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  For yeah, I think that's exactly what we were hoping to see.
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  And and more important that's who he is.
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  And you know, you don't want someone to have to do something
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  they're not comfortable doing. And you know, I think the one
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  thing about him, anybody that got to watch that that bullpen
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  yesterday, he's almost like someone that's just like sort of
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  articulating what he's about to do, what he wants to see Don.
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  And he then grades himself like if he did it well or not.
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  And and I think like, you know, having someone being able to
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  like talk through something like that, it's a lot easier for
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  other people to learn and how he's thinking.
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  And I think that was something that resonated well with.
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  Something Well, what do you need to find out?
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  Or you tell yourself? I'd like to find out about this
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  ball club during spring training.
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  Well, I think the biggest thing for us is really going to be our
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  health, and I've probably said that for the last 17 years when
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  we open up camp, but that is going to be critical.
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  But when you look at our everyday club, we have a pretty
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  good idea of what that's going to look like.
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  But there are some health question marks as we enter this
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  camp. And the other part of this is
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  going to be, you know, how do we put our bullpen together?
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  What? How does that line up?
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  But I think a lot of this will have an organic feel to it and
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  allow time to happen and then we'll see what we look like.
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  When you look, when you look at your starting rotation, one of
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  the things I think you guys look at is depth because you guys
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  have had to utilize your depth for.
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  Do you guys feel you have enough?
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  Look I think you you you always are going to be able to question
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  death. You're you're always an injury
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  to away from not being truly tested.
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  But when you look at our our starting vibe, we feel pretty
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  confident about that group. But then you also have guys like
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  Livitor and Thompson that I think could do that as well.
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  John Rahm is someone who started games for us last year.
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  So you know we do feel like there's you know 8910 names that
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  could fill that void if we needed to but additional to the
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  five starters. But I hope that our five can go.
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  MO with respect to your bullpen, you both to the bullpen was far
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  set up guys and people who can bridge it to another inning.
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  What about other closers being in the competition?
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  Well, I think we do have other guys that that can close, but
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  obviously Hells is going to get majority of that.
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  We saw how Romero performed at the end of last year.
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  So we're excited about that. And then Kitcher to someone
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  that's pitched in Emmy. So, you know, we do feel that
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  gives us some flexibility. Now you have former Cardinals
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  coming back. Lynn Flynn, Matt Carpenter.
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  What's that going to do? I know Matt Carpenter's already
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  reported here because he wants to be here.
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  See these faces? What does it have to do and
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  think? Well, I think it's meaningful
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  that we have people that want to come back, you know, especially
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  after the year we had and be here.
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  But I do think Saint Louis Cardinals are still an
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  attractive place to be as they carp and and Lance or guys that
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  had a great experience when they were here and they're looking
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  forward to being positive additions as we move forward.
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  Mow that phrase or something. Even those guys who haven't been
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  here before. When did that come on to your
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  desk as something? To that was relevant or
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  important probably about 20 years ago.
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  I I feel like it's like something that has always been
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  when you look at over the course of those years, like some of the
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  decisions that we've made that have been positive versus
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  negative. There is definitely a common
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  denominator of people who truly want to be here.
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  And as you guys can all imagine in the free agent world, proxy
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  tends to be dollars, right, for years and dollars.
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  Whereas you know there are times where people just truly want to
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  be a part of this organization, a part of the Saint Louis
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  community and it it usually ends much better that way.
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  And so when we entered this off season, you know we didn't go in
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  strictly trying to chase that or look for that, but it was
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  something that was definitely underlying and when it and when
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  it showed up early that's how we were able to get these deals
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  done in the timely fashion that we did.
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  I mean, as you're standing here today, the free agent market is
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  still going right and we were able to find players that that
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  wanted to be here and we're able to get them to agree to deals
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  really right around Thanksgiving one.
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  Of the days you used to Not that you used to that you still made
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  but approach that was get them here, make them want to be here.
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  It seems like that kind of the the equation big shift to like
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  you haven't done here before 1. That's fair, but one was right
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  in Lance 11, had a didn't live too far from Busch Stadium which
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  was helpful. And and two or the third one in
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  Tony Gray. I think he just had a lot of
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  positive experiences when he would visit Saint Louis as a
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  visiting player. And so, living in Nashville, I
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  think this was something that was very attractive to him and
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  something that he wanted to do. You feel that that's like
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  tangible thing like if they want to be here that makes you
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  connect or that makes the rebound quicker.
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  If that means like how does that tie together the emotion?
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  Last year was an outlier this these guys can help us get
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  better. What role does that play beyond
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  just like? Their skill, well, certainly
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  skill matters and it's very relevant.
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  But we also do want people that, that want to be part of this
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  community, the Saint Louis community.
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  And I think that's important. And you know, like we have had
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  times where we've had players that end up signing here that
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  they don't find that that comfort in the community or or
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  or many as welcoming as others. And you know, hopefully that
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  that bridge has already been crossed and these guys know
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  exactly what they're going into. MO, Was he talking about the way
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  that? Health might impact the roster,
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  shortstop in the area where maybe you all would pursue depth
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  even still at this point in spring, given where Tommy's at
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  and where Donny's at kind of in his rehab as well.
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  Yeah, I think we'll, we'll be a little bit more organic than
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  just necessarily trying to run after something at the moment.
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  But you know as time goes on we'll have a much better sense
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  of where Tommy's at, we'll have a much better sense of of who
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  else we think could could backfill there.
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  But obviously you know Mason Wynn's going to get a lot of
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  opportunity there. I mean the bigger question is,
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  is you know can he remain healthy throughout, you know,
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  when you look at rosters? Coming into.
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  Camp. Sometimes it's.
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  Really open competitive. Rosters.
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  Sometimes not. So much it seems this year that
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  you guys have most of your positions.
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  Is there anything outside the full time that you find might be
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  competitive in? Terms of well, I do think the
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  answer is yes. I do think there is real
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  competition at some position players spots and also when
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  we're starting to fill out your 40 man or your 26 man roster.
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  So none of that set in stone yet and as we just touched on how
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  it's going to matter dictate you know where some people fall into
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  all of that. But you know there is some
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  uncertainty in what our everyday lineup will look like when we
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  get over the deck. Now over the next couple weeks,
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  Mom, you should have more clarity in that.
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  But I do think there there are guys in this room today over the
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  next two or four weeks and they're going to get a lot of
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  opportunities. You know, when you look at the
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  team, what attributes give you confidence in the planet?
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  What attributes Are you ready to go?
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  Very presumptuous like in terms of like I think like you know
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  when you sit in my seat or you're part of this team, you
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  know you have to go out and they want to start proving yourself
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  in terms of how you think we're set up over.
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  I definitely think someone with the son of Greg can definitely
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  be you know an oper and take that game on, which is
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  important. I think the overall depth of
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  this team, the ability to score runs and back to things that we
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  are traditionally good at, defense based core, you know our
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  everyday club feels like it could be a very strong so.
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  What were your conversations like with Lance Lim?
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  You know, last season was kind of a rough one for him.
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  Two. Spots.
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  Home run ball was what was the conversation with you believe in
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  that he still has a lot left and him thinking he still has a lot
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  to give. I think a couple of things.
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  One is he's very confident that he understands that last year
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  there were just things that he was probably doing that he
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  should have gotten away from sooner.
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  And you know, hopefully from a coaching standpoint, from a
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  strategic standpoint, those are things we can walk through.
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  He's certainly open minded to it.
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  He's very understanding that those things existed.
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  I think he would tell you that, that, you know, he fell in love
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  with trying to throw that sweeper slider, probably a
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  little bit too much. So making those adjustments,
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  making those changes, I think you'll get it back to where he
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  needs to be. Still has your arm strength,
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  still has that fastball that's tough to get.
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  And you know, like we want to do with a lot of people in the
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  scans is to do what you're good we keep doing.
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  You know when you look at all those things, obviously regular
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  numbers were down. If you look at the first some of
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  the advanced stats that that involved and it's encouraging
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  and support in your own words, can you describe the thoughts
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  about the ball going? In the season.
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  Nine, yeah, I think a lot was made out of last year.
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  You know, we understood it was coming up in a few years prior
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  and there's certainly expectations or understanding
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  that there could be some regression.
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  And you know, I do feel like there's probably some happy
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  Indian in there. But you know, I, I think he's
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  still an amazing talent, incredible teammate.
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  And you know, when you look at this plot, I mean he's one of
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  the, you know, true blue of it. And so seeing him in camp would
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  be great and expectations for more high, but will also be
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  reasonable. Well you're starting pitching
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  rotation projected as I I think the oldest in the major leagues
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  or at least one of them. Is that his age of a concern or
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  is it the the effects of age or are you not concerned at all
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  with having having guys that are all over 30.
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  Well, unlike our upcoming election I am not only concerned
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  of age in this current state and see.
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  So I I do feel like what we missed a lot last year was more
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  experience and and so you know trying to take or tie age and
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  and and experience together usually it's pretty common and
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  and so going down that path we knew that was likely where we
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  were going to end. Up, although there's age
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  associated with the rotation. What do you make of just the the
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  durability like the kind of the workhorse attributes of some of
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  the the pictures that you obviously went out and targeted
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  maybe sort of as a result of kind of having to use a bunch of
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  different arms last year, just the durability of the guys you
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  got? Actual.
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  No. I think like like that was
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  something that we talked about really back when we did the
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  press conferences in in late November.
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  It's just guys that understand the what it's like to go pull
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  the pull, the understanding of what it's like to have to take
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  the ball 30 stars. And you know all of these guys
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  have been through that. They understand it and that's
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  going to be really helpful too with some of our younger
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  pitchers that are trying to get to that point.
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  So I think from, you know, the aspect of just mentoring,
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  helping teach coach, but also the fact that they've done it is
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  helpful. That approach with the rotation
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  versus what you then did with the bullpen, you know the
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  rotation is guys who have been there and done that, and veteran
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  guys even like the addition of Matt Carpenter adds that to the
• 13:17
  bench. But in the bullpen, not a whole
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  lot of experience, not a whole lot of familiarity, even with
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  the rules you might put them. In.
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  Some of them not been in the majors.
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  I think it's well, I I would say like adding like you know
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  Kittredge and and Middleton bring some level of experience.
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  I think like when you start to like weigh in like where does
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  where do you go from like a young player to someone that has
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  like experience. I feel like a guy like a Tommy
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  Edmond for us, for example, is someone that is flipping the
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  script now from just someone that is somewhat younger
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  contributing, but now someone who can help invest in others as
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  a player. And do I know Kittridge and
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  Middleton? On a personal level, no.
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  But I also have heard really good things about them.
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  And you know, my conversation with with Kittridge after we
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  traded for him, I mean, you know, it just sounded like you
• 14:11
  were talking to an adult, like someone that was, you know, just
• 14:14
  giving a straight shot, excited to be here.
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  So I do think there's a little bit more experience than you
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  might be giving his credit for. But you also have to understand,
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  like these are all, you know, subject to market negotiations
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  and where things go. It wasn't like we were trying to
• 14:27
  avoid going down that path, but this is where we ended up.
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  I know you have an. Update on Tommy Edmonds or how
• 14:33
  he's progressing, he's been, we talked to you about him in in
• 14:37
  January. Where is he now that he's here
• 14:40
  In Jupiter? He's cleared to do a lot of
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  baseball activities, but I think the one place where he'll be a
• 14:46
  little bit slower is a throwing in the hitting.
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  But there's a progression plan in place and we'll just see how
• 14:54
  that goes as spring. There's a lot.
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  Of older guys with track records who are looking for bounce back
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  seasons, What's the comfort level that most, if not all?
• 15:03
  Of these guys. Can have those kind of years
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  who? Are the guys you were saying,
• 15:08
  Paul? Goldsmith, Nolan, Arnotto, Miles
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  Michaels, Matt Carpenter. So OK, I thought you might be
• 15:13
  fired, but I feel like, you know all these guys are like Uber
• 15:18
  talented, right? I think last year when our
• 15:22
  season didn't go as we were hoping it would go, I think a
• 15:25
  lot of pressure was put on individuals to try to do more
• 15:28
  than they really could or should.
• 15:31
  The the really the theme of this camp is is forget about last
• 15:35
  year, this is a new and just be yourself because these guys are
• 15:39
  super talented. So I think the belief we have
• 15:43
  and where these gentlemen are at their stages in their career are
• 15:46
  still where they are All Star caliber.
• 15:48
  Type Players mode. Jim, Michael.
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  Is what sort of things do you guys feel like give you
• 15:54
  confidence that last year was just one of those years as
• 15:57
  opposed to a starter or something?
• 16:00
  Well, I think like Michael is when he's on his best, where's
• 16:04
  the ball on the ground, right and and that's what he needs to
• 16:07
  get back to. And you know if we see that
• 16:10
  early, I think that's a really encouraging time.
• 16:12
  If we don't, then we got to make some adjustments.
• 16:15
  MO. Jim asked earlier about the
• 16:16
  starting depth in regards to Libby and Zach.
• 16:18
  Specifically, what is the road map for their spring look like
• 16:21
  and where do you all come to a decision point in terms of what
• 16:24
  they might give you in the rotation versus what maybe
• 16:26
  you're a little more competent they can give you in the full?
• 16:29
  Well, I think early on these guys are going to get a lot of
• 16:32
  opportunity to get innings. There'll be a strategy in place
• 16:36
  on how we use all these. So I think again we we start
• 16:39
  with the split to open. So Randy, innings right away,
• 16:42
  bless you. But you know, I think as as camp
• 16:47
  unfolds will determine like where their roles end up.
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  But, you know, we don't know today because it could be in the
• 16:52
  rotation. I mean, is it too simple as to
• 16:54
  say for those two guys this spring could be a determiner of
• 16:57
  kind of where their career paths go because both of them have
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  provided for you out of the bullpen.
• 17:01
  Both of them have been a little more uneven.
• 17:02
  As starters, yeah, I wouldn't agree with that statement.
• 17:04
  OK, do you do? You start with a six man
• 17:06
  rotation because you got, what, eight games in a row?
• 17:10
  We we are debating it, but I don't know if that's what we'll
• 17:13
  do. The LIES guys would prefer to be
• 17:15
  a 5. Sure.
• 17:17
  Yeah. What?
• 17:21
  Other than Paki and Middleton, you said has the stomach virus.
• 17:26
  Are there? Any pictures that are behind?
• 17:28
  Not that I've been told. OK.
• 17:31
  Have you noticed anything? I was so close.
• 17:35
  Yeah, just anything. Anything.
• 17:36
  You gave me the look. You mentioned seeing the way
• 17:41
  Sunny was out there, performing in vocal and all that stuff.
• 17:44
  Is there anything else just leading up to the camp out here
• 17:46
  that you've seen that's either impressed you or surprised you?
• 17:51
  I would say just the energy and in the sense of like a lot of
• 17:54
  guys coming in here, they understand the urgency and I
• 17:58
  think anybody that was a part of this organization last year was
• 18:00
  just happy that we're not in Russia.
• 18:02
  You know, it's it's starting fresh.