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Jordan Walker is Ready For a Huge Sophomore Season · Kenny Wallace Media

• 0:00
  Mason said. 260 now, Yeah, yeah, actually, May, right before I
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  came down here on the fly, I waited at 2:59 for.
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  So not quite 260, but close enough.
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  You know what's? What's the goal with?
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  That like where, where do you want to get to and what does
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  that do for you? Right, right.
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  Honestly, I didn't plan on it to be honest.
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  I've been working on the facility, so I've been working
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  with the strength coaches over there and I think I'm in a
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  pretty good straight strength program.
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  I feel a lot stronger for sure, and that that weight just came
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  with it for sure. It just feels more explosive.
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  I don't know if it is. I can describe it.
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  When I was in the cage the other day, I just felt a lot more
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  explosive than I do at this point in the offseason, man.
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  And so now I'm just really ready to get into some live ABS, maybe
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  some matchups to see how I can, you know how it feels during,
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  you know, in game play. You're living in Jupiter now.
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  What does a typical day look like?
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  Are you? Working with Cheo, Yeah, Yeah,
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  absolutely. Yeah.
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  So he's broken down for me. He, he really wants me to go
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  through this whole process. So I'll actually break it down
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  for you. I get there probably around
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  9:45. I stretch out and then I go work
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  with Cheo at about 10 for about 30 minutes to an hour based on
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  what he wants me to work on that day.
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  Whether it's first step, quickness, whether it's tracking
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  balls, whether it's coming up and getting, whether it's, you
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  know, my emotion towards throwing somebody out.
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  And then so 3030 minutes to an hour, I would say that I would
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  hop right into the cage and work out right by the, the, the four
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  cages out there in the back and I'll head in there for maybe
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  like 45 minutes to an hour as well.
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  Sometimes Donnie will be in there with me.
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  So if he's in there with me, you know, talk to me a little bit,
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  it'll be a little bit longer. And then afterwards I'll go to
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  the strength and conditioning and probably lift and if I have
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  to run that day, I'll run. So that takes about an hour, 30
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  minutes. I'll get back home around 2:30
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  based on what I get for lunch that day.
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  Are you happy with the progress you've made?
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  Defensively. Oh yeah.
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  In the offseason, yeah. So we've been working on in the
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  in the strength and conditioning.
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  I've been working on movements being a little bit quicker
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  laterally and you know I grew fast and they and they told me
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  that. So it was just a little bit
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  difficult. I was a little bit behind
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  catching up to you know how my body moved.
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  But they've definitely helped me out a lot with that in this
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  offseason is I have to continue to do my drills so I can
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  maintain it. So now is that like if you talk
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  about adding a little more size, keeping the mobility, Yeah,
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  absolutely, Yeah. And now they don't want me to
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  lose that either. Thing is I I put on this weight
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  during the in the offseason, but usually after I run a few a
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  little bit during the the regular season, that water
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  weight I'll I'll lose a little bit of it.
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  And so mobility wise, I feel pretty good.
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  I feel kind of like how I did, how fluid I was last offseason,
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  but just a little bit stronger and it's a little bit more
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  explosive, if that makes sense, right?
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  Individual. Goals.
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  With the way we finished last year with the power, what would
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  be realistic numbers? Yeah, absolutely.
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  I think honestly I would like to start driving the ball a little
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  bit more, a little bit earlier on as the season went on.
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  I started driving the ball a lot, a lot better.
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  And I think that's just a kind of a vague goal to have right
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  now. And usually my dad and I, we
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  talk about specific, you know, stats, goals to do with stats
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  later on. And once I do, we'll get back to
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  you. And there's some stats I met
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  last season and that I didn't. So we'll try to, you know, do a
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  better job of, you know, bearing down this year.
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  I would like it to be. Yes, Sir.
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  Yeah, I would like it to be for sure, dating.
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  Back to November. Zaylock has said that his ideal
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  starting out bills for 2024. Because you carrying that, what
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  does that do for your confidence?
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  Knowing that you're. Going to come in in 2024 and
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  have a consistent goal especially.
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  Yeah, absolutely. It means a lot, first of all.
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  But that was my goal out the gate, to be the starting right
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  fielder for sure. So I put a lot of work in this
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  offseason, but to hear him say that, definitely, it meant a lot
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  to me. For sure you.
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  Think it all about. The some last year you were
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  sitting up there. Talking about trying.
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  To make the team. Did.
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  You reflect, you know when you got away from it, all the things
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  that you did last. Season.
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  Yeah, absolutely. I took that time, you know, kind
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  of after this season, you know, Body's tired after this season,
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  obviously. But there's a little bit of
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  like, I don't know, just nostalgic feeling to it.
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  And just look back on the season.
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  Yeah, sometimes it felt long based on how my body felt at the
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  end of the year. But I look back, it went really
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  by really quickly. And so I have to, you know,
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  remind myself to enjoy, you know, every part of baseball
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  because it is a really fun sport to play the most.
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  I'm sorry. Most about myself.
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  Oh, absolutely. Yeah.
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  That's a good question, man. I think I learned that.
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  I'm going to have to, you know, I got to forget some of the
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  things I learned coming up here because having all these
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  veterans, having all these coaches, man, they've taught me
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  a lot about the game. And that I think the one thing I
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  learned about myself is that I have to always be able to adjust
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  and and be coachable, to be honest, because you never know.
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  I don't. I didn't ever feel like I I knew
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  you know, the whole game because they're always teaching me
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  something. What did you?
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  What did you see in Mason? He's struggled offensively and
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  what do you think that? Does As far as driving, yeah,
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  honestly, yeah. I I think everybody struggles.
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  It just happened to him at the that.
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  It happened at the beginning. But I wasn't worried.
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  I'm not worried about him at all.
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  I've seen him hit like for what, 20/20/20?
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  I've been here for four years now.
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  I know that he can handle it and I I know the type of plan that
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  he is and I think that he just needs to you know, relax, just
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  like how I had a problem relaxing.
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  I think we're we're pretty similar when it comes to that.
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  And once he, you know, fully relaxes, he's going to play his
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  game. He's going to be a great hitter.
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  He's going to be a great defender as you guys know.
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  So no problem with him at all. He.
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  Mentioned that he when he gets to a level he kind of struggles
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  then takes off know better than anybody what that what that
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  looks like from the outside is that his competitiveness?
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  Is that how? Analytically it is, yeah.
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  No, I I think it just goes with competitiveness as all we.
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  We're always competing whether it's on the baseball field or
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  off playing video games. He'll say he's better than me at
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  video games. I'll I'll disagree with that.
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  But he's always competitive. Everything we do.
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  You know, when it came to, you know, either either sports or
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  just pretty much anything when it comes to, you know, arguing
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  he's the best basketball player of all time.
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  I'll argue Jordan. He argues LeBron, but he's
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  competitive with that. So it's just, I think it's the
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  competitive spirit that he has. What kind of?
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  Hitter can he be? For those of.
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  Us who really haven't seen that. Day-to-day, right?
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  I think he's going to be a really good hitter for average,
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  but I think he has some power. I think people sleep on his
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  power a lot, so I think he's going to hit a little bit more
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  home runs than people think he's going to be.
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  So I think he's going to be a pretty complete hitter when it
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  comes down to it, Jordan. Mr. Scott second.
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  Did here this morning. So that you've given him some
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  advice. About going, yeah.
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  How do those conversations? Come up and some of the things
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  that you've. Kind of given him as kind of a
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  some some advice as going into this spring.
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  For him, Absolutely. Yeah.
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  I mean it for gossip guys. It's kind of hard to give advice
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  in my situation because he's just so good.
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  Like what? I'm not going to tell him.
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  You know what I'm saying? When it comes to the game, I
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  don't, I shouldn't tell him anything.
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  He just keep doing what he's doing.
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  Unbelievable athlete. I don't know if you guys have
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  seen him and have you guys he he's unbelievable basketball
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  player, unbelievable bowler. He's kind of like the Mookie
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  Betts the Cardinals of how to say.
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  But yeah, it's hard to tell a guy you know to give advice to
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  someone who's that good when it comes to it.
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  I I just kind of, you know, give him little tidbits and just how
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  it's going to go your first, like full spring training and
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  things like that. And I expect him, you know, to
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  be up pretty soon as well. So I was just trying to give
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  him, you know, a few heads up about some things, just how
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  things work and and how he's going to go about something.
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  Oh, yeah, absolutely. For sure.
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  Yeah, absolutely. I would like it like that.
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  I wouldn't want him to sugar coat it at all.
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  I feel like when you're sugar coating it, you're trying to
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  keep from hurting someone's feelings.
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  But no, I mean, sometimes you're going to have to hurt someone's
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  feelings if you don't want to be good at something for sure.
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  So yeah, absolutely. He's definitely tough on me.
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  Went into the decision to spend, you know, this offseason down in
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  the floor. Yeah, absolutely.
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  So these the training and conditioning coaches, they told
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  me, you know, they want to have eyes on me and I feel like I
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  trust them because they've seen me all season.
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  They've seen how my body worked. They know better than any, you
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  know, strength coach like what to do and things like that.
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  So I have that trust with them. They've been working with me and
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  I've been really happy with the results so far.
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  Jordan. Last year, I mean, there's
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  different guys he played next to and center.
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  Field with. Tommy Edmond as the stated
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  center fielder going into the year.
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  What? What kind of value can that
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  have? Just know I'm going to play
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  next. To this guy, major value, as you
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  saw Tommy Evans, fantastic outfielder, you know?
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  And if any of that rubs up on me, I feel like that's that's a
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  pretty good thing for sure. Oh absolutely.
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  So yeah, if if I can just pick his brand a little bit, you know
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  talk to him a little bit what he sees because his jumps and his
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  routes are are very, very, very good and that's something that I
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  really wanted to focus on this offseason and I think that's
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  just the first step as well. So once again that down packed,
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  you know, getting the balls, tracking the balls and then
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  using some of my athleticism can definitely become help become a
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  great outfielder. So just that communication is
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  very important I believe, if that answers your question.
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  Are are jumps and routes the thing that you can measure
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  against the baseline? Like there was their video
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  they're testing that shows you were here and now.
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  You're here? Yeah, actually.
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  So when I'm working with you, he said.
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  He looked at video. He said when my jumps were
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  better than others, it actually comes to actually, I'm glad you
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  asked. It comes to the thing we were
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  talking about the other day. I have a tendency to start, like
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  when I see a ball, I go after it and then I'm trying to make sure
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  that, you know, I read it right. So I come back on my heels a
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  little bit more and he's been really working with me and
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  teaching me to just go after it. Trust your gut instinct.
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  And so he said he can tell the difference between me getting to
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  a ball later in the season and earlier in the season, like kind
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  of the same ball. And so I think that's just
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  something, you know, that helps. It's not always maybe you know,
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  whether you're athletic enough or not.
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  It's just based on like a mental mindset of, you know, trusting
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  your first gut instinct. How much is.
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  Yeah, right. And some, yeah.
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  Some players talk about how it comes off the bat.
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  And and I think maybe part of my issue is I I couldn't really
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  tell, to be honest. You know, sometimes it sounded
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  harder than it actually was. And so I really don't want to,
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  you know, trust that as much. I kind of just want to like
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  trust my eyes a little bit more than my ears.
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  George. You made the jump from
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  Springfield. Go to Saint Louis and spend some
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  time in Memphis with last year. Teach you about kind of the the
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  differences between minor league ball and what it takes to thrive
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  in the big. Leagues, the attention to detail
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  and things like that, Yeah. I feel like when it comes to
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  that, I have the big leaves get to be a lot more consistent.
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  I have to be on a lot, a lot more than I would have to the
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  mileage. Not saying the mile leagues is
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  easy, because it's definitely not.
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  But in the big leagues, they made, they made less mistakes.
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  So those mistakes I have, I would have to capitalize on them
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  when they didn't make them those mistakes.
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  And so I would have to be better, you know, a lot more
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  consistently, if that makes sense.
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  Yeah. Like to lean back on like now
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  you've got that internalized a little bit.
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  How much does that help you? Does it give you like an added
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  confidence going into this year because there's.
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  Less that's. Like you know what to.
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  Expect. Yeah, Yeah.
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  I I actually always don't think I, I know all of what I, you
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  know, need to know. But yeah, definitely.
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  If your question was, is it giving me confidence?
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  Absolutely. Having my first year is
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  definitely something I can look back on.
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  Definitely a first step in my career and definitely helps me
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  with my confidence wise. For sure.
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  You were you? Were asked.
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  You know what, like a temporary hitter Mason can be?
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  Yeah. After a year of the big league,
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  what sort of a hitter do you feel like you should be in your
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  second? Yeah, I I I've always wanted to
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  be a hitter that can drive the ball.
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  And now that I've seen for a year how they how they pitched
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  me last year and what to expect, you know, talking to Goldie and
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  talking to Arenado, how my approach should be at the plate.
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  I thought it's going to be a consistent, you know here that
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  drives the ball to all parts of the field and I can drive the
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  ball over the wall. So I expect I want to also be
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  consistent here as well. I want to be able to hit the
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  ball and and get on base by hitting the ball higher than the
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  average, you know what I'm saying?
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  So I want to hit for average. I want to hit for power and I
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  believe based off of the first season, if I make those
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  adjustments this offseason, that I can do both of those.
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  Yeah, right. I honestly haven't talked to him
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  too much about it. Most of my conversations with
• 12:34
  him I've been about, you know, hitting the baseball.
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  So whenever I get a chance to talk to him in the cage, he he,
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  he's actually kind of been one of my heading coaches.
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  I think he used to say he sees what I'm doing and he sees, you
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  know what I can work on, what, you know, why I'm pulling off
• 12:51
  the ball in the cage maybe, or why I'm cutting myself off in
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  the cage. He's the guy to talk to you
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  about that. So most of our conversations
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  have been hitting wise. Sorry about that.
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  What is Brendan Donovan like as a leader?
• 13:01
  Yeah, yeah, he's stoic, man. He'll tell you exactly how it is
• 13:05
  and I wouldn't want it any other way.
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  He he will hurt your feelings, that's for sure.
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  But yeah, I I think that's a good thing about him and he
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  tells you exactly how it is. He gets to the point he makes it
• 13:15
  short and quick. But you know you know he loves
• 13:16
  you and you know he he wants the best for you.
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  And so whenever you you you see something that you're doing
• 13:22
  wrong. He'll he'll let you know for
• 13:23
  sure with you and the outfielder.
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  Like, what would be the example towards the beginning of the
• 13:35
  offseason, we were hitting the cage and he was talking about my
• 13:39
  hip mobility, which has gotten a lot better as like throughout
• 13:43
  the whole offseason. But he was like, yeah, you can't
• 13:46
  hit like this. I was like you got to get those
• 13:49
  hips right and things like that. So I mean, obviously he he was
• 13:52
  telling me and he one of the best for me, but he wasn't
• 13:54
  trying to hurt me in any way as well and I'm, I'm glad he did
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  tell me that. So it was the strength coaches.
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  I've been working with them. They've also told me that as
• 14:00
  well. But he's the first person to
• 14:02
  tell me, as blunt as that, for sure.
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  You're on. Winter warm up is a unique
• 14:06
  experience. You're able to go on the road in
• 14:08
  a different way, meet different people, meet fans.
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  Can you talk about what that does for the camaraderie?
• 14:14
  Between the team, Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
• 14:17
  Yeah. So you're talking about the the
• 14:19
  whole winter world experience. Yeah, I'm having a I'm having a
• 14:22
  great time when we were absolutely.
• 14:23
  So we got to travel, we got to see fans everywhere and just
• 14:25
  seeing how they are excited. I went through the Peoria route,
• 14:29
  so it's being how excited they are.
• 14:30
  But like that gives you a different feel for the game.
• 14:33
  Like, you know you, I mean, obviously we're playing for
• 14:35
  them, I play for them, I play for my family.
• 14:38
  And so being able to see how excited they are, how much they
• 14:42
  want you to succeed gives you an extra drive to be better, if
• 14:45
  that answers your question. You're going to see a hungry
• 14:51
  ball club, yeah. Who's the drivers of that?
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  Who's? Who's picking up who's?
• 14:56
  Motivating gas. Yeah, actually I would say
• 14:57
  Donnie's a a head driver just of the I I haven't talked to him.
• 15:02
  You know our one-on-one conversations have been like
• 15:04
  that. But the group chat, yeah, he's,
• 15:05
  you know, talking about, he's usually one pumping us up.
• 15:09
  Last year, you know, it was Wainwright.
• 15:11
  But I mean, once we all convene and and see each other in this
• 15:15
  spring training, I think that there's going to be some talks
• 15:17
  and there's definitely going to be some guys, you know,
• 15:19
  motivating the group and at least against him, I'm really
• 15:22
  excited to meet these new guys like Lance Lynn, Sony Grey, Kyle
• 15:25
  Gibson. Heard a lot about them and a lot
• 15:27
  about their leadership. So I'm looking forward to them
• 15:30
  to, you know, help drive the group as well.
• 15:32
  Donovan was in. Gary talked about it was mostly
• 15:34
  in the battery box, but sometimes it's best just to not.
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  Think, Yeah. You were talking about in the
• 15:38
  outfield, sometimes trusting your.
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  Absolutely. You might be focusing on this
• 15:42
  offseason out there. Trust your instinct.
• 15:44
  And maybe not. Think as much.
• 15:45
  Yeah. Actually, he put it.
• 15:46
  He put it perfectly. Yeah.
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  Don usually has the right way to say it.
• 15:48
  Yeah. Just not think.
• 15:49
  You trust your instincts? Absolutely.
• 15:51
  When you get to thinking, that's kind of, you know, when things
• 15:53
  go a little bit haywire.