Austin Slater

Yeah, I think your position on the roster, I think, dictates a lot of how you approach spring training.

You know, also how you ended the year before, whether or not you're hurt or healthy.

You know, your mental mindset at the end of the year.

I feel like there's a lot of factors.

You know, I've gone through the whole gambit of them, being hurt through the offseason, trying to make a team, being solidly on a team.

You know, I think each one presents different –

different mindsets rolling into spring whether it's hey I'm ramping up starting in the beginning of spring or hey I'm coming in ready or hey I'm just trying to get healthy for opening day for me personally this year it's more of hey let's let's hit the ground running and be ready to go and luckily I

I didn't finish the season on the IL and was able to have a normal offseason and really prepare myself for this.

Yeah, I think...

I think the Tigers especially do a really good job of putting an emphasis on the process, whether it's before the game, like what you're thinking in the at-bat, what pitches are you swinging at, and what are you doing with the pitches you see.

And so I think when you start focusing more on the process, it can take away a lot of the stress and reactionary stress

I guess, things that you can take out of the game.

Yeah.

Or, hey, like you got punched out on a pitch that was out of the zone and you struck out, but it was actually a really good decision.

So things like that, I think

that teams look more into those kinds of things.

Because it's such a small sample size, right?

Yeah.

They're trying to make the best decisions they can.

If they were doing it just solely based off stats, you know, the league would look a lot different.