Ben Cherington

you know physical athletic capacity tools whatever to be great they have the work ethic and you know compliance to the work to be great and they have the mindset that

They not only want to be great, but they're willing to push the edges of what's possible in order to do that.

And the pursuit of that is almost like a drug for them.

They can't live without the pursuit of being great.

So I think he's got all three of those things.

So, you know, nothing's an exact straight line.

You know, it doesn't mean that every day of the rest of his 20-year career will go perfectly.

It never does for a pitcher.

But he's going to be good for a really long time.

He's going to be great for a really long time because he has a combination of strengths.

Have you had anybody or an example of that?

Like, I think Mookie... I've actually told Paul this.

I thought Mookie was the...

As a young player, the closest comparison of having the combination of the athletic traits with the work ethic and the...

desire just that desire to push the edges and with that like ability to adapt and actually make changes I think that's like where I was like saw in Mookie was that ability to make adaptations like really quickly through practice and Paul's got the same thing when you said that to him could you tell the hit obviously I mean I don't know sometimes it just it's a good example it's a good con that's what I'm saying you know all right okay I'm in

I think Paul is fascinated with learning from the best of the best in baseball, outside of baseball.

He pursues a lot of that on his own.

So I have no idea if he has tracked down Mookie for our conversation or not.

Do I think there's something to chasing exit velocity and losing some feel for the barrel and contact ability?

Yes, I do.