Ben Nicholson-Smith

Mind you, if you're 18 and 22 and if your team is playing a lot of close games, that's probably not the time to do it.

This is probably the time to go 90% or 100% down the line as opposed to 60%.

And it's all context dependent.

Obviously, if you're up or down 13 runs, you can take a play off to a degree.

But it's...

I think it's significant that Schneider mentioned that, and I think he would like to see more of that.

And I suspect that that message was delivered with the hope that players would pick up on it and see it or hear it or have it reach them through back channels and then turn that into their performance.

And it's telling to me that he's highlighting that because John Schneider's never going to be a guy who is throwing his players under the bus, but it's telling that he mentions that because...

it makes you think immediately of which players maybe aren't doing as much of that and how they might want to look in the mirror and just give a little more effort on some of those close plays in close games.

So let's turn our attention to Vlad Jr.

here.

And not from a hustle standpoint, although Vlad has his moments where he's not going – I'm not intentionally trying to put the spotlight on Vladdy here in a negative sense.

Probably times where he could go a little harder down the line.

But –

When fans and observers in the game look at Vlad Jr.

's performance, there's an element of surprise here for him to have two home runs, for him to be struggling so much from a power standpoint.

And Shai and I talked about this in the first ATL segment, but...

I want to get your thoughts on it and almost zoom out as we discuss this because there is this contrast between the concern, of course, around a player who is not hitting for power and the trust that eventually he's due to go off and that there's more in there.

So what do you make of that as you're watching Vlad Jr.

?