Ben Verlander

It's not just hitting a 100-mile-an-hour fastball, which is the hardest thing to do in sports.

It's also playing 162 games in like 180-some days.

It's very, very difficult, and that is part of the learning curve.

And I'm really hopeful.

I'm hopeful he's able to have that experience from last year and learn from it, and I'm sure he will.

And I think having a guy like Alex Bregman on the team, I've said this a bunch, and I think people get confused when I say it about Bregman, is Alex Bregman's a great baseball player.

He's an all-star.

But what he does for a team in terms of in a locker room, to a pitching staff, what he's able to see from third base, to the rest of the lineup, what he's able to pick up on from –

from pitchers and what he's able to see other guys working on.

I think having a guy like Alex Bregman for Pete Crow Armstrong, which I already heard Pete say, they, they spoke and he's really helped him already.

Having those veterans there next to him, going through it and saying, Hey, this is how good you were last year at the beginning.

This is why.

And, and,

this is how we're going to keep you doing that all year long, I think is going to be huge for him.

So I'm glad he went through it to learn from it, and I'm glad he has veterans on the team to help him and a new veteran, Alex Bregman, to really help him as well.

Yeah, you know, I continue to stay cautiously optimistic.

I think the fact that everyone in the world thinks we're not going to, it kind of gives me hope that we are.

You know, the league sees that, and everybody sees that.

And there are issues that need to be fixed, as there are every time a CBA comes up.

These are just, in the age of social media and in the age of,