Elias Schuster

Not only are we getting back to October baseball, but we're making a deeper run this year.

So, you know, the vibe is it's a focus group.

There's a clear mission here.

And it'll be interesting to see how these next few weeks transpire before the regular season starts.

Yeah, I mean, I think one of the biggest things is he's clearly not satisfied with his offensive performance last year.

And, I mean, he did say that, you know, Nico Horner kind of helped him put that season in perspective a little bit and kind of pointed out, you know, if the numbers you put up in the first half you had put up in the second half and, you know, those halves were –

were flipped you know you'd probably be looking at your season offensively a little bit differently and so for him you know he's he's trying to pull on the good things that he did last year I mean he obviously showed he is capable of great plate coverage he can hit balls up and down the zone and so now for him is you know how does he find more consistency you know where you're

putting up those numbers over a full season or better, but you're not having a two-month stretch like he did to end the year.

And so for him, I mean, he talked about how, you know, he really delved into, you know, looking at what could be behind some of that, you know, once you're removed from the competition aspect of it all.

And, you know, working with assistant hitting coach John Maley, you know, one thing that they saw was that he just wasn't setting up consistently in the batter's box when he was in those periods of struggle.

And so, you know,

He really focused in this offseason of finding a comfortable setup, maintaining that every time he gets into the box.

And for him, he's really hopeful that that consistency, you know, before every pitch is going to lead to more consistent results.

And ultimately, he said, too, you know, like my number one job is I'm playing elite defense in center field.

Like he's saying I expect to play gold glove defense there every year, and he knows that's why he brings the most value to the lineup.

So it'll be interesting.

I mean, I think, you know,

Kind of the ceiling for this team, I think, in a large part is, you know, what version of Peter Armstrong do they get?

Yeah, I mean, I think it's a little hard to compare

kind of like what you pointed out like you know alex bargman has made a five-year commitment to this organization so it makes sense that you know he's really trying to learn the ins and outs and the language you know the player development staff uses with minor league players and you know wanting to make sure he's on the same page with all that it's a little bit of a different thing if you're a guy like kyle tucker coming in on an expiring contract and you know