Joe Maddon

He puts pressure on the team like any 40-plus home run guy can possibly put on the opposition.

I think he sets kind of a...

the tone in regards to how they want to play offensively.

And then, of course, their pitching and their bullpen has been spectacular.

Again, people you never heard of before that become household names in Tampa Bay.

It should be.

You know, the way the rules are applied now, the two throw-overs and, you know, then you can't, if you don't pick him off, he's, it's a balk.

I mean, there is that.

So I kind of, it's almost like teams don't care about it as much.

I think if you talk to analytical people about the stolen base, they don't really worry about it as much as they do their pitcher getting swing and miss.

Because if you steal the base and they got swing and miss pitchers, it's not really going to matter anyway.

Yeah.

I don't agree with that.

I do believe, and you're kind of hinting at it, when a guy, when you get that kind of speed, that kind of influence on the bases, it splits concentration.

It has to.

It has to.

And then when it splits concentration, hitters see better pitches, I believe.

That was what I used to preach with my guys with the Rays for years.

We wanted to split concentration.

Now, the rules were different, obviously, with the throwovers, et cetera.