Joe Siddall

But about the batter's box, and then I had a great chat with Popkins when I came back for that last series.

And, yeah, my first thing, and Kevin, as a hitter, you would probably agree that my first thing is,

We saw the fastball getting on.

I mean, I know he was hitting fastballs, but he looked a lot very indecisive at times.

The league has been pounding him away and kind of up and away, I thought, for the first few weeks of the season.

So my first inclination was they want to back him up so that he has a little bit more time for the fastball and so that he can see and identify spin a little bit better, basically see the ball longer, give him a little more time.

But Pop said, yeah, but, and I was like, oh, this is interesting.

But his big thing was he, everybody's got their initial moves.

You know, whether he's got the leg kick and the hands kind of come down, that takes time.

And what it's doing is it's giving him more time to execute his moves.

So rather than adjust what you do with your moves, which is a lot for a hitter,

Do the same moves, but he's backed up in the box a little bit, and that's now giving him free time.

You can't rush as a hitter, right?

Those I've always said rushing, that's just a bad word for hitters, and that's what he was doing at times.

So it's given him that little fraction of a second more, and we've seen him, I mean, two balls in the West Jet flight jet.

That was a beautiful thing.

And a couple more to left field as well.

But he's also just a hair closer to the plate.

Now, the closer, it's not as dramatic because, I mean, if you move three or four inches closer to the plate, that'd be crazy.

But it's only about an inch closer, I think.