Justin Willard

Like that was my first job when I got done playing college baseball was via G.A.

and pitching coach at Concord University and.

didn't know anything at that point and still don't know much, but Hey, I got some, I got some better ideas.

It's like, you don't know anything.

These are all guesses.

These are all bets.

Now can we just make better ones than we did in the past?

Yeah, it's a little bit of everything, obviously more player-centric than my previous role with the Red Sox.

Again, you're going to be there every single day with those guys in the trenches, working through problems and solutions, versus my job with the Red Sox was definitely more macro, more top-down, more systemization, with some of that diving in specifically with players and bails and the staff there as well.

Yeah, I think they've got a bunch of established veterans that are looking for the next step in their career, which is really, really exciting.

And then they have a young group of guys similar to what we experienced with Tolian earlier this last year that are still trying to figure out how to be really good big leaders.

So you have a wide variety of those player types, and that's definitely something that's really, really exciting.

And honestly, just building those more personal relationships.

I think when you're in those director or coordinator roles, you just get removed from

from the day-to-day stuff so much.

So it's very surface level conversations or surface level relationships versus now like, hey, you're there, you're showing them that you care and you're supporting them and really trying to get them to know them better as just human beings.

Yeah, it's definitely an interesting dynamic because there's first of all, like anytime, whether it's Boston or New York or any of these other major league teams, like there's just a vastly, there's a vast gap between what AAA players are and what big league players are.

So that's the first thing they need to solve is like, okay, I'm good enough to be here, but do I truly believe I'm good enough to be here?

Again, guys like Tully and Early, they just weren't afraid.

Like, okay, this is what's got me here.