Richard Griffin

But in terms of defense, they're better at shortstop.

In terms of finally at 30 years old, getting Ernie Clement an everyday position where he doesn't have to move around, that's positive.

Barger is going to have to play.

in right field almost every day with moves to third base when Okamoto needs a day off.

And yeah, so I really don't think that they will miss Bo's offense and they're better on Bo's defense.

Yeah, I agree with you, O'Dogg.

In terms of salary, you don't want to be talking about how much money he's making.

And I think the turning point for him is going to have been when we look back the postseason, from start to finish of the postseason, the fact that we know as professional athletes, Hayes, you should learn from this, is that... Go ahead.

is that confidence is 50% of the battle.

I mean, you can have mechanics, you can be a great athlete, but Vlad was always pressing to be in that group of the 10 best hitters, the 10 most productive hitters, because the extra pressure then of his contract

And then carrying it through the postseason and then into the World Baseball Classic, I think that confidence is there.

You can almost see it in the spring broadcast while I'm under my tanning lamp here at home.

But the fact is, I think he can carry it through.

I think he can, from day one, be one of the 10 best players.

uh power hitters in the major leagues i mean he he walked twice and struck out zero times during the entire wbc so his knowledge of the strike zone his confidence i think the the abs system is going to help him because he's always complaining about the strike zone so now he's got a chance to back that up and if he's right he's right but i think he's

going to be one of the top hitters.

And there's another aspect of replacing Bo that's going to really be good.

Well, I'm going to exclude the 95-plus out of the equation because that's a killer division again.

I mean, Boston, Yankees, and Baltimore all, I think, got better.

The Yankees are going to get better because they've got money to spend, and they always do.