Simon Mathews

That meant you might have to lay a bunt down.

You can hit a ground ball to the right side.

But that runner on second base better get to third, right?

And it was just a matter-of-fact way of setting the standard.

So I think about him a lot.

One of my old bosses with the Reds, Brian Conger, has been a tremendous mentor to me in my growth, not just as a pitching coach, but as a leader.

And the way he thinks about setting up systems and organizing and feeding development at the major league level.

And then Derek Johnson, the pitching coach in Cincinnati,

He's an absolute beauty, man.

He's a legend in the industry for a reason.

And I really admire the way he's able to sort of absorb and learn things about the game and then access them at the right time.

He's a walking encyclopedia of all sorts of baseball knowledge going back,

From old school stuff to stuff that's coming out and it's cutting edge right now.

And he knows kind of when to pick and choose which buttons to press at what time.

And I think the success of that staff over there is pretty well evidenced of it.

I want players and staff and everybody to experience me as authentic, right?

I don't want, I don't want to be pretending to be anybody else.

Um, I think, uh,

It's really easy to sniff that out when you're locked in a clubhouse with the same group for 162 games plus spring training plus playoffs, right?

And so the things I've learned from those three guys, like those are three extremely authentic individuals who are not pretending to be anyway.