00:00We'll talk about baseball, but I want to ask you about the family atmosphere around the
00:05twins because it seems like so many of your players have young babies or pregnancies and
00:11all of this coming down during the season.
00:13I think it's cool.
00:16I think fans today look at it in a different way where they want these players to take
00:20the paternity days, you know what I mean?
00:22That was different from how it used to be, that's for sure.
00:26It's different, and baseball probably still doesn't function quite like a lot of other
00:32places in the world today.
00:35You get more paternity leave than I did back when I had my kids, but I had zero days.
00:40You get three, right?
00:41I think we get, yeah, we get three, well that's the players, and really I think the key part
00:48of this is we try to make this a good environment for the players, and their ability to bring
00:56their children around at certain points in the day I think is great, and I think it's
01:00their memories that they're going to have forever.
01:02Our guys are very focused.
01:04They get their work done, and they work very hard all day long, so when there's a time
01:09to have a little bit of family time at the ballpark, I think they relish it.
01:14What is it like for the guys and for you to have everybody together, back, and ready to
01:20get this thing going?
01:21Yeah, one of the things that I thought was important to talk about today, walking through
01:25just what it feels like to fight your way through a season, go into the playoffs, earn
01:31that opportunity, and then fight for a World Series, the things that you're really playing
01:36for here, and I think one of the key things that I actually did mention was you bring
01:42a community together in a way that you really can't understand until you do it, and that
01:49becomes part of the goal, and becomes the biggest part of the goal, and the guys in
01:54our clubhouse who have done this, Christian Vasquez has done this, Carlos Correa has done
02:00this, I was fortunate to play in a World Series, we didn't win the World Series, but you get
02:04a chance to, it's on the tips of your fingers, this is what it's all about, and communicating
02:10that to the players today, it was enjoyable for me, I liked it.
02:14That is kind of cool, right, because it is bigger than baseball, especially you look
02:19at the impact on downtown Minneapolis, the whole state, the whole region, what it means
02:25when you guys are rocking, it just changes the vibe.
02:28The vibe, when we were in the playoffs a couple of years ago, it was amazing, and it changes
02:33your life, just experiencing it, feeling it, I couldn't believe it around me, rarely do
02:38I slow things down and look around in the ballpark, but that was one of those moments
02:42where I did, so we want to get back there.
02:44That first win, I'm sitting there with my then 16-year-old, my youngest son, and you
02:49look around and it almost makes you tear up, it's just such a family moment, a city, civic
02:56moment, almost unlike, I don't know if there's a parallel, there's something different about
03:01being in a baseball stadium and experiencing it.
03:03Yeah, you have to brace yourself.
03:04We don't know in Minnesota, it's been a while, other than the Twins, that's all we got.
03:08Well, you know what, that's what we're here for, to bring it back, and there weren't probably
03:12too many moments in the first speech where guys are nodding their heads in agreement,
03:16but that's one of the times they do.
03:19You're really changing the hitting approach a little bit this year, new staff that you
03:23have, getting back to more of a contact approach?
03:27Well, we do have a new staff, and I think there will be some adjustments, I don't want
03:31to say we're completely revamping everything we do, I think that would be a little bold,
03:36but we have guys that are very good major league hitters that we don't want them to
03:39change that much, but I do think that bringing things back to a more refined and controlled
03:47idea of what you're trying to do at the plate, just simply hitting low line, if you aim for
03:51a low line drive, so many good things can happen.
03:55If you aim to get big and hit the ball in the air, and hopefully hit a ball over the
03:58fence, there's significantly more things that may not go your way, so you aim small and
04:04you miss small, and hopefully there's a few more line drives being whacked around the
04:08field.
04:09Your pitching staff, you've got to feel good about it.
04:14I do, but that's today, and things change, you never get big and feel too good about
04:20yourself, you stay working hard and keeping your head down, and I think that's the way
04:25to approach something like this.
04:26The pitchers have been doing a nice job for us, Pete Mackey does a great job developing
04:31these guys and programming these guys, so the pitchers, they'll be ready, and we have
04:36a good deep group.
04:37Who's on first, who's on second, do we know what's going on with the infield yet?
04:41Well, we do, we have a better idea now, we brought Ty Frantzen, who's a guy that's done
04:46it in this league for a while, and he's, I think he's planning on making a few adjustments
04:51out there on the field too, but he's a good experienced guy, he's good around the bag,
04:55on the defensive side of things, and he's a guy with some upside with the bats.
04:59So I think you could see Miranda and Julian also contributing over there, Mickey Gasper,
05:04I think there are a lot of guys you could look to that we may see over there, but Ty
05:07Frantzen signing over there helps us out.
05:10Yeah, I think, you know, we didn't know if there was going to be any action, there's
05:13obviously uncertainty with the ownership and all of that, but a commitment by ownership
05:17to say, nope, let's make some moves here.
05:20Yeah, we tend to work a little later in the offseason than maybe some teams, or maybe
05:25even some fans are, you know, looking to do.
05:28But this has all sort of changed over the last five years, right?
05:32It has, and this is how we do it, we've signed some great players at this point in the year,
05:37in the spring, and we did it again, and we brought in some guys that fill some really
05:41good needs, Danny Coulombe, Harrison Bader, we brought in some guys that I think can play
05:45key roles.
05:47For you, how excited are you that you're not back in Minnesota where it's ten below zero
05:53right now?
05:54Well, I live in Rhode Island, it's not Minnesota cold, but it's cold, so I'm used to that,
05:59and grew up playing in the cold as well, so I'm fine with it, but right now, I'm fine
06:04down here, we'll be back soon.
06:07We can't wait to have it back, have you guys back going again.
06:09Have a good camp.
06:11Thanks Rocco.
06:12You got it.
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