Evan, if you were in that clubhouse right now, Were you like kind of like a rah-rah guy or were you just like, I'm going to go take care of my business type of guy? Like, what would you, would you be saying something to the team going into the World Series? And if so, what would that be?

I was never like a big team meeting guy, you know, but we, you know, as there was always like offensive meetings.

So we had a lot more meetings like with, you know, just the offensive group of guys.

And so I think that, you know, my biggest message was always like, you know, trying to calm guys down, right? Like trying to get guys to understand that like, once we start between the lines, like this game is no different, you know, like you guys have played on the biggest stages and you understand like how, how much goes on away from the field.

Like these guys, The lead-ups to these games, like in the CS and in the World Series, are insane.

There's so many people on the field.

You have so many requirements to do before the game, interviews, go to the press room, take a bunch of pictures.

Fastball Freddie.

And now everybody's got all the development opportunities and, you know, tools to, But I just wonder what's in that secret sauce.

I wish I had the statement recorded in whatever year it was, 2014.

So whenever Friedman left and went to the Dodgers, I said he's going to win multiple World Series because now he has all of the resources that he needs on top of his ability to identify talent, which I think he's one of a handful of guys.

He's probably the best GM of all time right now.

But I think there's some guys.

Alex was great.

There's a lot of guys that you could probably put in that same category.

Do you think that they're going strictly off analytics, like pulling guys' numbers and measurements, or is it like a mixture of analytics, eye tests? Is that what you think it is? What is it?

But it's like, I just wonder what's in that secret sauce.

Yeah, you know, I wish I had the...

the statement recorded in whatever year it was, 2014.

So whenever Friedman left and went to the Dodgers, I said he's going to win multiple World Series because now he has all of the resources that he needs on top of his ability to identify talent, which I think he's one of a handful of guys.

He's probably the best GM of all time right now.

But I think there's some guys.

Alex was great.

Do you think that they're going strictly off analytics, like pulling guys' numbers and measurements, or is it like a mixture of analytics, eye tests? Is that what you think it is? What is it?

Where did that hard work kind of ethic begin for you, and who were some of the people most influential in your defensive prowess?

I mean, definitely from the beginning, you know, my dad is probably the, the first person that comes to mind when I think about just work ethic in general.

And, um, and then as my career went on, I, I went to, uh, Rio Hondo Junior College.

Uh, the head coach there, Mike Salazar, um, wasn't necessarily an infield coach, but he was a work ethic coach.

We worked really hard there, and so I kinda had that further instilled.

And then, um, at Long Beach State, Mike Weathers was, um, the, he was the infield guru, I would, I would call him.

I mean, he, uh, taught me probably as much if not m- m- more than anybody in my career about infield play and preparation and, um, just a ton of one-on-one stuff or, you know, uh, m- you working with another guy on your team, um, working on very simple defensive drills, um, hands work and stuff.

Hall of Famer or otherwise, and I don't care if it's somebody that you think should be in Cooperstown or not, who are some of your favorite third basemen, just as a fan, as a teammate, as a player, however you wanna orient that?

Question I have for you, who had a positive influence on you and your youth besides your parents?

Like a coach, teacher? Probably the biggest, I mean...

impact on me in terms of my baseball career was my Mike Weathers the head coach at Long Beach State when I was there you know that that's not to obviously minimize any of the the interactions that I had along the way but I think just in terms of like kind of like narrowing my focus on the game and like understanding that like as if I, if I really wanted to like move forward and like be the best player, the best version of myself as a player that I could be, I needed to do it this way.

Like he was the guy, I mean, and, and he was really hard on me.

And, and, you know, not, not like to the point where he would just like rocket ground balls at my shins, but like, I think more mentally he, he would be, He was on me, you know, kind of every day and I and I saw it my first year with with Troy to the whiskey there and he was kind of the same way with him you know he was on him every day about, you know, just kind of perfection, you know, he wanted it he wanted us to do everything perfect, and we would stay there until you know we had we have lights so there until there was barely any light out on the practice fields.

if we did it right, we'd, we'd leave on time, you know, but we rarely ever did it right.

You know, whether it was, you know, cutoff throws or the defensive plays, you know, getting bunts down, whatever it was like, um, he kind of taught me that it wasn't going to be easy you know that there was going to be some work that was involved to like figure out how to be good at this game and especially at the higher levels how consistency is really the only key like if you can do something consistently you will you will have a chance to advance much quicker um you know then then really any kind of like hot streak you know like if you I feel like professional scouts like that's what they see the most is like oh this guy like maybe he doesn't like light the world up for two months but like he hits 270 or he fields every ground ball like he makes every like little thing look easy and he does it every time like that's like the most important thing I feel like especially when when I look at teammates now in the big leagues and I'm like do I want this guy to you know get a ground ball when it's you know six to six in the bottom of the ninth or whatever seven six and we're up and it's a rocket like can he make that play every time like yeah like that's the guy

Like, is there a difference between Little League and, you know, when it really matters in college?

And to get to that point where you're like, oh, man, like this just isn't going to happen.

Yeah, I mean, I wish I could walk you through it.

You know, I think most of us blacked out, you know, pretty early.

And yeah, I mean, obviously, like that was like that game is kind of like a was like a microcosm of like a full season of emotions.

You know, it's like.

we worked so hard to get, you know, back into this race and, and give ourselves an opportunity to, to even, um, you know, do something special.

And all of a sudden that hope is basically erased and, you know, three innings or whatever.

What does that mean to you?