Really, Gene, I know you know this, but a team in every sense of the word.

It really was.

What a special group.

I've known Matt Arnold, the president, for a very long time.

We actually worked very close together on the James Shields-Weddy Davis deal when he was in Tampa in 2012.

And the text I sent him was, I just know how incredibly hard you've worked to get to this moment.

And people, they don't realize the hours that are put into building a team and how fortunate that you have to be to get the type of team chemistry that they had this year.

What's your foreshadowing of what this next month might look like? Busy, not busy, or is there any way to know?

But going with your No. 3 guy against the Miz tonight, what do you make of that?

Well, I think it really comes down to how they believe the matchups are going to play out, what Pat Murphy could do with his bench if they go a certain way.

But the one thing that's made Tampa so successful is that they've gotten their three starters into the sixth inning, and that's going to be a real key factor to watch in this series.

All three of their starters, Martinez, Rasmussen, and Peralta have all pitched in the sixth inning.

I think they've gotten 23 outs combined in the sixth inning, where Milwaukee hasn't gotten any.

They'll go to that bullpen right away after five, which is truly the strength of Milwaukee.

That's kind of where I see the difference in this series is the depth of Milwaukee's bullpen versus Tampa's bullpen.

Tell our audience about those role players, and how about David Hamilton from the University of Texas being a big part of this Brewers team?

I mean, what's your, what's your viewpoint on that?

Well, I, I think it can, it can be positive and it can be negative.

I think the negatives are you look at Puerto Rico and the, and a country that produced so many great Major League players, and then once those players went into the draft, they were somewhat de-incentivized.

Uh, and I think that you can have a, a level of that.

But, you know, I think Albert Pujols is one of the greatest examples of a young man that was born in the Dominican Republic, came to the United States, went through the draft, you know, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth round, whatever it was, and ended up being a Hall of Fame player.

I think you can make an argument for both.

The, the, the, the tell tell for me was the year that, uh, Strasburg got fifteen million and Aroldis Chapman got 30 on the international market.

They're really, really good.

All right, here we go.

[laughs] [guitar strums] [singing] Some folks go out dancing.

It seems to be their thing.

The young girls get up running when the telephone rings.

And people think of lonely things when leaves begin to fall.

But me, I don't need a thing at all.

Old men get off on checkers, and boys ride off on bikes.

Are you doing that, per chance?

That's a talented ball club that New York brings to Tampa tomorrow evening.

Super talented.

And, and not having Judge certainly hurts.

But, but the pitching with, with Schlitter, and Freed, and Gerrit Cole, and Rodón, it's just...

This is where you kinda see some separation in the league when you talk about Rasmus, and Nick Martinez, Freddy Peralta.

That rotation, and then Schlitter, Freed, Cole, and Rodón, like these two teams are very, very talented on, on the mound.

And, you know, starting pitching is the currency of the game.

What is, what is their secret sauce in Tampa?

They fired Dana Brown after the trade deadline, or at least Jim Crane did, but they still made it in at 81-81, and they bring a lot of experience, Gene.

You know, I tell everyone the expectations drive the results with Jim Crane, and he makes no excuses that he expects to win year in and year out.

But what this team was able to do is absolutely remarkable.

Let's begin with the Seattle Mariners and that starting rotation, and arguably one of the best teams they've ever had in Seattle to not finish 500 was absolutely unbelievable.

And then the Texas Rangers, when you talk about Nate Evaldi and and Gore, and the pitching that they had, DeGrom, when you look at those three Belcal starters, the top rotation, you would think over 162 games that that would be problematic for the Astros, but they just don't quit, and they've got an incredible offense.

Hunter Brown is the Belcal of the rotation, and then after that, Hayden Wisniewski is a very, very talented young arm, and they were able to pick up Peter Lambert, who's arguably been one of their better starters all year, so They have three starters that can beat anybody in baseball when you combine them with the offense they have.

And it's a very potent, high-power, play-for-the-three-run type home run.

What are the key guys for you to advance here?

Did anybody ever show you how to work on cars and stuff? How did you find that interest?

I grew up working on cars, really.

When I was going to school, I worked at an auto wrecking yard, and I pulled parts.

Anything you do in a wrecking yard, I used to do it.

It's how I learned how to use a cutting torch, how I knew what size wrenches to pull what off with.

And I was always good at, you know, removing parts, getting them ready to sell, putting them on, whatever I needed to do.

So mechanic in and of itself, that was the very start of my auto experiences, even when I was in school.

you are you have been all these years and uh you still are i mean you know chad saying sold out show last night sold out show here again tonight too so uh yeah you're doing it doing it the way you do it

You guys are sitting five games over 500, three up on Mi- Minnesota in the Central, and you guys, uh, you said, "Hey, let's, uh, let's go make our ball club better." What'd you think of the, the moves you guys pulled off?

Well, we were excited, and the one thing that [clears throat] we wanted to do was really, like, assess where we were as an organization, assess where we were, uh, as a major league roster and, and, and, like, okay, what are our opportunities to win a world championship this year? And you look at the Dodgers, and you look at the Phillies, and you look at Tampa, and you look at the Yankees, and you look at all these really good teams, [clears throat] and do you match up with them? Yeah, you do, uh, in, in a five-game series.

But as you get into a seven-game series, okay, you know, what, what are the odds that we can, we can win a seven game when you're talking about y- a number one starter for three starters versus Yamamoto, versus Ohtani, versus Gerrit Cole? And so while we feel like we've made great strides and are way ahead of our time capsule, the one thing that we didn't wanna do was invest int- in, into our top minor league prospects and, and really go all in right now and trade some of our top prospects.

You know, we've got Caleb Boniver, one of the top young prospects in the game, Billy Carlson, uh, uh, Hagen Smith, the University of Arkansas product.

So, so every time we would try to engage in one of the, you know, say a Tarik Skubal deal, those were the guys that were being asked for.

We just didn't really feel like now was the time to push all in in that manner.

And so we did the very best we could to try to Manage money, move money.

What'd you make of the Scooboo to the Dodgers trade?

What led the Chicago White Sox to rock Cholowski over Grady Emerson or Vaughn Lackey, the catcher from Georgia Tech?

You know, Aaron, I've never been a part of number one, but I have been a part of number two when we took Bobby Witt Jr. in Kansas City.

And I've got to tell you, this was one of the most difficult decisions that I've ever been a part of in baseball.

When you talk about drafting, even in the top five, not even one, when you talk about drafting in the top five, the first thing that comes to mind is teammates.

What kind of teammate is the player? This is a great message for any parents who have players out there listening.

Number one, what kind of teammate? Because that's what's made our team go this year is the clubhouse and just the camaraderie and the pull for each other and the fight.

When you broke down Grady Emerson and Rock Cholowski, two of the greatest teammates you could ever find.

What do you think the trade market looks like here in the next couple of weeks?

It's like you're one of them that made it, and so they're more invested in you.

Absolutely.

I would like to look at it that way, Michael.

I mean, let's face it.

I'm a friend of the common man.

You know, I've been there and done that.

I've been poor.

i did not know that yeah how did that become your song because that's the song that everybody you know obviously you named your band for that but how did that become sort of your signature song