 Hey Hal, how are you? Good Jack. Back in June you were on the Michael K show and I'm paraphrasing what you said but it was something along the lines of if the season doesn't get better and or make the playoffs I'm going to ask some tough questions. I was wondering if you could specify what were those tough questions that you asked and who did you ask them to? Well I've asked a lot of questions I wouldn't even know where to begin but obviously the first questions that I asked had to do with you know should Erin be boom be our manager next year. You know I believe based on a lot of things that he's a good manager but I didn't want to take my opinion this time around. I wanted to talk to a number of people which I did. I talked to players, talked to some ex-players like Pennett Swisher who spent a lot of time in the clubhouse this year, talked to Sabian Omar and others and without without giving them my opinion on the call you know they all came to the same conclusion which is Erin is a good manager and he should be our manager in 2024. So that was certainly the first big question, the first big decision I needed to make. What other questions have I asked? I did many many many starting with what goes on in New York, what goes on with a major league club obviously all the way down to where I'm at right now at the Heimskampplex and what we're doing in the in the minor league levels. I know the season is evolving and the off season has just begun but with the questions that you have asked what kind of roadmap do you think you've laid out to make sure that 2023 in the words of Brian Cashman doesn't carry over a disaster into 2024? Yeah look I we had as you know three days pretty hardcore meetings here in Tampa. I did not want to be a part of those meetings because I felt my presence could influence people from really voicing everything they wanted to voice and I talked to people before and they agreed with me but I did speak to him at the beginning and I just told him that you know this season is completely unacceptable um that you know we got a winning record that's not an accomplishment that's a requirement as far as I'm concerned and that everybody needs to check the regos at the door and in a respectful way everybody needs to be challenging each other and critical each of each other and and what goes on in the the individual's various worlds and that if anybody thought that everything in your world is just perfect and you're doing everything right then you should just leave because you'll be useless to the to the proceedings so you know I wanted to I wanted to lay out and make clear that we need to look at everything we're doing and there doesn't need to be any finger pointing behind anybody's back because you're all in the room doing it to each other's faces and you know I'm told the meetings I've read the notes to the meetings it's about 40 pages of them but they were respectful but they were heated at times and very honest very frank and you know as the days and weeks ensue here I think I think a lot of things are going to come of it changes perhaps in personnel certainly in certain practices but those discussions are ongoing between the parties that were in the room every day here and you know we're working really hard I mean cash was just down here for two weeks in Tampa so we had a lot of meetings and a lot of discussions and that's going to continue I don't want to get specific about our inner workings of the company here Dave but you know clearly bringing in this outside company to look at our analytics and I know what's been referred to as an audit it's really not that it's a collaboration a year-long collaboration where and cash can explain this better than me you know we're going to look at their systems and their processes that they use to analyze data and make decisions these are processes that come from their years in the industry of experience before they started this company and also from their experience with with other major league clubs that they've that they work with we're then going to take all that what we've learned and compare it to what we do in the way that we analyze the data and make decisions and the processes we have and you know there could very well be some areas where we feel you know we need to to do better and change so I mean you know clearly clearly that's going to be a big deal we're obviously getting a new hitting coach that's going to be a significant deal we we did not get where we needed to be with run production last year probably our biggest problem I would say so there's going to be some big changes but there's again we're looking at so much that there's going to be changes some people might not consider significant but judge and I judge and I may because you know we're we're doing this every day so there's just there's just so so many stones we unturned during those three days of meetings I mean it literally was eight hours straight for three days eight or nine hours so but you know as far as the big change those are obviously two big ones I mean I would like to point out this process of self-evaluation didn't begin three weeks ago in Tampa it really began before the season begun by going out and hiring Omar and Brian Sabian two guys with a ton of baseball knowledge they've had a whole season now they spent time in New York they spent time here in Tampa Sabian just moved back to Tampa they were a big part of these meetings and I've talked to them about several things since those meetings and that kind of process will continue as well so this really this really stemmed from the disappointment of last post season and um those two those two guys are going to be an integral part of everything we do I mean do you think just to follow it up Hal do you think part of that change is a shift in how you do use analytics and that data are you bringing in a little bit more of a scouting impact with with Omar and Sabian having a bigger seat at the table going forward I don't know if it's going to lead to any changes or not in analytics that we we're not going to note that until we really really get into these guys brains right the consultant and really try to understand what good decisions they've made and you know how they got to those decisions and you know that may very well be the case but I can't sit here right now again this was a year they're going to be with us the whole year going back and forth so it's it's it's hard for me to say but I look analytics has taken a lot of heat not justified in my opinion but you know I think one of the misconceptions that's out there because I hear it from a lot of people is that you know boom makes every decision in the dugout during a game based on analytics that's just not true I mean analytics gives boom and the coaches a lot of information so did the pro scouts it's up to boom during the game you know when you put the line up together and then everything after what he wants to do with all that information I mean honestly if you ask the the analyst they'll probably say that too many times boom makes a decision during the game that's based on his experience what he's seeing his intuition you know whether that's accurate or not I can assure you we don't have an analyst you know standing behind boom in the dugout you know telling him you need to pinch it here you need to get this picture out of here you still a base I know at least one other team that does have an analyst slash coach in the dugout and I'm sure that manager is hearing about numbers the whole game but it's not the case here so I just think people need to understand that well that is a change bringing Zellison Joel that's an absolute change and you know the hitting coach has a change as well and you know he decided I never got into the discussions about what we would do or not do they just it didn't happen he decided he wanted to be with his family more but those are those are big changes you know whether zealous is begun or not you know if you're asking about personnel changes that there might be some but there might be none and as far as the other changes Joel again changes that we make that Aaron judge and I may may think you know this is a pretty significant change you guys may not you know I just don't know but changes will be made you know it's whether or not you guys consider them significant or not I can't control um but as much stuff as we're looking at and as many topics as we're talking about I have no doubt there's going to be some changes well let's let's let's let's look at a few I'll get to that I'll answer that question I promise but let's let's look at a few good things that we've done for all the trade was good I mean bringing in homes and Hamilton was purely an analytical play um Jose for being no trade was good so I mean we've done some good things as well tie on a couple years ago but but nonetheless let's just pick one guy you're talking about let's because everyone's talking about Joey Gallo right so I can tell you that this wasn't just an analytics play everybody in the room was a yes on Joey Gallo there might have been some discussion about are we giving away too much you know in the trade but everybody wanted Joey Gallo um there's always going to be a risk reward we talk to as many people as we possibly can about can this player play in New York you know we talk to people that know them we talk to whatever coaches we know I mean we do the homework we can do but there's always going to be a risk reward um but just know in that case it didn't work out you're right but it was it was a you know it was a unanimous decision to do that and in the end my decision now it wrote on I think way too way too soon he had an injury I mean I don't think we can throw him in there Montas clearly you got injured and you know that that that didn't work out we knew there was a chance of that but we're trying to win a World Series that year so we we made the move and we got but there have been some good traits too and I think they get I think they get overlooked somewhat but I understand your point why I think he's a good manager yeah he's he's extremely intelligent he's hard working um you know if the players respect him as a manager they want to play for him and win for him I mean these are to me very important things um and he's he's a balanced guy which I kind of alluded to before and that he's able to take all the information we throw his way from both sides and he's able to uh you know he's able to to log it all in and you know work with his coaches he's great with his coaching staff so you know one of the most important things to me the most important thing yes is winning championships I so that I understand where you're going with that but if a manager doesn't have the respect of his players and the players don't want to play and win for him that would always be a problem with me but in talking to current players as I told you I did um that's absolutely not the case and that's that's a big deal to me in the clubhouse now look I didn't cash something up I mean it was often I mean we we accomplished nothing we didn't win a division didn't make it to the playoffs didn't win a series in the playoffs much less a championship uh you know I went over the winning record that's a requirement as far as I'm concerned so the fans uh didn't get anywhere close to what they deserve but you know we're all very passionate about this we're we're working our hands off and you know we're gonna do everything we can to write the ship for 2024 but uh bad year