 Colton Wong got to get to know these guys right now Colton Wong joining us right now just signing a deal with the Milwaukee Brewers two years $18 million former St. Louis Cardinal Colton it's Brian Kenny with Dan Playsack and now later welcome to the program. Thank you. Thanks for having me on. You tell me we were pretty stunned when we saw that you weren't going back to the Cardinals that had cut you loose. What were your thoughts as to what were they thinking? How did they communicate with you? What happened? Man it was just you know free agency I think and you know during COVID times obviously you know the money situation played a big role in everything going on and you know I guess I mean hey they kind of upgraded you know they got aeronautos so you know good luck to them man and I'm just excited for my next opportunity with the Cardinals. Obviously I mean with the Brewers obviously I've been with the Cardinals for my whole career man so you know the ability to play with this team that I've been able to play against and you know play well in that stadium I'm excited for this opportunity. Colton that letter here congratulations on your two-year deal but hey take me a little bit about I know this winter was not a normal winter but as a free agent were there other teams and if so why did you pick the Brewers? Yeah you know there was a decent amount of teams that reached out to us right away as soon as I hit free agency you know phone kind of rang off the hook for a little while and then you know you kind of hear that same story how it goes quiet for a little while and you know the real teams kind of show up. And you know so there was a few teams left at that you know my choice and I felt like the Brewers was home you know I just felt like I did really well at that field. I felt like I knew the center pretty well and I was able to you know put up some good numbers so I'm excited to be with this team obviously I know they're a really good team. They made the playoffs the past couple years and you know really exciting young bunch of guys so I'm excited to join up and see what I can do. Colton you're in Arizona right now this will be your first spring training in Arizona are you looking forward to it? I am I am obviously being from Hawaii you know Arizona's you know the closest trip you can get so it's nice to be this close obviously family you know they're not going to be able to come right now but everyone's excited for me to be here. I'm excited to not have to drive four hours for one spring training game so you know they're definitely a lot of you know pluses right now. You know Colton you always hear from players when they hate the defensive metrics. What is it like when the defense defensive metrics love you because you are the number one guy at the position at second base the last three years. How much do you dig into that and see that and see those numbers? You know not really digging into that too much obviously you know numbers play a big role in the game today but I just love you know being a guy who can play on all sides of the field. You know obviously you know coming up I was kind of known for my hitting in college and whatnot and then when I first got to the big leagues you know Hoseo Kendo challenged me to win a go glove and you know I took that as kind of you know challenge and a personal challenge of mine and I just fell in love with you know becoming really good defensively. I fell in love with turning to old plays making this spectacular play and just you know making some kind of art out of defense. It's been fun and it's been a really cool transition. You know I'm curious to appeal that back because I know you said that about Hoseo Kendo excellent infielder and infielder coach with the Cardinals but you know I saw you in 2010 with Orleans and I know you were a shortstop in college. You played second base there up with the Firebirds. Specifically you've been in the big leagues for eight seasons now but you have now back to back goals. What was specific things that you had worked on to get these gold gloves? Yeah I think it was a little things. You know obviously I didn't play second base until my sophomore year in college so there was a lot of things I had to learn. You know just kind of going to the fundamentals really holding that in and then kind of adding my flair to it. You know that was the one thing Hoseo was always you know on me about it. He's like you know I know you like to do the flair stuff and the slides and you know all these jump throws but we need to make sure that you're fielding the routine ground balls and you're doing it well. So you know it just went from doing the routine things right and you know once I kind of got my you know own little flair on that I just made my own. That's been kind of the biggest thing. You know Colton the ballpark in Miller Park you have a trackable roof. Does the ballpark play a big role in your decision to go on where you elected to sign? Yes absolutely. I mean like you said you know I feel like I've had pretty good numbers in Miller Park and that park is a very fun park to play in as well as hidden. So you know I'm trying to see what I can do offensively as well. You know obviously everybody knows St. Louis as you know a pitcher's park. It's one of the toughest parks I think to hit in you know just because the gaps aren't big but the balls doesn't fly. So you know I'm excited to play in a park that I know I have success in. I know I'm going to bring my confidence with it and you know hopefully I can add some offense to my defense and make me a full rounded player. Colton one last thing we were just talking about the new you know health guidelines and the protocols safety protocols for baseball. What is it like you know you're going to be going into kind of a bubble atmosphere very limited access to the rest of the world to teammates socially and that sort of thing. What's the mindset going into spring training for that. Yeah I mean it's all about work. You know I think last year gave us a good taste of what it's going to be like. You know not having fans are having very minimal fans. So you know it's just all about going there competing and throwing the best that you can be out there. And you know that was the one thing I learned is man it's the most purest form of competition when there's no fans out there cheering you on. You know it's you against the pitcher it's you against the other team and you're just trying to see who's better and you're trying to prove that you're better every single day. And I think that's the biggest thing man is after you know you kind of get over the fans not being there. It's all about baseball and pure baseball at its finest. Wow. Sounds like you could focus. Would you have been all right with that? No. No it's not. I'm going to follow the birdie. It's a little different. Hey Colton again best of luck with Milwaukee your new club and everything else and spring training and getting through everything safely. Thank you.