 Welcome to another edition of Yes, We're Here. I'm Meredith Marachnitz alongside Buck Showalter. Buck, how are you, my friend? I'm in there, Meredith. You know, all things considered. Hit the wall a couple of days ago, ran out of things to do, every closet, garage I've been in. But all things considered, especially comparatively speaking, I can't complain. How about you? I've been holding up, okay, trying to stay busy in the house, same thing, cleaning out some closets, getting some stuff done that I would have never done had there been baseball right now. But just how much have you been missing baseball, Buck? Because I know this thing is bigger than baseball, but it doesn't mean you can't miss it a little bit. Well, yeah. Obviously, it's part of your life and something's taken away. It's also allowed me to kind of appreciate some other things, Meredith. I've tried to, as I used to say, Miss Monk in the first grade, did you use your time wisely? You know, and that's what I'm trying to do more than anything is making sure I'm embracing the things that I haven't been able to do before. But that day-to-day baseball, especially the geeking, I was very looking forward to this season. So what are you doing to fill your day? What's a day like in the show Walter Household? Let's see. We planted tomatoes, taking care of them. I planted about five or six rows of bushes. I love roses. The only people we're interacting with is from a distance is my daughter and my grandson, so a couple miles away. I'm staying pretty physically active. I'm always finding something to do. So I can't really pinpoint it. I walk in a lot. My wife ran into Mark Cuban walking with his family. Obviously, he's in a different neighborhood than I am. That tells you how far we're walking. But just trying to stay active. Got a couple of dogs trying to keep them active. And in a lot of ways, it's good to see kids playing in yards around. And I'm trying to dwell on the good things. I love it. The casual drop in ran into Mark Cuban. That hasn't happened for me here, Buck. I didn't run into any of any great town here. What's that about? Well, you know, I had one guy was trying to get me to get pitching lessons to his son, who I won't give it up. But you know, I said the biggest thing you can do right now is just take some time off. You know, the shoulder and the elbow wasn't meant to throw for 12 months. Just give it some time off and see if he can stay out of the Tommy John surgery. That was for the position players, especially the young kids who already saw their little leagues get canceled, but they're craving baseball. Is there anything they can do, either inside or in the backyard to kind of keep themselves ready for when baseball does come back? You know, Meredith, I've spent a lot of time through the years. I'm a real biography bio guy. In other words, I look at the like things I see in the players in the big leagues, biographies, and there's exceptions to everything. But there's certain things you see when you're evaluating a player to make a trade or what have you. Some of the things missing in today's game now, they're making more mistakes of player evaluation than any time I can remember. But what is well rounded players that don't just play baseball? You're around. They play football or lacrosse or soccer or just do something else with their time. And that's my advice. When I see someone who's played baseball on these travel teams 12 months a year, it's a big red flag. It doesn't usually work out at our level and you don't see many of them up there. So I think instead of worrying about what your baseball skill sets going to be, you know, take this opportunity to get a little more well rounded. You will seek your level. You know, a lot of the great golfers don't pick it up till 17 or 18 years old. Some of our best players didn't really get serious about baseball to late later in their 13 years. So don't feel like something's passing your body. You will seek your level. Hey, you mentioned something interesting and that's at the major league level. You feel as though talent evaluators are getting it wrong more often than ever. Why do you think that is? I think it's the sixth tool. There are less and less people that can evaluate the other part of the puzzle on a player. You know, I remember Gene Michael used to and I know Cash does it too. It's been a lot of time understanding who can play in that pressure cooker in New York and they don't have a corner on pressure. It's just that day to day accountability that some people have trouble with. You know, I found it as an advantage because a lot of things got taken care of by the media, the fans, things I didn't have to worry about motivating a player because you know, it didn't last very long. So it was one of the greatest places to play when things are going good in a tough place when it wasn't. And what's wrong with that? We're all accountable. But I just think the valuation of players is they're not. They're getting so mechanical and so you know, there's there's a big picture there, a puzzle you paint in order to get it right, you got to listen to every possible angle, especially, you know, the phone calls, the communication, the relationships you have to have to find out the unknowns about a player about more than just the statistical evaluation. Throughout your years, was there one player that you thought I don't I don't know if they're going to make it. I don't know if they have that well rounded persona and they surprised you and stepped up to the plate or vice versa. No, I tell you what, usually that picture that's painted is a pretty good idea. This guy could be, you know, I took a lot of pride in our and our people did and the people like Steve Pierce, the people like JJ Hardy, the people like just guys that, you know, Steve Pierce was MVP in the World Series and people said, wow, are you surprised about that? And people that knew Steve said no, you know, getting that guy, that make up, you know, why the guy hasn't been able to get there, the guy, all the reasons why it never happened for him and understanding that and know who you are and do they fit who you are. Just just pure players like Mike Stanley years ago, just a baseball player, tough guy, just fit us like a glove stick with all over my game, go understanding that the way bugs in our environment would fit just goes on and on, you know, no one that the Tino Martinez was the right guy to take Don Mattingly's place when he retired, understanding Paul Neal in a trade and understanding Jorge Posada and Rivera and of course Jeter's are coming up. Did they bring those intangibles that it took to be that impactful of a player? It was fun to watch that evolve. As far as this 2020 season is concerned, fans were extremely excited. The Yankees had 100 free wins last year at the best free agent picture. And then as we know, things have been shut down. Now, within the last week, there have been a couple of stories leaked to several news outlets. The latest one article in USA Today saying that maybe not just Arizona is the way to go. Maybe they would consider using the Florida spring training sites and the Arizona spring training sites. Do you like that plan? Well, I like anything that that safely gets baseball back in the picture. There's a lot of questions there. You know, those things usually happen, Meredith, being in on some of those competition committees where someone's they're throwing everything up against the wall, trying to get something moving in the right direction, all possible angles. And someone may have said, you're not going to believe what they were talking about in this and some inexperienced writer runs with it and all these veteran guys have to start writing about it. They're not they don't they're not too happy about having a right to something they don't think is going to happen. But, you know, first, I've been in Phoenix in the middle of summer. It's 100 something degrees in July at 7 o'clock at night. You know, if you're going to play inside, but how many games can you play inside? You know, at the most 15 games have to play today. You know, instead of poop on it and saying this is wrong and oh, are you doing this? I look at the families who's gonna be able to spend 3040 days away from the families. What happens the first time someone contracts it? What's the next step? You know, we're going to know so much more, I think, in another month, whenever the date they're thinking about. And so instead of blowing it up, let's think about it. I know these people, they are so smart, articulate. They when you think about something they've already thought about it. And if they're even exploring that, it's down a certain highway. In your heart of hearts, do you think we'll see baseball in 2020? I think we'll see some form of it. I do. I say privately. I don't, you know, I'm preparing for it not to be. But I think there's so many things going on in our country right now that we're not really sure about yet. There's nobody an expert on this. And especially we're sports is a concern, but I do know this NFL draft will have probably the highest viewership ever. How about it? How about it? Well, fingers crossed that there is baseball. I know the fans want it. The players want it. Everybody wants it. But first and foremost, we want to make sure everyone is staying safe and staying healthy. And that means staying inside if you can. And social distancing if you have to leave the house. And we know it's been a tough time for everybody. But if you'd like to share with us how you've been able to stay safe at home, feel free to send us a picture and hashtag it. Yes, we're here. You might see that on an upcoming broadcast. Everyone stay safe out there. For Buck Showalter, I'm Meredith Barakavitz. We'll see you next time.