 Hi Matt just curious what do you see as some of the biggest challenges in trying to get a pitching staff ready for the 23rd of July? Yeah I think the biggest thing right now is just taking inventory when everyone comes in and kind of just making sure they're kind of at the spot that maybe they talked about being at or you know trying to get them into a routine with all the other you know measures that are going on around the park I think once we can kind of get on the field and kind of get in a rhythm we'll be in a good spot I think it's just this early like intake period where we're kind of working through a lot of the new procedures that's the challenge right now. Hal Steinbrunner said that Garrett Cole was going to throw a bullpen at the stadium today I know he's been throwing throughout this how does he look exactly where is he at right now? Yeah he looked good today he's moving right along in his progression so we actually went three ups today and kind of set the bar for kind of what we're going to build on so kind of obviously targeting you know three weeks out getting ready for the regular season but you know a good baseline and kind of face some hitters from our own team so it's good to see some of those guys out there as well but yeah in a really good spot and the nice thing is it doesn't take fans in the stands to get him amped so we're good there. Do you find it to be even more of a difficult task for you considering you haven't spent a lot of time with this pitching staff as a whole you were just starting to get to know them in spring how really do you evaluate where they're at when you've seen such a small sample size? Yeah I think we're still obviously in the you know discovery phase a little bit with a lot of these guys and kind of learning a lot about them I think we saw a lot of them close to game ready in that last week or so of spring training but I think the nice thing with kind of how we've rolled out a lot of the tech and the objective information the data is that it gave us a baseline to build from from the beginning of spring training till we broke so now when we bring them back in we kind of have something to work off of and obviously with some of these guys that we had you know whether it was the rap soda or radar guns or video from the break or the hiatus so we're in a decent spot as far as knowing where guys are coming in at and then be able to pick up and just say like okay you're at about 85% of what we expected or you're right where we need to be and we can kind of build so yeah I think that's where using the objective information will help us. If we can move on now to Eric Boland Eric if you wouldn't mind unmuting and asking your question. Hey Matt I hope you and your family are well just following up a little bit on on Cole the Yankees and Cole and other posted periodic photos and video of him throwing just a little bit more what have you seen in terms of stuff arm strength etc of exactly where Garrett Cole is right now? Yeah he's pretty close to you know game speed you know I think today it was 95 to 99 so we're in a you know game ready velocity now it's to kind of just fine tuning it and sustaining it over longer pitch counts so I think he feels good about where he is and obviously he's always a critic of himself kind of you know tightening things up you know whether it's a certain pitch to a certain location or you know obviously we face some hitters today so you know getting more feedback in that way but I think seeing him in Yankee Stadium and being around Radley and being around PJ and Booney they obviously you know got a good feel for him building to this point and I think that the last couple outings he had here were much of the same so I think we're building a nice baseline for him. Thanks Matt. Hey before we take the next question maybe I can just prompt Matt just obviously no one was in the building to see what was happening today but it was Garrett and Audavino and through and Radley caught both of them. So Garrett through three innings, Audavino through two innings and they faced Judge Hicks and Voight today. We can take our next question from Christy Acker. Christy if you can unmute please. Hey Matt I'm just curious what the logistics are of this when you usually have a spring training you have about nine mounds you have different feel all that going on how are you going to stagger it how are you going to work it to get people ready for three weeks from now? Yeah so we're kind of building it like a game schedule so we've got kind of guys in group A which is the home locker room group B in the visitor locker room and then we get some in the auxiliary locker room until Scranton's ready but we're basically just staggering it throughout the day and then using both bullpens home and away and the game mounds so we've got five mounds plus anything indoors that we might need but I think as we stagger it throughout the day we've got plenty of time to kind of we're really going to lengthen the day out for the staff but it keeps the players separated and not as many where we had you know five at once and then two fields going so less staff and kind of more smaller work groups but just longer days so that was probably the best solution we had with our you know our main group getting ready for game nights at seven o'clock so that was kind of how we're trying to build the routines throughout the day. Thank you. No problem. Next question from Sweeney. Sweeney Murdy if you can unmute please. Matt can you hear me? Yep. We can now. Okay hey Matt is there an advantage to you to having a strong group of relievers who you necessarily don't have to worry about over working over a long haul I mean you know you're used to maybe having guys get 60 to 70 outings that's obviously not possible even in this condensed version is there some sort of advantage to being able to work your relievers in that environment? Yeah I think we're kind of going to learn how some of the teams approach it whether it's with openers or bullpen days obviously in the 60 game sprint but I think we we definitely value the depth and the strength of our bullpen to give us more flexibility than maybe some of the other teams and especially not just that main core guys but that next tier of guys that would be traditionally in triple A that might be with us early with the 30 man and I think it just gives us a lot of different ways to utilize the different strengths of each guy and you know maybe open up some of them and you know hold our starters to certain pitch counts that doesn't push them early but it's something that we're kind of working through with the front office and seeing what our best matchups are so we can utilize everybody you know accordingly and then obviously the volume of arms gives us a lot of different ways to look at it. Thank you. Problem. Take the next question from James Wagner. James. Hey Matt, I hope everything's okay on your end. I guess just curious I mean I don't know if you've had a chance to read like the Major League Baseball Manual and then I'm sure you've been reading the news as to how cases have been spiking in several parts of the country just how much of an undertaking is all of this I guess from your end and how much have you experienced and also like you know some people are you know worried about the feasibility of finishing the season for you about that. I think I'm generally an optimist about a lot of these situations obviously this is a huge undertaking and there's a lot of different components than this being one of them where we're in this kind of virtual press conference room but I think that we they've thought through a lot of these situations and obviously you know stress testing this as we get the players in and what's the intake process look like and what is the you know separation of space look like and how do we meet with them and then you know just as simply as Ottavino having a bag of balls and Garrett Cole having a bag of balls and then you know what do we do with the balls after you know just simple things like that that we're trying to work through is you know what's feasible on a daily basis and what makes sense and what keeps our guys healthy but I know we're trying to look at it from a bunch of different angles and try and make sure we're putting these guys in a position to you know be as safe as possible while still having a good product on the field so there's a lot going into it and I think we're all kind of learning on the fly but no it's definitely an interesting time to be a part of baseball we could take our next question from John Schwartz John if you can unmute please hey Matt how are you about that you know not from a competitive standpoint necessarily but more from just the idea of a very unusual situation has nobody communication with you between other pitching coaches around the league also but how you guys are approaching kind of this ramped up situation or is it more just you're working with your own guys yeah and I think traditionally you know the baseball environment with major league teams is relatively private I think there's some good relationships that I've built with some of the guys that were in Cleveland previously like Julio Ron Hells with Texas Steve Carces with the Brewers still talk to you know Ruben Niebla from the Indians and then West Johnson and Derek Johnson with Cincinnati and Minnesota so I think we're all kind of crowdsourcing each other to kind of get a sense of you know how they're approaching the build-ups right now and kind of how aggressive some teams it might be and you know what did they do during the layoff and how they tracked a lot of the guys so I think this is one time where a lot of the pitching coaches are kind of coming together to try and you know best source you know how we're going to approach this and not just leave someone you know hanging out to drive you know for a competitive advantage now I'm sure on some level it'll kind of grow back to that but I think in this time with just so many unknowns and uncertainty around it I think we all were trying to help each other as best we could you know at least share some information about how we're approaching it and giving everybody a chance to stay healthy. We can do our next question from Brian Hoke. Brian if you can unmute please. Hey Matt from a pitch count perspective how much do you think you could have coal and the rest of the guys built up by an opening day on July 23rd given the start and stop of this weird season? Yeah something we've wrestled a lot with I think we tried to kind of idle guys in that three innings 50 to 60 pitch window throughout the break as they kind of you know kind of ramp down and then ramp back up and obviously with it being you know probably about a hundred days and not knowing when we were going to start we never got comfortable with pushing them to that four or five innings on their own so I'd say anywhere from a starting point of one inning coming back to three innings in this first window and then hopefully that gives us a chance to get guys to four to six innings you know coming out of this assuming that guys build you know say 10 pitches each time around in their five day cycle so obviously there's a lot to you know ground to cover in this next you know 21 day period or so but I think the general plan would be to err on the side of caution but you know hope that we can get four to five innings that are some of these guys and you know we'll see what else you know kind of transpires in the meantime. Thank you. Next question is from Marlee Rivera. Marlee if you can unmute please. Hi Matt thanks for doing this and it's good to see you doing well. I see you too. Whenever I've spoken to a lot of players the last couple of weeks and the one thing that they always say is that particularly with the short and spring training how this is all about the pitchers and the pitchers health how much of a concern is that for you particularly because if there's a creature of habit in baseball that's a picture. Yeah I think the biggest thing was taking inventory of all these guys as we were going along and making sure we knew kind of the pulse of how they were training and how consistent it was being so that we weren't asking something of them that they hadn't been doing over the last 30 days or two weeks coming into camp and with some of these guys maybe having some travel issues coming in and the testing process there's a little bit of a hiccup here you know between a 48 hour window where guys might have to play catch in a park to stay in rhythm and I think this first seven day window just like a traditional spring training is really the critical period for us of you know not pushing them too hard and knowing that we actually probably have a little bit more flexibility than we traditionally do where you know spring training 1.0 you know we had to be ready for games in nine days and then you're kind of trying to make nine innings every day you know maybe pulling from the minor leagues here or at least playing ourselves so we can control the pitch counts we can control the innings so we're not you know necessarily forcing anybody to go out there beyond what they're capable of so some nights we might play two innings some nights we might play seven innings and then it's just really getting everybody in rhythm for that you know July 23rd opener and then going from there and you just mentioned one important detail obviously the travel does affect everything um have you been able to see Tanaka who I know was the most difficult one to keep tabs on because he was in Japan yeah yeah what does he look like yep he looked good so he's actually he made it to the park today and he was able to play catch so I'm anticipating him hopefully be able to go live on Saturday um start his five day process so he looks good he feels like he's in good spot so um we'll just kind of once we get him on the mound and take a real inventory then we'll be in a good spot thanks Matt no problem we'll go back to Christy for a question Matt just I'm a little out of practice here I forgot to ask you is everyone healthy are there any concerns with any of your pitchers and then just how many pitchers would you plan to carry to open the season yeah something we haven't really covered from the numbers side yet I think we'll get with uh you know Booney and Fish and a lot of the analytics guys and you know trying to get a sense of you know how many position players do we think we need out of that 30 and then how do we fill out the rest you know I could see it being anywhere from you know 15 to 18 depending on you know how we're approaching that opening series or depending on if we're on off day falls um and I think that would give us some flexibility in the bullpen to do some of the bullpen days or opener scenarios depending on the matchups um and then what was the other question you had there is there any health issues with any of the pitchers so we feel good about where guys are at coming in I know Paxton was obviously one that was you know really critical for us to be able to build up and he's actually to a really good spot and he'll be you know one of the most built up coming in here so you know as I right now and knock on wood we feel good about the health of our team coming into camp now obviously getting them in and building them up will be the critical period where we want to make sure we don't push them too fast but you know everybody's coming in and a relatively healthy spot so hopefully that continues we'll take a couple more uh Jack Currie if you can unmute kindly hey Matt glad to hear you're doing well and thanks for doing this a quick pitching approach mentality question with the shorter schedule of only 60 games how much do you anticipate sort of having a post-season mentality from the beginning meaning that whereas in April you might have let pitcher a work through a gym in the fourth fitting if you're clinging to a one-run lead do you suddenly start counting outs and do something in the sixth game of the season that you'd normally wouldn't have done in a regular season yeah I think that's a good question it's something that we haven't really discussed too much but I could see you that you know in a 60 game sprint there really are no dog days to you know let the team kind of work through something I think that that with the amount of arms we have I do think that there's probably a little more room to be you know a quick trigger and a certain guy and go a different direction because we're not going to press up against you know back to back days too quickly with the amount of guys that we have so I do think that there will be some different situational things we can approach with the volume of arms and the different looks we can give and then obviously the game situations will probably be a little bit more pressing than they traditionally would be you know coming out of the gate Ron if you can unmute and ask your question please hey Matt given the circumstances this year do you pretty much have to have an alternate starting pitcher ready every day in case the starter arrives at the ballpark ill that's a good question I think that there's a lot of unknowns and uncertainty with what we're approaching here so I think as many contingency plans as possible is obviously a good way to go we haven't really got to the point where we discuss you know having starter B in case the starter you know testing you know positive for some reason or feels ill but I do think you know obviously the depth of our staff and the the upper level depth that we had coming into the year that might be in play for us at least gives us some outs and some flexibility to make adjustments as needed but yeah those are good questions that I think we're all going to kind of figure out as we go and would you have any hesitancy to use Herman I guess he's eligible starting for game four the postseason yeah that's something we haven't really broached yet and it's obviously one that we'll have to discuss as a bigger group but I don't have a great answer for you there yet thank you no problem Pete sorry if you can hang on Matt because our good friend Pete Caldera is having some trouble asking questions so we're going to just try and do this manually okay Pete if you can unmute and ask your question yep thanks Pete yeah I was just curious um are you planning on going with a traditional five-man rotation from start to finish or is that still a conversation you need to keep having with Aaron yeah something that we've been kicking around I think the the initial thought is we'd come come in with a five-man with five healthy starters obviously as we look at some of the matchups and kind of how some of the guys are performing or feeling come out of the gate I think there's definitely some different routes we can go and obviously an opener something that we've been using here in the past and we've got some really interesting options if we went that route or a bullpen day so I do think all those things are on the table starting with a template of a five-day you know starting rotation and then kind of navigating from there