 I'm doing great now you heard if you were listening on hold what Randy Levine said yesterday right now even without making moves which we will make we're as good as the Red Sox do you feel that way. Well I certainly feel like we're as good as anyone and capable of beating anyone. You know they're the world champions right now so there's no denying what they ran off and did this season and then on to the postseason so we're trying to get to that level and we want to do what they were able to do this year. We feel like we have the people capable of competing with anyone in the world including the Red Sox and you know in a couple of months we get to embark on that that opportunity again. Are these nerve-wracking times for you Aaron because I know Yankee fans you know they're constantly checking social media to see what's happening all the rumors things like that you're in the inside so you kind of know what's direction you guys are going but you don't know if they're going to be able to pull everything that they want to pull off so are you nervous all the time and constantly checking the phone waiting for a phone call from Brian Cashman. I don't know if I'd say nerve nerve-wracking I mean exciting times you know I'm down at the ballpark pretty much most day most days so I'm here and around and you know involved as much as I can be and paying attention and you know so I would call them exciting times and it's fun being kind of on the outskirts and and watching as you know our front office kind of plots of course to try and help us get a little bit better this off season. Now the one big difference is the loss of DD for however long half the season maybe all of the season there's obviously options outside the organization Aaron but if you stayed within the organization how would you handle it? Well I'm a little more optimistic on the on DD's outlook than you just presented but certainly it's a huge loss for us I mean it's hard to you know what DD means to us offensively defensively just who he is his presence is a huge loss you know internally obviously we have Glaver Torres who had a great first season who played shortstop really his entire minor league career so we feel like he gives us the flexibility in whatever way we go so if we were to bring in you know somebody that may be a second baseman or a shortstop we can kind of move and plug Glaver accordingly he kind of gives us that flexibility to keep a wide range of options open for us you know obviously Miguel and Doohar coming back having basically a rookie of the year campaign so with those two guys that we feel like are gonna be our lineup for a long time we feel like we're in a good place now just a matter of you know how big we go as far as trying to fill another another area. Now you made a real big acquisition impacts and we haven't spoken to you since then and a lot of people thought that Corbin would be the last piece of the pitching puzzle were you a little surprised that it worked out the way did where he ends up signing with the Nationals? No I wouldn't say I was surprised I certainly knew we we were obviously very interested we you know had Patrick and and his wife in last week and got to go to dinner and spend some time with them you know we knew there were other teams obviously that were gonna be very involved and obviously in the end the Nationals really stepped up you know with a big commitment but no I don't necessarily think I went into it surprised I knew we we liked the player and had hopes of bring him here but we also feel like there's other ways we can go to to really improve our club and confident that we'll continue to work work hard at that and get get something done over the course of this winter. And if it ends up being the rotation that you have now it would you think that would be enough? Absolutely I feel like we're trying to improve now on the margin we we know we have the players capable of of winning the ultimate prize and we can do that now now it's a little more difficult obviously we need different players to urge to step up for things to happen but absolutely we have the nucleus already in place to be an elite team again. Now we've had on the owner of the team we've had on the GM and we've asked him the same question so I'll ask you Aaron you know one of the players that's out there is Matty Machado who did not run hard during the postseason said he's not Johnny Hussle things like that. Robbins Kano used to play for the Yankees didn't run hard to first base all the time we had Arod on yesterday said you know what he showed up at 7 o'clock every day in spring training wanted to win so we look at it a little bit differently how do you look at a player that doesn't bust at the first base every single time? Yeah I mean you hope players you know all the time run things out or play hard or give it their all but it's it's not necessarily the number one thing that I I look at when I'm defining whether a player is giving his all or as a gamer or is you know posting and being a guy that that grinds when it's difficult behind the seats I think is a lot more indicative of of who a guy is and kind of how he plays you know that said you know there is an expectation that we have and hopefully as a professional that you have that there there's a certain you know way you go about things and running balls out certainly can play into that but it it's frankly a little bit down the list as far as things that I define of what makes a player you know my definition of a guy that plays hard that plays through adversity that's tough that really brings things behind the scenes that has the ability to post when it's not easy those are things that that define playing hard a little more to me but if you had a player that didn't hustle how would you handle it? Well I mean we have those things come up every now and then of the course of the year we had a few of those instances that happened during the course of of this season with with some of our guys and you address up and in the way you think you need to to to you know correct something or make sure things don't become repeated things or something that becomes you know commonplace those are the things you want to eliminate. Do you have to almost look at things differently Aaron than when you played I mean you come from a baseball family grandfather played father played brother played you played and I remember you know Joe Giordi when when he managed to know and I would ask him about not running hard to first base he goes you know what if he doesn't run hard to first base a couple of times and I get a hundred and sixty one starts out of them I'm okay with it do you have to look at it differently in 2018 and 2019 then you would maybe in 1980 I don't know hopefully hopefully you think you look at things a little bit harder and and frankly there is a you know there is something to be said for you know I I I don't need my guy on a ground ball back to the picture where it's getting locked at first I don't need that guy sprinting you know through the bag every single time now that said there's there's a way to be a pro there's a way to play this game hard and and smartly at the same time but over the course of 162 games playing playing smartly is is is part of it now I I don't think running balls out is falls under a category that that's just allow he plays every day so he doesn't have to run balls out I don't buy into that but there is a level of certain plays that happen on the course of the game where I think it is market to to play at a certain pace and the end and so you do see a difference though between for example like you mentioned a ground ball back to the pitcher and sort of a deep ground ball the shortstop or the third base you see those differently absolutely and there's yeah I mean and that's just goes along with experience to of the game there's certain times when you you shouldn't put I don't think you should ever put yourself in a position as a player to have a play happen and where you're a lack of hustle prevented you from being safe for or what have you and and and I think as a professional as an experienced profession you should know when those what when that when that's inevitable do you think going through the postseason all the trials and tribulations of it made you a better manager at the end of the day I hope so I hope every single day every experience good and bad successes and failures hopefully you you know you you kind of take up stock of of what went into that day and and and how you responded to different situations and hopefully you you're constantly learning from those experiences good and bad so I hope I sit here today better than I was yesterday and certainly at the end of the season all right two quick questions I know your time is limited you've carved out time in your busy day number one Jason Stark your former colleague at ESPN wrote a story for the athletic that baseball might be considering getting rid of the shift if you could push a button and the Yankees are very active with the shift they've got great analytics and take a lot of base hits away but also a lot of hits are taken away from your hitters would you take away the shift the way we know it today not not necessarily now if you presented the case well enough that it kind of made a lot of sense then fine but I'm more in the you know where I fit in this chair I'm more in what are the rules now how do we how do we handle those and like you said I think we're one of the best in the sport at at at shifting at putting our guys in position to to create an advantage with it so that's how I look at it right now under the current system and finally break some news here is there a big move coming for the Yankees or is it going to be small moves what can we expect is something going to happen I'm quite certain something will happen and I think we're all looking forward to getting out to Vegas at the end of this week and start up the winter meetings and and you know there's always going to be a lot of action whether it turns whether it's just a lot of talk at that point or it turns into smaller large moves remain to be seen but I'm sure there'll be some more moves coming your way well I'll be in Vegas so I will see you there so I look forward to you buying me a dinner there absolutely Merry Christmas to you family thank you for giving us this time today we really appreciate it thanks great talking to you guys