[Machiavelli]

I really like how direct AA is. No smoke and mirrors with this guy:

Some of that is rooted into the clarity with which each player has been able to do his job, thanks to personalized meetings they had with Anthopoulos, assistant GM Tony LaCava, manager Cito Gaston, and either hitting coach Dwayne Murphy or pitching coach Bruce Walton.

The goal of the 4-on-1 chats simply was, according to Anthopoulos, to "connect with players more, get everyone in a better mental state of mind."

"We sat down with every single player in camp to give them a lay of the land, talk to them about what their opportunity was, what are expectations were of them," he continued during an interview from Dunedin, Fla. "We wanted them to hear it from our mouth so that when decisions were made about lineups or playing time, they weren't blindsided by it."

http://tsn.ca/mlb/story/?id=313706