For a first time manager, Mickey Callaway handled his team like a seasoned professional this spring.

There was little to no drama after the early Dominic Smith situation, and the team broke camp with their most worthy 25-players.

New York Daily News columnist John Harper sat down with Callaway this spring and discussed with him how he attacks his day, his and the players thoughts on the upcoming season, his coaching career and analytics.

Callaway, who typically arrived at the Spring Training complex in the wee hours of the morning, said he wants to reinforce a strong work ethic, stay in shape and practice what he preaches.

“I expect so much out of the people that I manage, it would be irresponsible for me to be out of shape, then ask them to go bust their ass every day,” Callaway said. “So that’s where I get the motivation to get up and get in here and work out.”

Part of being successful, Callaway says, is being accountable. This will help strengthen the players and help them operate as a unit.

“For us to get where we want to be, we have to do everything as a team,” he said. “Win as a team, lose as a team. We have to make sure that we’re showing up on time. Obviously the Dom Smith stuff, that’s a tough thing to do (bench him for being late). You don’t want to do have to do that as a leader, as a manager, but it’s something that’s necessary.”

A big thing Callaway has reiterated is that he will take analytics into consideration, but will also rely heavily on the eye test when evaluating players.

“Say you just ran your team based on the analytical numbers; the impact would be incremental, not humongous,” he said. “But the impact of players who don’t feel comfortable where they’re hitting in the lineup or when they’re pitching — that’s very big.

“For example: if the analytic numbers say you have to overshift against this guy, and the pitcher gets up there and he sees the whole left side of the infield open, and he doesn’t feel comfortable and he lacks conviction in the pitch he’s about to make, you can throw those analytics out the window because they don’t count anymore.”

Harper asked Callaway about his thoughts on using or not using pitchers the third time through the order or not.

Callaway said that in Cleveland, the Indians used pitchers three times through the order frequently and they winded up winning 102 games.

He said that it will overall be a subjective matter and that the name of the game is to get the starters to go deeper which in turn gives the bullpen a needed boost.

“Dave Eiland’s responsibility is not going to be, ‘oh, you know what, this guy struggles the third time through, let’s talk about who we’re going to get up in the bullpen,'” he said. “He’s going to have to work diligently every day to make sure that this guy can pitch the third time through, and then we have an advantage over people.”

Callaway added on to that that it is important to keep an eye on how a pitcher is doing game-by-game to make a decision on what the next plan of attack is for them.

If you go seven innings one game, the next time you go and pitch it seems less daunting to go seven innings,” he said. “So we want guys to train themselves to pitch deeper in games.”

New third baseman Todd Frazier told Harper that he feels this team has something to prove, a notion Callaway echoed.

“They’re hungry,” he said. “It’s not fun getting beat up on, and they got beat up on last year. I feel it in there. You’re really going to see that hunger. They’re ready.”

To read the rest of Harper’s Q&A with Callaway, follow this link. It’s a highly recommended read!