If my barrel meets the ball, I think good things are going to happen.

I kind of wish I would have been able to see the old Yankee Stadium after seeing the new one.

To put on the pinstripe – it’s extraordinary. Just being able to play one game with the Yankees is quite an honor.

Even in the Minor Leagues, I thought you have to go out and earn a spot. Nothing is ever given to you.

You have to have a great fielder at shortstop, and you’ve got to have a guy that has good range and good hands in center field.

The biggest thing for me is I want to be consistent.

I needed to go to college. I needed to mature.

I talked to a few schools about playing football, but I had already pretty much made my mind up. I fell in love with baseball at a young age, and I knew that that’s what I wanted to do.

Even though it feels like you are so far away from the big leagues, my love for the game kept me motivated to get through the hard times in the minors.

The ups and downs, that’s baseball life. That’s what I live for, play for.

When I think about 2017, I feel like it was just another year. It was a whirlwind, but I wouldn’t have wanted it to play out any other way. I’m glad I was in New York. There’s nowhere else I would rather play, and there’s no other group of teammates that I would rather be around.

In baseball, you have to remain calm, cool, and collected. In football, you can let out a little anger sometimes. It was a fun game, and I liked it, but I knew in my heart I was going to play baseball.

That’s what it’s all about – postseason baseball.

When I’m lifting heavy, doing squats, and doing upper-body workouts, it’s mostly about core and stability. But I’ll still do deadlifts. I also do tire workouts with these big 600-pound tires, flipping them and stuff like that.

If they are going to nibble and try to go below the zone or off the plate a little bit, I want to try and get a pitch in the zone that I can do damage on.

Being around veteran leaders such as CC Sabathia and Brett Gardner really helped me.

Everything I do, I’m always playing music. When I wake up in the morning, I’m playing music. When I’m showering, I’ve got music playing. When I go to the field, music is playing.

The mental game is what separates the good players from the great players. So anything I can do to get that mental edge to help me stay my best, I’m gonna try and do it.

If I’m sitting at home playing video games, and I’ve got a couple of minutes to myself before bed, I’m listening to music and putting a couple of playlists together. I’m passionate about music.

I just try and keep everything simple.

Once it gets to two strikes, it’s time to battle, put something in play, and try to get the job done.

You can never come into the spring feeling like you‘ve got a guaranteed spot. Once you do that, you kind of get stagnant, and someone‘s going to pass you up.

I’ve just got to go in there and get some quality at-bats and do my job and help the team win any way I can.

You’re always still trying to win a job. That’s everyone‘s mindset: come in here and fight for your job, win a job.

The big thing is, it’s about learning which off-speed pitches to swing at. A lot of people say, ‘Oh, this guy can’t hit a curveball; this guy can’t hit an off-speed pitch.’ But it’s about swinging at the right one. Swing at the hangers. Swing at the ones you can handle.

People strike out. I strike out a lot – it happens. Just got to keep working.

I just take it one day at a time, try to forget about what I did the day before. Go out there like every day is Opening Day.

They just brought it up to me and said, ‘Hey, this is what we’re going to do.’ They’re going to put out a section and call it Judge’s Chambers and give them little judge outfits, and we’ll see what happens. I think it turned out great.

If I’m making consistent contact, even if they’re outs or right at somebody, if I’m just making consistent contact, I’m happy.

If I know it’s going over the fence, I am going to start jogging and just get around the bases and get back in the dugout.

That’s why we play. That’s why we train. That’s why we do everything in the offseason. It is to win a World Series.

I’ve always had that mindset of, ‘OK, I may be hot this month or doing really well this month, but don’t get too high, don’t get too low – just enjoy it.’ Don’t ride the rollercoaster, basically. I always thought about it like, I’m not going to an amusement park, I’m going to a baseball field.

Some guys, first pitch of the at-bat gets called a strike – maybe it’s a ball off or below their knees, and it gets called a strike – and then the next two pitches, they swing at balls in the dirt, and all of a sudden, they’re yelling at the umpire about that first pitch. You just swung at two balls in the dirt, buddy.

When you’re on the road, fans pay to cheer on their team and boo the other team; that’s just part of it. That’s what they’re supposed to do. I expect it. I think everybody expects that.

That’s why you get three of them. Say you get one that you don’t think is a strike, and they call it on you: that’s why you get two more.

I do a lot of planks. I feel like the plank is the most underrated core workout; that’s one of my go-to moves.

The biggest thing is, you don’t hit the good sliders; you just hit the mistakes. That’s what my thing has always been: Just keep hunting mistakes.

I know a lot is expected of me, but I’m surrounded by some great teammates.

This is a crazy game we play. You’re going to have those times you can’t get out, and those times where you can do everything right, and the ball does not fall.

That’s your dream, to play professional baseball. When you get the opportunity like that, getting drafted – especially by Oakland, a California team, pretty close to home – it was tempting. At the time, I just didn’t think I was ready or mature enough mentally or physically to start pro ball.

It doesn’t really matter the score or the situation: I got a job to do.

When you come to a game, it’s supposed to be fun for the players and the fans.

I know I wouldn’t be a New York Yankee if it wasn’t for my mom: the guidance she gave me as a kid growing up, knowing the difference from right and wrong, how to treat people and how to go the extra mile and put in extra work, all that kind of stuff.

My goal every year is to come in and be consistent. It doesn’t matter if it’s the first game of the year or it’s the last game of the year.

For me, all my negative thoughts that I have about, ‘How did you miss that pitch? Why did you miss that pitch? You shouldn’t have missed that pitch.’ I just kind of sit there and kind of crush it up, and once I’m done doing that… I just kind of toss it aside.

One thing I really liked about David Winfield, man, just… the way he played the game, and such a class act he was on and off the field.

I’m not too worried about stats and stuff like that.

Defensively, hitting-wise, running the bases. There’s always room to improve. That motivates me to get a little better every day.

I really don’t like splitting my workouts into lower body one day, upper body the next day – that makes me I feel like I’m working out every day, and I feel like I’m more tired during the season than I need to be.

I just felt like Adidas was a brand that really fit me. Not only are they on the field, but off the field stuff.

One and done, Home Run Derby champion. It was a cool experience. I enjoyed it all, but I don’t think I really need to go out there and do it again.

If your team is in the trenches, you’ve got to be in the trenches with them.

When you go to college the first couple years, and you kind of get beat around, you kind of think about, ‘Maybe if I went to pro ball, it would be a little bit better.’ Now that I look back on it, I made the right choice.

44 is a number I really like.

Ever since I got drafted by the Yankees, I’ve been working on my swing.