This story was excerpted from Mandy Bell’s Guardians Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

We all know the Guardians have gotten off to a slower offensive start to the season than anticipated. Earlier this week, Guardians hitting coach Chris Valaika answered a handful of questions from reporters. 

Let’s take a look at some of the main topics he addressed: 

Q: This is your second year in this role. How have you learned to roll with the punches?  

Valaika: When you might feel those ups and downs a little more personally, I think being the same guy in the cage, in the dugout for the players, I think they feed off of that. Just the consistency. They have a tough job to do and you really don’t want to ride or live those highs or lows like that. I don’t think that’s a really healthy way to go about a season like that when one-third of the games you win, one-third of the games you lose, that middle third is really the third that makes the season.

Q: How impressive has it been to see a young player like Will Brennan work out of his funk?

Valaika: Yeah, he’s done a great job. I think his track record and the things he’s done in the Minor Leagues set himself up for this, but the big leagues is a different beast. Seeing him go through that adversity the first month and struggling with the at-bats he had, kind of the part-time playing time, and to really take that position over and put up the at-bats that he’s had and continue to make the adjustments and continue to grow as a player -- kudos to him.

Q: It seems like guys like Steven Kwan  have been more aggressive early in the count. Is that an approach you guys are trying to take?  

Valaika: I think teams try to get ahead of us early with fastballs, so for us to flip the script, we need to stay aggressive on those pitches intelligently that we want to look to impact. Not just swinging because it’s a fastball. We’ve run into some really good arms that have a lot of weapons. We also don’t want to get too deep into some of these counts that they can get to those weapons. 

Q: What’s the key for Josh Bell to get going?  

Valaika: JB has been great. I know we haven’t seen some of the slug or some of the big numbers we know he has in there. For him, the way our lineup’s been built, the way he’s been pitched, has been difficult for some of those. Sure, he’s missed some of the pitches that maybe he can look to impact and he’d be honest and tell you that, but I think there’s certain guys that other guys circle like don’t let these guys beat us and he’s one of those. I think he’s done a great job. I think his OPS is close to .700 something. He’s finding ways to get on base outside of slugging, so I think when he gets those opportunities, the more traffic we have with other guys getting on base, I think we’ll see the version that we want out of him.

Q: Can this be a more powerful team?  

Valaika: I think so. I don’t think it’s overnight. I don’t believe that one season in the big leagues makes you a veteran, either. I think we have a lot of young guys still that are going through their growing pains. I still believe that you’re gonna see a power output out of a lot of these guys. It just takes time for those guys to come in, especially the way our lineup is. The way we started this year, there was a lot of guys that got pitched to differently. … They have to continue to grow and evolve and make those adjustments like we saw with Oscar Gonzalez. 

Q: How impressed are you with how Tyler Freeman has handled his sporadic playing time?  

Valaika: For him to have that role, especially as such a young player, he’s done a great job with it. We worked hard with him this winter about making some adjustments with his swing. I think they’ve really shown up when he was playing every day in Triple-A. The simple and low maintenance-ness of his swing is really helping him at this level. … I’d like to see him continue to get those opportunities. I think he makes us a better team being here. He’s making the most of his opportunity right now.