Dee had a great spring, but we didn't end up having room for him. I'm in the process right now of trying to find him another job. |
Every challenge we've given Mike, he's responded. |
He has the tendency to get a little wild at times but, with 19 innings and just 15 hits, 13 strikeouts -- that's pretty good. |
He should be close to start the season. |
He was a California League All-Star for us last year. He's about 5-foot-7 or 5-8, a left-hander who is just a great athlete and a great competitor. He can change speed on all of his pitches and throws to spots. Nothing is overpowering -- he just pitches. |
He's a big kid, a workhorse who can give you a lot of innings. He's very resilient and his arm bounces back really well. He's shown glimpses of being a pretty good pitcher. |
He's got every pitch, and he can throw them all for strikes. |
I think he'll fit in well because of the similarities between their program and our program. |
So he started playing every day and, since then, he's been doing very well. |
Song is making a very good impression so far. He's got a fastball, curveball and throws a changeup, but his split-finger is a true out pitch. He's got very good numbers. |
The biggest thing I look at is the innings pitched. He had 23 innings pitched and gave up only 18 hits and struck out 19. With just five walks, it looked like he was locating the ball well. |
Third base is more of a reactionary position. We think Mike can be a plus-defensive player, and this will help his hitting because he'll have less to worry about. |
We are beyond excited to get him. Obviously, everybody knows what he has done in the game. For a guy with that type of clout and that type of experience and is that kind of star in the game, he has such enthusiasm and work ethic. You could just tell he has the passion to work with young kids. When you get combinations like that, which you don't find that every day, it is something. For me, he has been so outstanding since he has been there. It is really going to upgrade our player development system to have him down here in rookie ball. |
We wanted to bring in some older guys with Major League experience. He had some other good coaching offers but decided to come over here. |
We've signed some key free agents that are really going to help out at Double and Triple-A, especially Double-A. |