[As for this year,] We won 95 games and put ourselves in position to make a postseason run, ... But it didn't materialize for us. |
[Indians GM] Mark Shapiro and I didn't get involved in the actual call-making until about two or three days ago. It got a little bit complicated, obviously, in the last couple of days. Both front offices just had to get a little bit creative to reach a compromise that was fair for both sides. |
A situation may arise where he's a better option than what we have. There aren't too many guys you can bring in under these circumstances and be sure they won't be afraid. |
About 98 percent of this got done in Spring Training. |
Again, the decision right now is that it's the right thing to leave the organization, |
All right, I'll comment if it will really make you guys happy. David is under contract with the Red Sox for 2006. He has been since the day we signed him at the winter meetings in 2004 and we're glad that he's happy about being a part of this team. |
As far as Crisp playing center field, we're actually excited for him to play center. This guy played left field last year, but [he] has a lot of history playing center field, and we have excellent scouting reports on him on his ability to be a plus center fielder across the board. |
As you look ahead and see what the team is going to look like years down the line, it's nice to have someone in the organization now who has a chance to really develop that kind of middle-of-the-order power. Wily Mo is not here to be anyone's replacement. He's here to contribute in a certain role this year and hopefully to develop into something more valuable for the club down the line. |
Because we're still in a pennant race, we won't be able to reward all deserving players. [Decisions] will be based on the needs of the big league club. |
Chain of command was not an issue. One thing we talked about is to have the difficult conversation. There were times in the past, we would have been better served to have the difficult conversation instead of putting it off. |
Coco Crisp is not Johnny Damon -- he is his own player. He brings his own strengths. Johnny was an outstanding, elite leadoff guy and center fielder for us for four years. It's unfair to ask Coco Crisp to fill those shoes. He's going to go and do it his own way. |
Coco Crisp is not Johnny Damon. |
Coco Crisp is not Johnny Damon. He's his own player. He brings his own strengths. |
Curse of the Bambino. |
David was very articulate. I learned a few things from him that I didn't learn in law school. He had some pretty interesting tangents about how much he loves the game, how he's played since he was 5. It was very moving. |