Dusty will write the lineup. We still have three more weeks of camp. I feel that all three guys are capable of playing very, very well. They're just different styles of players. We'll just play it out and worry about it when the time comes. |
Everybody wants a hitter this time of year, everybody wants another 'pen guy this time of year. We may be adding two outstanding 'pen guys in the club in the same week. |
For a while, I thought we were going [to a hearing]. |
Getting the right leadoff guy would be important. We'll always be looking for that. There are only five or six of those guys in the game. We're not the Lone Ranger in not having that prototype guy. We'll continue to try to look into that. |
He certainly made no secret of the fact he wanted to be a Cub for a long time, and we certainly wanted to accommodate him. He's a special player. |
He felt that for his sake and for the pitching aspect of it, and the staff, he felt we're still going to win here and he's got some unfinished business to do with our guys. I think his intent is to get the job done here. |
He gets your offense going. He's a catalyst. He's a disruptive guy to the other team. |
He has a lot of intangibles that are conducive to success. He has the personality and makeup to handle tough spots. He didn't shy away from difficulty during a tough rehab. |
He has done a terrific job out of the gate of not letting it bother him. But I understand his point. We'll try to see if we can come to a conclusion. If we can't, we'll table it until later. |
He has physically never looked better to me. He's probably 10, 15 pounds lighter than last year and is just in great shape. He's done as much precautionary preparation work as anyone could. He has already been throwing and gotten ahead of where he usually would be at this time. |
He understood. We kept him until the end. There aren't too many times when a non-roster guy gets more than 45 at-bats. You could tell in the last week, he was trying to get four hits every at-bat. |
He was doing a lot of conditioning on the lower half of his body over the winter. He was in real good shape. Then he woke up one morning and found his knee was swollen. |
He was the first player I drafted who signed, |
He was very adamant that it was not bothering him pitching. After we went through it and talked about the possibilities of it acting up, I felt it was easier for him to accept this. |
He will have one of the most important jobs in our organization. He'll have complete autonomy in the amateur draft. |