“Our goal is to send the pitchers back to their respective clubs after the competition in better shape than they would have been under a normal spring schedule. And the last thing we want to have happen is to get someone hurt.”
“The key to all of this will be the communication with the pitching coaches of the teams involved. We want the coaches to know our plans so they can send their pitchers to us with an understanding of how we plan to schedule workouts and assignments. This will be a coordinated effort with a great deal of communication before and during the actual competition.”
“We brought the (WBC) pitchers in early because we want to make sure they are farther along than normal so they can physically handle what is going to be expected of them. I'd expect them to start throwing batting practice (before the rest of the pitchers). Once we get them ahead (in conditioning), we don't want them to take a step back.”
“I don't think it's anything we wouldn't have done anyhow, to be honest with you. We've been in contact with every one of the organizations and each one of the pitching coaches as to where their guys are at and what they would want them to do. I would be very surprised if we even came too close to any of the pitch counts.”
“I don't think Roger ever does anything that's not a max effort and a max concentration. He's not going to go out there and play around. It's just not in his makeup. He's become what he is because he's so intense about what he does (and) prepares for what he does.”
