Dave Littlefield
Dave Littlefield
David Littlefieldis a former Major League Baseball executive, who is currently the vice president of player development for the Detroit Tigers. Littlefield was employed as Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates, a position he held from July 13, 2001 to September 7, 2007. He took over as GM for Roy Smith, who had assumed the position on a temporary basis after the firing of GM Cam Bonifay on June 11...
compete feels leagues major minor needs time together
At this point, he just isn't ready, performance-wise. He needs some time in the Minor Leagues to get things back together where he feels and we would feel he could compete at the Major League level.
based changes necessary playing regular spring surgery training
There were no significant changes in his MRI. We don't think surgery is necessary based on regular playing in spring training and no complaints.
time
It's time to see if he can do it.
gonna prepare sit throwing
The sense is, with where we sit right now, that he's gonna be back and throwing for us in July. So we prepare in that way.
building days guys innings people start time year
We're just at that time of year where we've got 10 days or so left, and we need to get innings to the right people and start building up the guys who are going to be playing.
both center chris continue either establish guy hard high hopes neither position solid starting themselves work
Right now, Chris Duffy is the starting center fielder and we're going to go in that direction. I don't think either guy has a solid position on a job. Both of them have got to continue to work hard to establish themselves as big leaguers. Neither one is an established big leaguer, but we have very high hopes for both of them.
plays
We'll see how it plays out with Burnett's health, how he does.
close players ready seen spring
What we've seen this spring is that we have many players who are very close to being ready to play at the major-league level.
performance seen
His performance isn't up to what we've seen in the past.
He's going to be a very serviceable guy.
point
I don't know, exactly. But that's something we'll have be doing at some point here soon.
concerns fatigue further sent specialist
Kip has had some concerns with some fatigue in his arm. Just as a precautionary measure, we have sent him out to see a specialist in St. Louis. They are now doing some further tests.
good obviously
He has a lot of poise. He's a good competitor. He obviously had a very good spring.
aware competition faced finishes spring
Certainly, we're well aware of Burnett's position. We'll see how he finishes spring training. He hasn't faced live competition at this point.