Mark Shapiro
Mark Shapiro
attractive calls deals dozen leaked offered point potential prospects shop teams tempting trade winter word
At no point this winter did we shop Coco. But once word leaked out (about the potential trade with Boston), we got over a dozen calls from other teams about Coco. We got offered some very attractive prospects for Coco, and some of the deals were tempting to make. But this was the only one we wanted.
effect good side trade
It's an undesirable side effect of a good trade.
abruptly created farm good instead letting naturally players run traded
We were at the tail-end of a championship run. Instead of letting that run naturally just play out and transpire, we abruptly traded good players and artificially created an upper-level in our farm system.
addition approach fits mental physical teammate trade
When you trade for a guy, you don't know his mental approach and the kind of teammate he is. That was probably the most encouraging thing, in addition to his physical tools. He fits in well with our team and our clubhouse.
add arthur club jason pitcher quite taken though trade work
We probably would not have done that if not for the other trade, though we like Jason quite a bit. But we would not have taken Arthur off the club if we couldn't add another pitcher to work in an eighth-inning role.
addition good hoped mental physical trade whether
He was everything we had hoped to see. The things you don't know when you make a trade ? the mental approach, whether he will be a good teammate, were the most encouraging things, in addition to his physical tools.
acquire acquiring agency andy base caliber defensive difficult free good hitter player position power skill third trade via
In Andy we are acquiring a right-handed power hitter who is also a good defensive third baseman. It is difficult to acquire a player of Andy's caliber and skill set via trade or free agency and third base is a position of need in our organization.
guy saw traded
The guy we traded for is the guy we saw this spring.
colon defining start trade
The Colon trade was the start of everything, ... It started the change. That was the defining trade.
august building clearly colon decisive direction finish foot last maybe move rebuild since team trade until within
The Colon trade was a decisive move, and every move after that was clearly in the direction of, rebuild with a foot on the accelerator, ... That's what it had been until maybe August last year. Everything since then has been, 'Let's see what we can do to try to finish off building the team within the constraints of the market.'
clean consistent game played turned
We just played consistent in between the tackles and turned out the first downs. It was a pretty clean game for us.
club spring training
We're very comfortable going into spring training with the club we've got right now.
classic context defines espn historical history news proper sports thirsty
ESPN Classic is going through a transition. They're thirsty to put today's news in its proper historical sports context ... History defines sports. Without that context, today's news wouldn't be as grand.
anybody august coming contending last late looking spring team time year
Every time we go through something, it's a young team and we're going through it for the first time, ... Last year, it was contending late in the season, in August and September. This year ... coming out of spring training, it was the first time anybody was looking at us.