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MLB WINTER MEETINGSDecember 12, 2018Dick WilliamsNick KrallLas Vegas, Nevada Q. What did you see in Tanner Roark that made him a fit? What do you know of him? What are your impressions of him? DICK WILLIAMS: I'll let Nick talk about him from sort of the pitching side, the on-field scouting side. I would say from a big picture, we heard great things about his makeup, but it's the track record that stands out, the durability, the fact that he's made the 30-plus starts pretty much each of the last five years, I think except for one. And 180-plus innings, and good performance. And kind of across the board, the walk rate, strikeout rates, ground ball. Keeping the ball in the park. Those kind of things. You get a pretty good sense of durability and dependability there that really attracted us to him. Because that's kind of -- our rotation needed, nothing flashy, but needed stability, and we hope he's the kind of guy to provide that. NICK KRALL: He's a solid middle-of-the-rotation starter that just can come in and anchor our staff. It's a good first step to improving our starting staff. And with what he brings to the table, it's the overall package of him being that middle rotation guy. Q. What are you looking for in another starting pitcher? You haven't been shy about wanting -- DICK WILLIAMS: Cy Young, man. Q. He's dead. DICK WILLIAMS: I'd say it will depend on what's out there on the market, trend. We're not necessarily looking for a handedness from a pitcher. We're, I think, focusing on a guy that can get bulk innings will be a big part of it. Q. Nick describes Roark as a middle-of-the-rotation. Is the ideal, we want a top-of-the-rotation guy? DICK WILLIAMS: Look, we've got to improve over last year. I would say as we select guys in, that's what we're doing, spot by spot, is bumping up over last year. And I think hopefully we'll add guys, like Tanner, that will be a significant upgrade over what we had. Q. I don't know if you believe 90 percent of the rumors, getting veteran guys that cost a little bit of money, is this a shift in where you believe you are and how quickly you got him? DICK WILLIAMS: For us, for the guys that have followed our offseasons closely the last couple of years, there haven't been a lot of commitments to players making this kind of money. So this is a significant shift for us. We've been laying in the weeds for a couple of years and focused on rebuilding, and now it's time to add to the team. We're in that mode now. And we fully expect to make more deals. This is the first of more to come. Q. How big are you expecting to go? DICK WILLIAMS: We've talked about the fact that our payroll will reach levels that we haven't seen in the past. So we don't want to get overly specific with that, but that still gives us some good room to grow. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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