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MLB EXPANSION DRAFT

November 18, 1997

Larry Rothschild

PHOENIX, ARIZONA

Q. How are you holding up?
LARRY ROTHSCHILD: Great. It's no problem at all.

Q. General overview, Larry, everybody there you had hoped to get thus far?
LARRY ROTHSCHILD: You're not going to go through two rounds and have everybody there that you'd like to be there, but we're pretty happy with the way things have gone. For drafting players and everything, when you see them on the field obviously we'll know more, but it's pretty much unraveled close to what we thought.

Q. Larry, can you talk about just the total number of pitchers you've taken? It seems like when in doubt you take a pitcher.
LARRY ROTHSCHILD: There's the old saying that you can't have enough pitching, and the reason it's an old saying is because it's true. We've drafted a lot of pitching that we thought has a chance to help us, and also some young guys that will be in the Minor Leagues that should come through. So I think in pitching there's strength in numbers, because with injuries and some pitchers just not being able to pitch at the level you need, you need a lot to get a few through. So that's what we've looked at. And the second round that's obviously what we went after.

Q. Has there been a particular emphasis on speed or is it just coincidental you've ended up with quite a few faster guys?
LARRY ROTHSCHILD: Well, we're on turf, so we have to have speed, and we knew that coming in. But it was a pretty good match up, because a lot of the players that we wanted for other reasons also had speed, which a lot of young players usually have, that you look at and how well they can run the bases and steal bases, and use that speed to play defense, we'll see, but we've gotten good reports on them, and we're happy about that.

Q. Larry, you obviously have a few picks left, but how much work or how much supplement does this need, through free-agency trades, whatever?
LARRY ROTHSCHILD: Well, we never thought coming into the draft that we'd fill out the team that's going to take the field opening day just through the expansion draft, so obviously there's going to be additions, probably real quickly. So we'll know afterwards a little bit more, but I think going in we knew that we were going to have to do other things, and we'll do those to fill out the roster the best way we can.

Q. Larry, can you tell me what you liked about Albie Lopez?
LARRY ROTHSCHILD: His stuff. I saw him pitch in Spring Training a couple of years ago and he really pitched well. I don't know what's happened and I don't think that we're any smarter than anybody else or anything like that, but maybe a fresh situation will invigorate him a little bit and let the ability come out. He's a guy you take the shot at. He's got the stuff to pitch in the Major Leagues, which a lot of pitchers do, and it never works out. I saw him pitch real well in Spring Training a couple of years ago, and the stuff is there, so we'll take our shot.

Q. A lot was made of the protected list, and I think fans thought even though they're true or not true, that a lot of them be Major League players, but both teams are selecting more Minor Leaguers?
LARRY ROTHSCHILD: Well, I think there's a couple of things, obviously a lot was talked about that a lot of money players would be left out there, but I also think that with no trade clauses now that are predominant with big money players, that teams had to leave some younger players out there. And I think the ideology that worked was that you go for the young talent at positions and pitching and fill that out. I think if teams left people with money out there, they may leave them out there for three runs, I don't know. But that remains to be seen. And they may pull them back, we just don't know. When you look at the board it made sense to go the route that both teams went and that's why it happened.

End of FastScripts

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