David Forst Quotations

We spent four weeks discussing a one-year deal and drawing lines in the sand. Then it took an hour to get a multiyear (deal) done.

Until they are in the Major Leagues, they are assets.

We felt like he needed to get everyday at-bats to break out of his slump, and that's clearly not going to happen in the big leagues.

We had a very good meeting with Bob. Obviously, there's a lot of familiarity there and it was good to meet in that setting.

I don't foresee that happening. Lew and his ownership group have proven things are a little bit different now.

He has exceeded any expectations you would have for someone less than a year out of the draft. Certainly, we probably expected a little more out of him because of the person he is and because of his background, and we all went into spring training hoping he would be ready to contribute at some point this year, but never expecting he'd be closing games in June.

He had a fantastic camp and really caught the attention of the big league coaches. He stayed in camp longer than some guys who were ahead of him on the depth chart. That went a long way to increasing his confidence going into the year.

We've been trying to move Freddie most of the spring. He certainly played himself onto somebody's club.

He was a huge boost for our offense. When he came over here, we said at the time of the trade that having that option was attractive because we knew we'd be able to keep him beyond this year. Jay's a professional. He fit in great with the clubhouse. He's another great veteran our young guys can learn from.

Jay is a professional. He fit in great with the clubhouse.

Jay brought an element we haven't had in the bullpen here for a while. We started right after the season talking to him about coming back. The fact he was honest about coming back allowed us to get it done so quickly.

I think Shane will tell you he had concerns about going through the rehab and working his way back. Once he committed to it, he was determined to get back. We were happy with the results last year.

I think Lew and the ownership group have proved things are different now. They've bumped the payroll and allowed us to do some things, but ultimately Barry is going to command a lot of money. He's earned it and he deserves it.

We haven't really thought about it. I'll get the marketing department right on it.

We still feel he has the potential to be productive as a big-league player. He didn't have a great offensive-type start to the year. After that long 0-for start, he put a lot of pressure on himself. It wasn't fair to Charles to expect him to find the magic and turn it around without playing on a more regular basis.

We want to make sure he's healthy. It's rare to sign a guy you've just brought in to a multi-year deal.

We built this team for this exact scenario; we've got four guys in the bullpen who have started Major League games. We're hoping they can seize this opportunity and keep us afloat.

We build this team for this exact scenario. You never like to lose guys to injuries but we put this team together over the winter and build it with guys who can fill in. At least four guys in the bullpen started in major league games and fully capable of seizing this opportunity and keeping us afloat.

We've been discussing them for the last couple weeks. We felt good about it and we were confident we'd get them done before we had to file numbers.

Two more done, three more to go. We're making good progress.

Esteban is not happy, nobody is happy with the results. We'll discuss it.

It's something we thought about as long as two months ago. We didn't expect Dan to come in and wear No. 21 and pitch like Mark Mulder. He's done a tremendous job. I guess it's fitting he picked up where Mark left off.

I'm sure that'll come up at some point this spring, but it hasn't come up yet. Whether something ultimately gets done is obviously still a question.

I came here having played the game. I knew little about knowing what it takes to put a team together. I've learned from Sandy, through Billy and Paul. Sandy was a presence in the clubhouse and had the ability to build a rapport with the team. I think that helps guys feel comfortable. It all starts with Billy. Players respect the path he's been on. We want to run this thing like a business and take care of the employees.