I was real lucky to have him already. We're very fortunate to have a manager of this quality already in our system to put in Daytona. Don Buford was one of my mentors when I signed as a player with the Orioles.
The numbers he put up, I don't care who you're facing, it's hard to do that in the back yard or playing Nintendo.
His arm action is really quick and loose and fluid. He's a very limber kid.
The guy is bigger and stronger. I remember seeing him at Wrigley at a tryout years ago when he was a shortstop and probably weighed 170. Now he probably weighs 230 and he's huge and has developed into a power hitter.
Once he stopped trying to hit home runs all the time and accepted that defense was his No. 1 priority and that he was better hitting line drives, he became the player that fans will appreciate this year.
I'm not going to punish him for being hurt.
It's a beautiful thing. We've got a lot of good, solid home-grown talent.
He'll be 100 percent for instructional league. That's going to be his year. It's unfortunate. He basically lost a year.
