45 Quotes by Jim Duquette

Obviously we've been talking to him for a while, and thought we had a pretty good opportunity. I'm not sure about the other opportunities he was weighing vs. ours. He's a proven major league player that's had a track record and really it's a no-risk situation for the club.

Obviously, I'm leaving a situation that has turned around and is moving in the right direction,

Obviously, he's coming off a down year, and normally you don't get a player who has his potential for two minor leaguers. In fact, you never do. Our feeling was it was a worthwhile risk for us to take.

Because of time constraints we weren't able to conclude a deal with Scott Strickland to tender him a contract. We still plan to negotiate with him.

He has the opportunity to be selected for the U.S. team. That will be a great opportunity for him.

What you don't want to do is put too much pressure on them, too much added expectations. They had enough expectations in New York. I don't know if you can ever ease a player into the New York scene. It's something that a guy like Carlos Beltran, Mike Piazza, Cliff Floyd, they can take the pressure off the two young guys so they can go about their business and develop at their own pace.

He's highly motivated, and you like to take chances on those kinds of guys.

He's got 173 at-bats (before Wednesday), and with the numbers he has been able to put up in that short window, he's been really impressive. We're definitely excited, but we have to temper it because he's still so young. We know he has a lot of room for improvement.

He wants to pursue offers in Japan, so we went ahead and gave him his release.