He worked both sides of the plate and spotted his fastball well. We had some aggressive cuts against him, but he did a good job and kept us off balance. He is always tough and is very competitive.

With the unbalanced schedule, over a third of our at-bats are against these teams so it's important for him to go out and get a feel for these guys. Obviously we don't expect anybody to hit .450, but the best thing you can do is keep running him out there and letting him have good at-bats.

The players love it because you can measure yourself against other top prospects,

The mood in Beirut is that this is just a first step, and one that is mainly directed against the Syrians. You bring in people like this for a reason. The point I think is to give them a big slap and say the winds have changed and you had better start talking.

I've faced Barry a lot and he's had a lot of success against us. There's no reason to figure it out; just step back and keep looking for good pitches. Finishing strong showed why he's one of the best.

They inoculated themselves against the worst part of it. Legislators around the state are huffing and puffing, trying to keep up with their constituencies and trying to do damage control. The Bucks delegation looks pretty smart.