* Ozzie on the winter meetings:
"This year, I expect a little bit more because this is the first time we go with the bad flavor in our mouth to get this team back on track. Before, we go and talk about two guys. Now, we have a lot of things to do. I think the most important thing for us, the organization -- the Minor League system has to be stronger, our Minor League system has to be better. It's about everyone, every scout, every guy in Latin America to be part of this. Because remember, when we won, everyone had a ring. Now we lose, [people say], 'It's Ozzie's fault, it's [general manager] Kenny [Williams'] fault.' Wait a minute. You were in rookie ball, you got a ring and you don't even have one player in the big league camp. Well that's the same way we feel when we lose. It's everybody's fault or everybody's success."
Want the Minor League system to be better? Put more resources into it.
* Ozzie on player development:
"I cannot blame player development because I don't know exactly what is going on in their mind. Those kids we brought here, they have good enough talent to stay here. I'm not going to blame player development, I'm not going to blame managers in Triple-A, I'm not going to blame coaches at the big-league level. I can't blame those guys. Those guys have a lot of talent and they showed me that. They just came to the big-league level and they couldn't do it. They couldn't do it."
a lot of talent? where was that?
* Ozzie on his new approach to Spring Training:
"I'm going to take a different look this spring training than I did before. I'm going to spend a lot of time in Tucson (Ariz.) watching the minor league kids every day. I'm going to spend more time down there than I do with the big-league club, and I want to see good things. I want to see people make me smile like, 'Wow, I can count on this kid in a few years.' 'Wow, this kid might be here next month.' Stuff like that."
As I said above, put more resources into it. Things won't improve by "watching the minor league kids."
* Ozzie "warned that a stronger emphasis will be placed on winning exhibition games":
"We need to be creative and we have things to do as an organization, and we'll take it from there."
How about regular season games?
And look inside for an Ozzie quote that makes sense!
Ozzie on the free agent market:
"Listen, it doesn't matter who you bring in the free agents, trades, anything. The guy's (that are) going to do it, the guys, they are here. The guys under contract here, if we can bring Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Roberto Clemente and these guys have the same year they did this year, we're wasting our money then. It's what we have here, the base that we have here, that's the team we're going to have. Depending on how the guys play next year, the guys we have here, that's how we're going to play. It don't matter how much money you're going to spend, you have a base here. If that base don't play good, you're going to collapse."
This makes sense.
In other news,
- Coop is considering bringing Mike Myers back next year.
- The Phiiles were scouting Garland last week.
- Jim plays 'Should they stay or should they go?'