John Schuerholz has a message for the fans. Too bad he didn’t consult an editor.
“Our primary goal this winter was to travel on parallel pathways — immediately impacting the strength and depth of our Minor League system, while at the same time keeping our Major League club as competitive as we possibly could, even in the face of having to say goodbye to two players that we loved [in Jason Heyward and Justin Upton], who likely were only going to be around for a short time longer. By doing so, we were able to strengthen our Minor League pipeline, our feeder system, back to where it needed to be. At the same time, we wanted to acquire players at the Major League level who, when our team is formed after Spring Training, the fans will say, ‘This looks like a team that is going to play really good baseball and play the game with spirit and a winning attitude and a committed attitude of winners.’ We think that is how this team will present itself.
“I’m quite excited about what our guys have accomplished and what our organization has demonstrated it is capable of doing with good leadership and good clarity of purpose. We’re going to have as many players in Spring Training as I think we’ve ever had, which we’re doing because want to give ourselves every opportunity to look at every possibility — on an individual basis, a collective basis or a combination basis — as to the best team we can put together. We’ve signed and invited a lot of guys to our Major League camp. The competition is going to be robust, and it’s going to be on a daily basis. It is going to get more exciting as the camp unfolds. This team will play baseball the old-fashioned, hard-nosed way. They will play hard and they’re going to play to win.”
As I was telling CD the other day, “This looks like a team that is going to play really good baseball and play the game with a spirit and a winning attitude and a committed attitude of winners.” He accused me of being redundant, but I stand behind my conviction.
ROWLAND'S OFFICE 