Part of the beginning of this year will be patience with some of these players, allowing them to fail at times. It's a fine line. We're going to have to pick and choose and see how they respond to the challenge.

323

He's a great student of the game. He knows how to play the game right. And he's stand-up. There is no gray area. That's appreciated. People will always know where they stand with Joe.

268

We're waiting to hear from him.

195

The expectations of this organization (are) that as a professional you'd have the courtesy to at least notify us why he left. If he was a young player maybe without any experience, you may have a little bit different tack, but this guy's been around. We're extremely disappointed.

189

We have some middle infielders, and we'll see. We're in Spring Training, once you get the first weeks of games in, there starts to be communications with other teams about wants and needs and teams that may have a surplus in other areas.

188

We've been informed through his agent that he is fine. We have nothing further.

155

By midseason of 2002, we thought that we had something special.

142

It's unusual. I can't remember it ever happening. This is my 16th spring. We just want to make sure that he's OK.

140

We'd expect to hear from him in a reasonable amount of time, and take it from there. I haven't been through this before. We're glad he is safe, but we'd like to know what's going on.

125