We’re anxious to face Cuba. We’ve never played them before in this type of competition.

They always say the most important pitch in baseball is Strike 1. It’s even more important now.

I don’t think that, with the level of competition of every team, you need to have your ‘A’ team out there for nine innings every day.

We have big stars in our country, and it’s tough to trim our roster. There are lots of expectations around our club. I think we’re going to fulfill them.

I think our pitching was great. Actually things kind of flip-flopped a little bit. I think everybody thought we were going to hit everybody around in this tournament and that our pitching was as good...

I think it really helped [to understand him] that he went to a bigger market team.

We felt relieved. These guys are professional. They’ve been playing in the big leagues for years and they’re used to ups and downs.

Knowing Pedro, he doesn’t want to participate just to participate.

Nobody said it was going to be easy. But you can lose one game in the second round and still advance.

I am worried about the health of our best starters, but they have the desire to play and that makes me happy.

It’s nice to have depth, and that’s what we have.

There’s still a lot of baseball left in Sosa, he’s only had one bad year and has a lot to offer the Dominican team.

We really went at it hard like professionals. They deserve the credit. I’d rather give them credit than make excuses.

Daniel deserves all the credit. We had several scoring opportunities to break the game open. We didn’t do it but our pitching staff came through.

If you’re looking for the best players at this time, you can be sure to find them on the Dominican team.

(The WBC) is going to be every four years, but I don’t know if in four years we’ll be able to put together a team like we have right now. This is a pretty special...

Willie has made it clear that the job is out there for the taking.

Cabrera just stepped up and did a great job.

I believe that part of what the World Classic did was remind people that baseball talent comes from all over the world. There are a lot of people playing this game.

This park brings back good and bad memories. We fell short, but it was good to make it here. Our expectations were very high because of the team we had, but I also understood that...

I’m very happy with the performance of the guys here. And everybody had a chance to play.

It is a sign of what we can do.

They flat out outplayed us.

I don’t want the word patriotism being brought up over here because of these guys being professional and (some) other teams are not. Because when you have $100 million in the bank and a contract...

Manny is sure. He was one of the first to sign the papers last year.

We can feel the confidence he brings.

If you’re going to get hurt, you’re going to get hurt, whether you’re in spring training or the World Baseball Classic. But I want everybody to understand, we’re not going out there only trying to...

It’s a shame, but Pedro won’t pitch in the Classic. I met with Pedro to talk about this; he did everything he could, and he was ready to join the team later in the competition,...

Just because he’s tied for the league lead, that doesn’t mean you can’t run on him. So what are you going to do? He made a good throw. You gave to give credit to him.

The kid has shown that he’s not intimidated at all. He’s got terrific stuff. I think he can go against any lineup in this tournament.

We definitely know he’s not going to be available for the first round. The priority is that he’s healthy first. He does want to participate, and we do want him to participate.

I would start spring training a week earlier so the players would get five or six exhibition games in before starting.

I think we could play a lot better than what we played. I think we should have scored at least 12 runs.

Everybody who had the desire to play prepared themselves for this tournament. Our guys saw enough pitches. They had enough at-bats. No excuses.

The crowd did help us. We have a big Dominican community here. But I think the game was so good, the players weren’t even paying attention to the fans. They were focused on the game.

Back at home, everybody always thought that David was going to be big time. When he was in Minnesota, a lot of people thought that he was going to be a productive hitter there. But...

It took me by surprise that a team with such tradition as the Dodgers would consider me. I’m going with an open mind as if the job was mine. The Dodgers are equal to baseball,...

I think it’s going to be a terrific atmosphere. The four teams here are going to have good baseball.

We left the fear at home.

We’re the ones who are supposed to hit everybody around, but Venezuela didn’t let us do that. We showed our hearts, and we are very happy to be in the finals.

There is a window in that we’ll have big 27 show up for the next round. It’s not etched in stone yet, but it’s almost money in the bank and we’re pretty excited about it.

It was full of blood. He only had about 10 more pitches before he was done, so we made the change. We appreciate his effort.

All of those guys were supposed to come over here with him and I think that’s one of the reasons he doesn’t want to come. It would remind him.

I have a gut feeling he’s going to pitch.

You have to give all the credit to their pitching, which held our offense to only one run. They just flat-out outplayed us.

This will be a game watched by every Dominican soul, the 8 million we have on the island and all the others spread around the world.

We’re going to play to win, but as managers we also have the responsibility to have these guys ready for the regular season.

We will using the line up that you saw out there today. It’s not time to make big changes. That line up won the last to games for us.

He’s become the face of a big part of the United States, a big part of the New England fan base and he deserves it. He’s a pro on and off the field, a very...

We have a responsibility to get these guys ready for the regular season. We are doing pretty much what they do in Spring Training like fundamentals and extra work. We owe it to them and...