Before, we had guys like [Josh] Beckett and [A.J.] Burnett. They were hard throwers -- guys who tried to pull against them sometimes got themselves in trouble. But we'll see this year.

I figured when they traded Josh Beckett, that this might happen.

Everyone I've ever talked to who has played with Josh Beckett says no one likes him. And that's why. There's no reason for him to say anything. He chooses to, and people don't like him for it.

We tried. We worked hard to get the word out. We did interviews, we did CNN, we went everywhere, but we didn't have any luck.

Those are the kind of teams I've always been around. Scrappy guys who like to train hard, put the team first and have an intense desire to succeed. So the superstar thing kind of goes out the window.

We had some voluntary workouts because of the shortened school day and some guys went out too hard and tried to do too much to get ready for the meet.