He's a big, strong, athletic kid. He's got a good fastball with excellent movement and good sink. He's got a major-league slider. Obviously, the stuff is there and the ability is there. He needs to pitch a little bit more and get consistent outings.

It's good for them (young players) to see that.

That's up to Theo and Tito. It's hard for me to say after only seeing him in one outing. Obviously he has ability and there's a reason why he's here. There's a reason why he had the kind of success in college. There's a reason we made the level of commitment that we made to him. He's going to be a good major-league pitcher. When that happens, I honestly don't know.

He was one of the youngest starting pitchers in the International League last year. He had some really, really good starts, and some mediocre ones. But for the overall numbers for a kid that young in Triple-A, it was a pretty good year.

David had a strong finish to 2005 and made a good impression in big-league camp. We simply believe that there are still things for him to accomplish at the Double-A level. . . . He's got a very bright future.

Personally, it's been a distraction. It's been an interesting couple months. We've been short staffed, we've all been wearing a lot of different hats and there's a lot of gray area that we've never had in the past. Of course it's hard to focus on our farm system through that.