He's far beyond a lot of us in maturity, and I think that's because of what he's been through.

I'm real impressed with the newcomers. The pitching, I'm not just impressed with their velocity but their maturity. And what I like about some of the offensive players that are here is that they have good swings. From what I've seen, we have a good chance to be a pretty good team and win some games.

They have seven guys who all play a great deal, so it's like having seven starters. Everyone I talk to mentions their aggressiveness and team balance. Any of those seven guys can be in double figures.

The first time he came to open gym, I thought he'd never come back. He went just a couple times and had to sit down. I didn't think he'd continue, but he's just kept working, and day by day by day he's getting better.

Maturity includes the recognition that no one is going to see anything in us that we don't see in ourselves. Stop waiting for a producer. Produce yourself.

I think the key for us is maturity. It was a big jump for our freshman going from Pony League to high school baseball. You have a shorter distance between the bases and from the mound to home in Pony. But our young guys did carry a the load for us, or they wouldn't have been there.