This deal gives us some short-term help ? two pitchers that can help our club ? and in our minds a future everyday front-line center fielder who's not that far away, which is hard to find.

It's definitely going to help. Playing against them, it just makes us better. Playing against better competition, we lost, but there'll be another team like that, and we'll be experienced enough to beat them.

It was a good experience. We learned a lot as a basketball team. It's definitely going to help us.

I think there are many qualities. One, he's arguably the best defensive second baseman in the game. Two, he brings a great deal of energy to the field. And three, he's also a pretty good offensive player for the position.

It was a good exchange. It is important for any player of his stature to hear a fair assessment of where he stands and where the organization is heading.

The offense isn't really clicking yet. It's probably too early (to draw conclusions), but as we know, the two teams we played were really pretty good. We want to be in every game and that's been the case. The two lopsided games (a 12-5 victory at Colorado and a 7-0 victory at Milwaukee) were both in our favor.