Brian McTaggart has taken notice of Wesley Wright's stats down in the Dominican Winter League (despite Sides' bubble-poppin' note that he ought to be striking out minor leaguers.)
Wright:
"My goal is to get stretched out and see how good I can be in that role, but I have no preconceived expectations."
Wade, on Wright:
"All the reports we've gotten have been very solid. A couple of our pro scouts were down there and had a chance to see him firsthand, and the reports have been very solid on him. [Assistant general manager] David Gottfried had a conversation with Wesley in the last couple of days, and Wesley is feeling really good about the way things have gone for him down there. We're going to give him every opportunity to try to win a job as a starter next year and see where it takes us...
..."We had some internal conversations about him late in the season, and then we approached Wesley. I had a conversation with him and Wes told me as an amateur he was a starting pitcher and he got into the Dodgers organization and they had a lot of high Draft picks that were starters and he ended up in the bullpen. He said he welcomed an opportunity to do this. I arranged a slot for him in winter ball, and he went down the instructional league to get his arm ready to go. And so far the results have been very solid down there. I think it's a clear indication that when a player is willing to go to winter ball and work on his craft, good things can happen."
Hey, so I think Cecil Cooper should get some credit on this. After all, he's the one that had him throw 328 pitches at Wrigley Field. Hey, maybe when Wright was in the hospital, Drayton had the doctors implant something in his brain...
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
