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WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: 1ST ROUND POOL CMarch 9, 2017Justin MorneauFreddie FreemanPete OrrMiami, Florida Q. Do you know the team of our country? And your opinion about the pitcher today, Carlos Martinez, and the team Dominican Republic. FREDDIE FREEMAN: I faced Carlos a lot when he was with the Cardinals, so it's a little bit going to be different for him pitching for his home country. So it's going to be a tough task. He's one of the better pitchers in the National League, in my opinion, so it's going to be a tough task, but I think we're up for it. Q. Just pretty much you have a very nice core and maybe a very underrated one. The fact that you were appointed with opening the tournament facing DR, the veteran guys, what kind of advice you actually give to the young guys to actually come across big time? JUSTIN MORNEAU: I don't know if there's much advice. I think everyone knows what the first game means and what's at stake, and them being defending champions, we know how good of a team they are. But I think sometimes maybe the better time to be playing them would be the first game before everyone kind of gets rolling, before they get the momentum and maybe we can get them early. And I think everyone's in the lineup is excited to be there and excited to represent our country. So it's a tough matchup, but we're going to do everything we can to try and win a ballgame today. PETE ORR: I don't think you -- as an older guy for the young guys, you just let them play their game and you don't want to tell them too much because you don't want the pressure to be on them any more. Sometimes when you're young and inexperienced, it's the best part because you don't know really even what you're doing as far as pressure-wise. So we do have a lot of young guys and hopefully they will contribute quite a bit today. Q. Peter, since you've been there from the start for the WBC with Canada, just what has this event meant for Canadian baseball? And for you what's been the best part of it going back 2006 to now? PETE ORR: The WBC for Canada has been, it opens up to a bigger stage. The Canadian national team's done a lot of things internationally but I don't think it gets the attention that it gets that a WBC would get. So this is a great event to have some of the baseball in our country get shown on this kind of coverage. No doubt for me the best part about being in all the WBC's is the guys, being with all the Canadian guys on the team and getting to play together with them. Q. Justin, I'm sure all the guys know the back story to why Freddie wants to be here and wants to play. How have you all accepted him as a true Canadian? JUSTIN MORNEAU: Well, we have been trying to make him feel as welcome as we can. I've been making fun of him as much as we make fun of each other, so we're trying to make him fit in. But we're really happy to have him. He's pretty easy to fit in, a pretty-easy-to-get-along-with guy and he's excited. We know why he's there and it means a lot to him, he's not there just to play and get at-bats. He's there because there's a lot behind it and we really respect his reasons for joining us and we need him. So it's really good that he was able to do it. Q. You didn't give him a test or anything? JUSTIN MORNEAU: Well, he missed the bus ride last night he was already here. He was going to sing "O Canada" for us, but we'll cue that up after the game tonight. Q. Freddie, I know that this tournament is really important to your dad, with what your family has been through. Is he here and? FREDDIE FREEMAN: He's right there. Q. Oh, hi. I don't know if we can get you up here, too. But just what it means to your family to be able to play for Team Canada. FREDDIE FREEMAN: Yeah, this means the world to me. Not only to me but for my dad, too. It's a pretty special day. I think that once the National Anthem rolls around tonight, it's going to be pretty emotional for me and probably pretty emotional for my dad. I think that my mom and his wife it's going to be on our minds a lot during this whole tournament. So it's going to be a special day, a special tournament and hopefully it lasts a long time for us. Q. For Pete, wondering what factors go into the motivation behind getting ready gearing up for this tournament and the days and months of preparation you put in, knowing that after this is done you're done playing baseball. JUSTIN MORNEAU: It's not hard at all. I think I just treat it like I was getting ready for Spring Training and getting ready for a whole season even though I knew that this is going to be it. But there's no -- I didn't need any extra motivation once I made the commitment, it was a 100% in and ready to go. Q. Justin, Ernie Whitt said that if he asked you to bunt, you would bunt. Could you talk about the team aspect that the Canadian team brings in an individual sport. JUSTIN MORNEAU: I think that at this point everyone that's here is willing to do anything they can. I've been on the previous three teams and we haven't made it out of the first round yet. Obviously the first one was the best one - we had the big game against the U.S. I think anyone that's here is really willing to do, if it calls for a bunt, bunt, hit-and-run, whatever it is, I think that guys will do that. And it's fun in these short tournaments because you kind of get guys in roles maybe that they're not used to or in different situations, so if it's something that's asked, I think everyone's willing to do whatever they need to do to try and win a ballgame. During the season you go through series you play three games and you try to win the series and stuff it's a longer season. This, it's whatever you can do that day to win the game. It's really like playoff baseball. We saw it last year in the playoffs with closers being used in the fifth inning and all that stuff that's going on. That's the similar type of situation you can look at in these games. Q. Justin, do you look at this as a possible showcase for Major League teams? I know you're still unsigned. Maybe teams take a look at you and see that you can do it here . JUSTIN MORNEAU: Well, I think if they haven't figured out what I can do yet (laughs). It's one of those things. Maybe it's a health thing or whatever, but I played the year -- second half of the year last year and it was a battle getting through the end of it, but if there's a need and somebody has a spot for me, I would love to play. But if the last game I get to play for is for Canada, I think it would be a really good way to finish. So I don't think look at it as that sort of thing. I think that would be a selfish way to go into it, if I'm here just to get a job. I'm here because there's other guys counting on me and because I love to represent my country and I just love to play the game of baseball. Q. This tournament in a lot of ways is sort of different from the everyday grind of baseball because there's no tomorrow in some ways; you have to win each game. It's so important. Could you describe maybe adapting mentally to the fact that it's sort of a cut-throat type of game as opposed to maybe 1 of 162? PETE ORR: It is. Just like you said, there's no waiting around. You don't get the chance to necessarily feel things out. The game's halfway over or all the way over at that point. You don't have to be overaggressive or play out of, try to do things you don't normally do, but you got to be prepared to do them right away, that's for sure. You have to take advantage of every opportunity. There's no, like Justin said, it's a Game-7 situation every game you play and you have to be ready to take advantage of every thing you can do. It's hard that way because you train -- when you play a 162-game schedule, you train yourself in your mind. If you played this way for 162 games, you would burn out. So you have to kind of adjust the way your mind plays the game. Q. Ryan Dempster hasn't pitched in a while and he's facing probably the toughest lineup in the WBC. How is the clubhouse confidence in him to perform well today? JUSTIN MORNEAU: I think he's a guy that's been on the big stage, he's pitched in the World Series; you never know what you're going to get. I think a 65-pitch limit. He knows that this could be the last time that he gets to step on the mound as a starting pitcher, so I think his motivation and his heart's in the right place, and I think he's excited to be going out there, and we're confident in whoever goes out there. Obviously we're going to have to score some runs, but we have seen it before. We started a young kid and we beat the U.S. It was a long time ago, but it is possible in this tournament. You see team Israel moving on. It happens all the time. Team Italy has done it a couple times. It is possible for anyone to beat anyone. I think a guy that's not really going to get rattled in that kind of situation, a guy who is not going to get overly excited is probably the right guy to have out there against this lineup. A guy that can change speeds, has pitched in big games, has pitched in World Series and we're confident that he can get us to where we need to be. Q. Justin, you mentioned not making it out of the first round in the past three tournaments. Can you talk a little bit about what's the team's approach this year being put in so difficult group with DR and the United States. JUSTIN MORNEAU: I think sometimes it's a better position to be in is to be an underdog. There's not really a whole lot of pressure on us. We just go out and play. It's a close-knit group. We have a lot of fun together. The pressure's on the defending champion. If we find a way to win and they don't win, there's going to be a lot of questions there. If we win, if we win the game like we expect to and like we go out there and we're going to try and do, it's a great day for us. But if they win, it's sort of one of those things that everyone on the outside looks at and says, well, this was the first game and this is kind of the defending champion and this is what they were supposed to do. And it doesn't matter what everyone else on the outside thinks, it only matters what we think in the clubhouse. And we know that on any one day anyone can beat anyone and we say, why not us and why not today? Q. Justin, I think it was the 10 at-bats that you got in the two games this spring, how do you feel from a timing perspective with so limited AB's? JUSTIN MORNEAU: I always say getting at-bats back-to-back days in Spring Training is when you start to find your timing. Early in Spring Training two at-bats pay off, two at-bats pay off. It doesn't really start to come until that last week when you play seven or eight innings and you get three or four at-bats each day. So had a little bit accelerated time line there but I got five at-bats one day, four at-bats the next day, and it was kind of rushed, but I think once that adrenaline kicks in, hopefully that timing the sort of starts. I learned that in the last few years in Spring Training, knowing that as bad as a swing feels going in the last few days when you're in front of 40,000 people and that ace is on the mound and you're standing in the box, that adrenaline starts kicking in and you start feeling pretty good and that timing seems to come and the swing that either was there or wasn't there the last day of Spring Training, seems to find its way in there. Q. Freddie, how long did it take you to get comfortable in the Canada uniform? Was it the ground ball RBI in that first game and when you pulled the jersey on, did you think of your mom when you looked in the mirror? FREDDIE FREEMAN: Right when I walked in for the workout they were pretty much all over me right when I walked into the door. So they made me feel comfortable pretty quick. Seeing my name hanging with the "Canada" on it was pretty special. I actually took a picture of it and sent it to the Freeman family right away and it was pretty special just to see it. I never thought that would happen. I want to do anything I could to honor my mother and I think that this is the greatest way to do it. So when 6:08 hits it's going to be a pretty special day. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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