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WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: 2ND ROUND POOL EMarch 11, 2017Hensley MeulensTokyo, Japan Q. You came to Japan yesterday. You had a practice yesterday, and looking at your players today, how do you feel the team is? HENSLEY MEULENS: Yes, yesterday we had a day off, which we practiced in the dome there and then we traveled here. The team looks great. Always a couple days off is nice in between so guys can get rest. We're ready to go tomorrow. The team looks good. Q. You are playing against Samurai Japan tomorrow. Can you tell me, what do you think of the Japanese team? HENSLEY MEULENS: Well, they are the best team in this pool in my opinion. They are all really strong in the world, top ranked in the world. It's no different in this tournament. They went 3 0 in the first round, and so they are a favorite, and we know that, and we are going to have play really well against them tomorrow to beat them. Q. Any key players that you think is more dangerous in the Japanese team? HENSLEY MEULENS: Well, we haven't went through our scouting report yet since it was so short a night last night, and we had to get up early this morning to do the technical meeting first and come to practice. Now we're going to go back to the hotel. We had a scout here in place in the first round, and now we're going to gather all the information and see who the hottest players are and see which player we have to be aware of more than others. Usually in my opinion, no player is better than the other. You've got to have a game plan for every player and make sure that nobody beats you. Q. It's your team, and you have other teams and other players who have been to Japan, and they have some information for you. Did they tell you anything? HENSLEY MEULENS: Again, you know, same answer, like I said. We just got here last night. We haven't gotten together as a team to go over the scouting report. Usually we do that the morning of the game. But you know, we have some time today since we're off and we're not playing today, and the practice is already over. So once we get to the hotel, we start gathering information, and obviously Coco and Rick, who plays here during the season, are going to have various information for the rest of the players and for us as a coaching staff to be able to formulate the plan how to attack them. I'm sure before the game tomorrow, they will have advice on a lot of these players. Q. Who will be your first pitcher tomorrow? HENSLEY MEULENS: You'll find out at nine o'clock tonight. Q. It's a very important game tomorrow to start the second round. Do you have any strategy prepared to win Japan? HENSLEY MEULENS: Of course. You know, the thing I said in my first press conference in Seoul was as a team, it's hard to go on what the other team does. But as a team we, the Netherlands, we have to pitch good, we have to throw strikes, we have to play defense, catch the ball. We have to run the bases well and then we have to get some hits to score runs. If we do those things and our part, the game is going to take care of itself first. We can't start worrying about what Japan is going to do in order for us to play our game. We have to play our game and do those four things the best we can to win the game. They are a tough opponent, there's no question about it. If we make any mistakes in any of those four aspects of the game, we're going to have a hard time winning the game. Q. Do you have confidence to win the game tomorrow? HENSLEY MEULENS: Yes. Q. In the first round, what consider was good, and you want to keep doing in this round, and what was lacking and you want to fix for this second round? HENSLEY MEULENS: Well, we played very good in the first round all three games. I think the first game, especially, we pitched very well. We threw a lot of strikes. We kept them from getting on base by walking guys, and our defense was great. We only made one error that could have been a base hit at second base, Schoop on the back and indiscernible up the middle, but other than that, they made every routine play and they made some spectacular plays in the infield. They are as good as advertised, and I'm expecting them to play good again. You know, the last game, we played a day game after a night game, which is always hard on players. We had a very short night. We were so elated after the game and we won. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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