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WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: 1ST ROUND POOL C

March 12, 2017

Ernie Whitt

Miami, Florida

United States - 8, Canada - 0

Q. What were the main emotions you were feeling at the end of that game?
ERNIE WHITT: Probably seeing some players that we won't see again in uniform going out on the playing field as a player. I've been with these guys for a long time and it means a lot.

Q. What does it mean to have those guys like Malo and Dempster and Leroux and Pete prepare for months for what was seven days in this tournament?
ERNIE WHITT: Well, again, I can't thank those guys enough for giving up their time and coming and trying to help out and play for their country. There's so much pride that you can't say enough about it.

Unfortunately, we came up on the short end and it's unfortunate but the guys are not going to change. They're still great quality people that we have in this system. To be quite honest with you, for us to compete at this level at the WBC, we have to have all of our players, all of our professional players. We just can't put our roster up against teams like the Dominican Republic and United States if we don't have all of our Big League players. And until they make a commitment that they're going to do that, we're going to struggle in the WBC. We can win a game every now and then, but it's just not the same type of roster that you would have if you had all of your players.

Q. This has been quite a week end here. Two or three really amazing games. Make the sales pitch on this event to try to get these guys to participate. What would you say about it and what would you say to them?
ERNIE WHITT: Well, I think that they just have to buy into it. I don't know what else you can say or do to them. If they watch the games and they see the excitement and the fans getting into it, and the way that all the players are playing for other countries, I'm dumbfounded in a sense that I don't understand.

But you also have to get the general managers and the ownership to buy into it and encourage their players to go. I understand their point, they have got a vested interest in some of these players with a lot of money. But if they're going to get this to go, I think they're going to have to go all out to encourage their players to go and play for their countries.

Q. Further to the challenge you face with some of the Big League guys not coming, the other issue for you guys over these three days is that you have a roster with some guys transitioning out and a lot of young kids with talent transitioning in, and that four years from now this roster could look a lot different.
ERNIE WHITT: I think it's going to look a lot different and again, at least I'm hoping. So I'm hoping some of these young kids develop and gain some experience, and that's the whole purpose of our program, and some of these guys are playing in the Big Leagues the next time this comes around.

But again, we have other events that are going on, other international games that we're going to be playing. And it seems like when we play those, we can compete and we're very competitive. We just have been unfortunate. We just have not been able to get out of the first round, and I think that's one of the main reasons is that we just can't compete with some of these other rosters until we get all of our players to play.

And again, I'm not beating on the guys, they have the right to turn it down, but I guess we have to do a better job of convincing them to come and represent their country.

Q. With Team USA and the Dominicans advancing, I was curious your thoughts on those two teams. And if you can compare and contrast what you see out of those two teams.
ERNIE WHITT: Two real good teams. There's depth on both sides. It's going to be a good matchup. I think they probably got the two best teams out of this pool going forward. You have to tip your hat to Colombia, too, by the way. What a feisty group of guys. It was fun to watch them play and they battled every game they played in.

So, it was a fun tournament, I think our kids learned a lot. I think they had a good time, but probably the two best teams advanced.

Q. What about Dempster tonight? Just too big an ask, the quick turnaround?
ERNIE WHITT: Probably so. He gave it his best. He was having problems locating. He was up in the zone in the first inning, and we wanted to really try to keep the score close but again, they have got some pretty good arms coming at us. And when you only have three hits during the course of the game, it's hard to do it.

When they jumped out to the lead, we're just trying to get guys that are going back to their organizations an inning of work, so that they're ready to go back to Spring Training.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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