WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: POOL A - CUBA VS NETHERLANDS

March 8, 2023

Jonathan Schoop

Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium

Team Netherlands

Pregame Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We are ready to begin now with Jonathan Schoop of the Netherlands.

Q. (No translation).

JONATHAN SCHOOP: I feel good, spring training, you kind of get yourself together. It's all about the hits. Like, how you are feel in the batting box and how you're seeing good and the pitchers. If you feel good in the box, the hits are going to come, so you don't have to chase the hits. You've just got to chase good at-bats, swing at strikes and the hits are going to be there, so I'm not worried about that.

Q. So I asked this to Hensley, what's it like playing in the infield with like three natural shortstops around you at every position at third and short and first, how is that -- how is that going to help you guys in the tournament having that experience, and yeah, what's it like playing with those guys at different positions around you?

JONATHAN SCHOOP: It's fun. It's fun to play with those guys. We play against each other a long time, we play like two WBC already with a lot of shortstops. With this team, you just flip a coin and everybody can play third, second, short, first.

You know, we have fun. We go out there and have fun and play hard and we just care about winning. We don't care where we play. We just want to play hard and trying to get wins.

Q. (No translation).

JONATHAN SCHOOP: I feel good. Time flies. So you say like ten years ago was my first WBC and then I went and had a great season. You try to do the same thing. You go back and see ten years. I'm better now. I'm more mature, and you know, I'm trying to have a really good WBC to have my team win and then go to my team in MLB and have a good season for my MLB team, too, so we can go to the playoffs, too. Right now, I'm worried about the WBC and trying to help this team win.

Q. (No translation).

They really good. They are fundamental. So I played with most -- I played with a couple of those guys. I played with him, too, and one of the game he pitched, he gave me a ball right there like a BP fastball, so I hit a home run.

After that, I tell him, thank you. He's a really good, player and the team is really good. So we have to be on our A Game and go out there and compete and score more runs than them, so it's going to be a good game for sure.