WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: POOL C - MEXICO VS CANADA

March 15, 2023

Ernie Whitt

Chase Field

Team Canada

Postgame Press Conference

Mexico - 10, Canada - 3

Q. Obviously not the result you wanted today. But how do you feel about the direction the national team now compared to where you guys were after the '17 tournament?

ERNIE WHITT: I'm very excited about it. I think we have some really good young players that are coming. I think it showed a little bit today, inexperience.

But I'm proud of every guy in that room. They played the game the way it was supposed to be played. They played with pride and passion. What more can you ask for?

I mean, we hit the ball hard today. Every time we hit the ball hard, it seemed like it was at somebody. We have days like that, it just didn't pan out for us this time.

Q. Ten walks, three hit batters, a wild pitch by the pitching staff. What do you attribute the strike-throwing issues to?

ERNIE WHITT: Youth probably more than anything. This is a big stage. A lot of these guys are pitching in A ball, maybe Double-A. It's a big stage for them. And they had been throwing the ball well, our exhibition games and pretty much the guys had pitched earlier, they were throwing well.

And today there were a couple guys we didn't want to face with runners in scoring position, but we didn't have places to put the guy. So it came back to hurt us.

Q. Edouard Julien had a monster tournament. What did you make of what you saw from him and what do you think he's capable of?

ERNIE WHITT: I think he's very capable of being an All-Star in the big leagues. Like I said, he continues to improve his defense. You go back and you look at his track record at college, he's tied some records for the best hitter. I mean, it shows.

And plus he's what I call a gamer. He plays hard every play. He doesn't take a play off. I think he's got a real good career ahead of him.

Q. You came into this event knowing this was going to be a young team. What are some of the real building blocks for the Juliens, the Caissies, for Bratt, for all these guys who are getting their first kind of taste of the deep end, what can this do for them three years down the road?

ERNIE WHITT: Hopefully this was a great experience for them, number one. And next time they play in it they will not only have played a few more years in the minor leagues or the big leagues, this is going to help them down the road.

And I think that I'm very confident that the team will bounce back in 2026 and be a force.

Q. I'm not sure if you got an explanation from the umpires or not, but what did you hear on the potential foul tip/hit batter on Arozarena there, the first batter of the game?

ERNIE WHITT: We asked for an appeal. It's tough first hitter of the game to ask for, but we were told that the ball hit the bat. That was -- our replay guy told us that. And I even had a look at it, it looked like it did. So we took that opportunity.

But there was no other plays for us to challenge. That was their decision, and we go by it.

Q. For your personally, this is kind of what you've been doing from the beginning. Do you want to see this through for the next three years?

ERNIE WHITT: I don't know. That's too far down the line. We'll see. I mean, I love the game. I want to stay a part of it in some capacity, whether it's managing or whether it's just watching it, too.

I've been doing this for over 50 years professionally and 20-some years at the Canadian level. It's hard to say. I'm not ready to make that decision yet.

Q. I know you didn't want to be in a position where you're looking at math but have you guys done some numbers on what a possible tiebreaker might look like for you?

ERNIE WHITT: The fact we've given up runs against U.S. and Mexico, it doesn't look good. There's that slight possibility, but it would take almost a miracle.