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MLB EXPANSION DRAFTNovember 18, 1997Dan DuquetteJimy WilliamsPHOENIX, ARIZONA DAN DUQUETTE: The Red Sox are very happy to be acquiring Pedro Martinez, he's one of the premiere pitchers in the industry and he gives us an ace for our staff. I think it sends a good message for our fans that we'd like to put together a winning team in Fenway Park, and I also think it sends a message to our players. Pedro is the kind of player that can take the responsibility of a lot of things and make the rest of the team a lot better. JIMY WILLIAMS: I think Dan basically said everything from the standpoint of elevation of the status of our ball club, and certainly from within the confines of Boston and New England, that this is an outstanding sign for that area, that we have an opportunity to have a premiere pitcher pitching for the Boston Red Sox as an ace, and certainly an outstanding young man to go along with it. Q. Dan, how long had these discussions been taking place? DAN DUQUETTE: Well, we had an interest in Pedro Martinez, of course, for a long time. And we were looking for some sign from the Expos in regards to what direction they were going to take with their ball club, and we got that shortly after the end of the season. We met with them in Florida at the World Series and a lot of the discussions �� and in fact Carl Pavano's name came up during those discussions in Florida at the World Series. Carl Pavano is an excellent young pitching prospect. He's got a chance to be a real fine pitcher. The good news is that we're in a position with our farm system where we have a couple of good pitchers and we're going to utilize our farm system to acquire an ace for our Major League staff. And that's why we made the trade. Q. Is there anything about the expansion draft that made you have to wait until tonight to make it official? Was there anything that could have got in the way of it or was it the fact that you weren't allowed to talk about it? DAN DUQUETTE: There was a freeze on the assignment of player contracts under the rules, in the expansion agreement. Q. But there wasn't anything where a player involved or anything like that could have messed it up? DAN DUQUETTE: We had an agreement, the fundamentals of an agreement in place on Saturday and we had some details to work out and we worked out the final details actually during the draft. Q. How big a risk do you view this given Pedro's impending free agency? DAN DUQUETTE: Well, the good news is we got a good pitcher. And we're hopeful that he likes Boston and we can talk to him about extending our relationship beyond that. But our primary need was a No. 1 starting pitcher for our team and our pitching staff and we're going to celebrate the fact that we got Pedro Martinez tonight and deal with the other stuff tomorrow. End of FastScripts |
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