Duffy is an important piece at the top of our lineup. That's an ideal spot for him. When he gets on first base, he can be a very disruptive player as fast as he is.

First of all, I happen to think he was a pretty good player before he was selected to play for his country. I don't need to see him go play for Mexico to see that. But, absolutely, it can be a confidence-building experience.

Colby has worked with him a lot. Oliver is being given information that can help him succeed as a major-league pitcher. Sometimes, the player has to take the information and make certain adjustments in order to be successful.

The best way to approach a player with his type of ability and talent is to feel like you've developed a type of environment to allow his development to continue on its natural course. With what we have done this winter, we have put this young man in a position to where his natural progression as a Major League Baseball player has a genuine opportunity to take place without heaping any unexpected expectations on him.

I loved those kids. I loved Andrew . . . I loved him. Smartest player I had in that program. He lived for it. Absolutely lived for basketball at St. Martha's.

I haven't convinced myself that he's played his last bit for 2005, but I do know today he should sit back and relax, ... He's quite a professional player and a professional person. I believe we've pushed him about as far as he can be pushed, and he's responded in every single case.

If you have them, great. If not, there are people in every clubhouse in baseball that every player in the room identifies with. I don't think that he necessarily needs a 'C' on his shoulder or anything like that.

Because I want to see how versatile a player he is.

He can go get a ball and make it look easy and effortless. I want to see how versatile a player he is, but he will have a home at third base for some time.

We're looking for 35 or 38 or 39, and this is an opportunity to find out who are those guys beyond the 25.

His record wasn't all that impressive, but I've seen this guy do very well at times. And I think the opportunity to acquire somebody in the Rule 5 draft ... it's not all that often you get somebody whose resume from the previous year shows 141 innings.

He's going to get the ball in the ninth inning. We'll see how it goes. We've got a guy who is a complete novice in that environment. But what I see is a player that an opportunity has been created for him and he's seizing the opportunity.

Our golden opportunity was in the seventh inning. We had the bases loaded, we had one out, we had a 3-1 count and we just didn't get it done.

I won't say where they are going to start. But he is the type of guy we are looking for to hopefully place in between two left-handers that have somewhat similar stuff and not give opposing clubs an opportunity to see the same type of stuff on consecutive days.

That was his game to determine. It was his baseball game at that point. You have to give him the opportunity to finish it.

When you face a pitcher the caliber of Chris Carpenter, you only get one opportunity like that.

We had something going on in the fifth, it looked like we had a chance to get back in the game, but they cut the inning off. We took some good at-bats off him, we created some opportunity for ourselves ... but from watching him, he's got a crisp fastball and his breaking ball also is very sharp.

Duke did a fine job. It was a quality start and he gave an opportunity for the club to win. I don't know how much more you can ask.

Is he a candidate to have an opportunity to make the club? I don't know the answer to that. We'll take it a day at a time and see how he progresses from a health standpoint. If he comes along quicker, that obviously creates more options for us.

Think about the ... significance of ... how many at-bats he takes this year with men on base because the guy (Casey) hitting in front of him is going to be on base. There's going to be a number of times that he's going to come up to the plate with people on base and have the opportunity to either extend the inning, put a game away or extend leads. All those possibilities will be there.

As long as he keeps his focus and continues to realize there is no real opportunity to be satisfied and he maintains that hunger, ... he could wind up being a real good pitcher in the Major Leagues.

It's an opportunity to get some more innings for some younger guys.

The best way to approach a player with his type of ability and talent is to feel like you've developed a type of environment to allow his development to continue on its natural course. With what we have done this winter, we have put this young man in a position to where his natural progression as a Major League Baseball player has a genuine opportunity to take place without heaping any unexpected expectations on him.

Not all of our starters are 22 years old, but we do have four of them that are 24 or less. We have to allow a little bit of time to allow these guys to have the opportunity to stabilize themselves.

Any time you face a pitcher the caliber of Chris Carpenter, you get one opportunity against him. He started quick and it took us until the seventh to get our opportunity to crack through.

I don't need to say anything more. I think that both sides are moving on from something like that. You don't use things like that as an opportunity to create a rift between two clubs.

Obviously, that's the hot topic these days. I've done everything I possibly can to keep Freddy involved, and he has responded big-time. You have to get Freddy at-bats, but you also have to give those other guys a chance to jump-start themselves.

He's done a great job and he's really shown me he has a chance to be a very special player. He's a tremendous talent.

It has a chance to look like that.

I think you bring the best out of your players when you sit and study and look very closely at what their capabilities are and then try to find situations where their talents have the best chance to come out,

(Playing the Dodgers) is kind of special. It was five years that I spent there. In my opinion they were five very special years. There were a lot of very special things we accomplished there. There were things that some people thought we were never going to have a chance to do, but we did.

I think he has a chance be a terrific offensive player. But part of becoming a great offensive player is having a full understanding of the strike zone and understand what pitchers try to do to him in certain situations. The only way you get to that point is you keep carrying the bat to the plate.

We're not quitting, that's for sure. We've been in every single game and we've had a chance to win every single game.

We had something going on in the fifth, it looked like we had a chance to get back in the game, but they cut the inning off. We took some good at-bats off him, we created some opportunity for ourselves ... but from watching him, he's got a crisp fastball and his breaking ball also is very sharp.

You better believe he's having a terrific spring. He has a chance to be a real player at the major-league level.

Did the starting pitcher give you a chance every fifth day to go out there and win? -- that's the biggest element I look at. (Santos) was pretty good at that last year.

Back in May, when the Padres went something like 22-6, they had a chance to slam the door, throw the lock around the handle and close it off for everybody else. And it didn't happen. So it's not a matter of anybody putting on any type of serious charge thus far, it's a matter of teams just winning some games here and there.

You don't want to get too overly involved in velocity at this point. You want to give him a chance to stretch his arm out.

I'm not saying things would have necessarily been different if Sean was in the lineup but I think it would have helped to have a hitter who combined to strike out less 100 times over the last two seasons up in the situation. You need to make contact with a man on second and none out, and I think Sean would have given us a great chance of doing that.

I like challenges. I like it when people say, 'You don't have a chance to succeed there.'

I like challenges. I like it when people say, 'You don't have a chance to succeed there.'

Challenges are something that I like very, very much, ... I like hearing people say or maybe think that this is a situation you don't have a chance to succeed in, I'm very challenged by that.

The challenge is something I like very much, ... I take a lot of pride in people saying this is a situation where you don't have a chance to succeed. I'm really challenged by that.