"Back at home, everybody always thought that David was going to be big time. When he was in Minnesota, a lot of people thought that he was going to be a productive hitter there. But he's moved on to a bigger market and he's done what he's done, and he deserves everything that he's getting."

"Cabrera just stepped up and did a great job."

"This will be a game watched by every Dominican soul, the 8 million we have on the island and all the others spread around the world."

"Our guys take it very serious and show a lot of pride in this kind of stuff."

"I don't want the word patriotism being brought up over here because of these guys being professional and (some) other teams are not. Because when you have $100 million in the bank and a contract and you leave everything and take a chance and come over here and play for your country, if that isn't patriotism, I don't know what it is."

"Everybody who had the desire to play prepared themselves for this tournament. Our guys saw enough pitches. They had enough at-bats. No excuses."

"I am worried about the health of our best starters, but they have the desire to play and that makes me happy."

"I think everybody in baseball knew, even before the All-Star break last year, that we were going to play this Baseball Classic, and everybody that had the desire to play prepared themselves to play for this tournament. Yes, they didn't have 100 at-bats or whatever before this, but we got all the way to the seventh game. We played two rounds, the guys saw enough pitches, they had enough at-bats. There are no excuses."

"It's a short tournament and we have to stay humble about it. It's baseball and anything can happen. We feel very good about the group we got here. We actually have the group we wanted and they seem to have the special love to play for their country."