Mark Shapiro Both Quotations

Obviously, this is a unique and significant commitment on behalf of ownership. Grady is one of our more unique guys. The level of commitment is distinct on both sides.

We had a lot of quality, substantive conversations that I hope demonstrated to Cliff that he is a core part of this team. But a value we both felt good about was not one we could reach right now.

We are excited to add an experienced starting pitcher to our rotation, one that represents the team we are trying to build both on and off the field.

He's an energy player, and he can impact the game on both sides of the ball.

They will both be guys that you'll see a lot of in Spring Training. That's one of the things we want to accomplish this spring. Guys who fit into our plan, we want to get a good look at. Our Triple-A club is largely going to be a prospect club. Two of those prospects are Franklin and Brad.

It's similar in that both times we signed core players who we wanted to keep together for a run of championship baseball. That's what's most important about what's happening here now. We want to keep this team together.

It's a very tough division. There aren't going to be many easy nights at all when you play in the division this year. There's going to be lots of beating up on each other. Chicago and Minnesota both have exceptional pitching. Detroit's lineup is as deep as any in the major leagues, if they are all healthy.

I called heads in both of them, and that's how it came up. Actually, we won with heads on all three, because the White Sox called tails, and it came up heads.