Mark Shapiro Point Quotations

It hasn't been very hard at this point. But from this point forward, almost all (of the cuts) are going to be hard. If not, we're in trouble.

We won't stand in the way of either one getting major league jobs. But just because we've made these decisions, that's not to say that either one couldn't be playing in Cleveland at some point this year.

We want him to throw quality strikes, not just hard strikes. He's going to be a contributor for us this year. Maybe not from day one, but at some point this season he'll be a factor for us.

At no point did we look to move Coco. We had a clear sense of his value.

At no point this winter did we shop Coco. But once word leaked out (about the potential trade with Boston), we got over a dozen calls from other teams about Coco. We got offered some very attractive prospects for Coco, and some of the deals were tempting to make. But this was the only one we wanted.

What I've tried to do is just focus my attention on the team and feel if we keep winning, at some point it will happen,

At some point this year he's going to help us in the bullpen. He's come a long way in the last year and had a good training camp. He just needs to work on commanding his fastball better.

At that point in my career, I didn't have an appreciation how difficult the transition is for young players to the big leagues. It's fortunate that everything's kind of broken right, that we've lived up to expectations. But that was a lofty expectation to place on the public here - no one's allowed me to forget that I gave that.

We've had serious discussions. We like the player and think he'd be a good complement to our club. It's not a done deal, but at this point we're optimistic.

Boston is positioned extremely well for the future. They have a good farm system with upper-level players and a depth of pitching talent. They've rebuilt the farm system from a dilapidated system to a productive one. If they take a small step backward this year, at some point they will go on a run that will be an impressive run. They're a short period away.

Andrew Brown is competing for a bullpen spot and displayed very good stuff. He's a guy who will contribute in Cleveland at some point this season.

Andrew threw the ball very well and I would think that he and Fausto will contribute to the major league team at some point this season.

It's a unique evaluation opportunity. I was excited to see him get that opportunity ? that point in the game, in front of his countrymen, we couldn't simulate that type of atmosphere. It was cool to see.