Sandy Alderson took a few minutes this afternoon to talk to Mike Francesa on WFAN.
Listen here:
And here are some notable quotations:
On roster moves this early in the season:
We've made some moves that weren't strictly necessitated by injuries and what have you, but the other thing that I have to accept is that we don't have a lot of moves to make. We brought in a lot of players, role players, etc., primarily because we don't have at the top end of our system players who can make a contribution right away or that we want to ask to make a contribution right away. So, well, Jenrry Mejia, what about him? Well, no, we're not going to ask him to make a contribution.
On the state of the roster:
For the foreseeable future, this is the team. Now what I'd like to say is that maybe that's not such a bad thing. Given the under-performance so far this three weeks into the season by a number of guys who are fairly key to us, we probably have a better chance of seeing significant improvement from those players than we would from going out and finding somebody else who is just as capable of underachieving over three weeks as the guys we've got.
On Chris Young:
I'm looking out my window here from the bridge in right field. He's throwing a simulated game as week speak. And if all goes well, we expect that he'll back in the rotation next week as early as possibly Tuesday, but that's something we'll determine after he finishes.
On the team's early play:
No part of our team, no component of this team, has played well to date. When you have a complete flame-out in every aspect of your game, that's not conducive to winning streaks.
On Scott Hairston:
Take Scott Hairston, for example, I've watched Scott Hairston play the outfield...for parts of five seasons starting in 2007, and that's not the Scott Hairston that you'll see long-term.
On underachieving players:
Will all of them come back to that former level of performance? Given where some of our guys are, they don't have to come back to the former level, and we'll still see substantial improvement.
On Terry Collins:
I think we've learned a lot about Terry as things have gotten tough. He hasn't blown sky high. I think he's done a really good job of managing his team...It's tough to walk the right line between complacency and acceptance and complete overreaction. Once you blow, those kinds of emotions, those kinds of events are not forgotten.
On whether the negativity is affecting the team:
Nobody's operating in a vacuum here. All the negativity that needs to exist for us is the fact that we've lost nine out of ten. Nobody has to tell you that, and the fact that you're reminded of it, doesn't make it any more significant or unacceptable.
On Dillon Gee:
Dillon Gee showed up in Atlanta with no shoes, no glove, no anything, and gave us a great performance.
On the future of highly paid veterans like Jason Bay and Carlos Beltran:
They understand the situation. They understand that it's three weeks...They know they just have to go out and perform to, not top levels, but expected levels or close to expected levels from their past history...They've got plenty of time to get their acts together...They know where they are, they know what they have to do, they know what happens mid-season when teams are going well or teams are going poorly.