You talk to scouts and you keep hearing there is a real shortage of pitching. There's a real shortage of guys who can throw strikes. Pitching is that valuable.

Lee's promotion is really just the overdue recognition of the job he was already doing. He has done an outstanding job of player contract negotiation, overseeing major league player movement and helping to shape the big league club.

We have other holes to fill on this team. We didn't want to add to them.

He helps us in a variety of roles, including the ability to steal a base and play almost any position on the field.

Everyone has natural feelings. Given the circumstances as he presents them ... sure. But again, we support the testing program and really that's where it starts and ends for us.

We really felt we had to get a better pitcher into our rotation, along with making our pitchers a little better. This is the first step toward that.