1. Growing up in Quebec, you didn’t have many opportunities to pitch and hone your skills. How did you overcome that to become one of the elite pitchers in last year’s draft?
PA: Where I’m from, we don’t have a lot of facilities to work out in so what I did is I went to my school gym early every morning, to play catch, do some agility drills, running, and working out. When you don’t have a lot of chances, you have to make do with what you have — this is the way I grew up and I had that gym to myself in the morning. Plus, I was with the Junior National Team, so I had the chance to go to Florida for 10 days to work hard outside, and play baseball against professional guys. That really helped me a lot for the draft because I don’t have a High School team. The competition was better with the National team.
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6. Where do you expect to start the 2008 season? Obviously this is probably far off, but what is your goal in terms of reaching the majors?
PA: My career will probably start in Wisconsin (Midwest league) and after that it will depend on how I progress. My goal for reaching the Majors is simple: I don’t want to rush myself up there, but I want to be there as soon as I’m ready to deal at that level.
7. The Mariners are known for being aggressive in promoting their best prospects. Does this worry you because of your inexperience, or excite you because it could get you up to the big leagues sooner?
PA: Like I said, no need to rush myself. But if I can get ready for the majors in less time, I’ll be very excited.
Click on the second link up top to read the whole interview.
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