Tejada spoke with Dominican Republic manager Felipe Alou, who guaranteed Tejada would play shortstop and third base and also possibly serve as the designated hitter.
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“We fully support Miguel’s decision to play in the WBC,” Wade said.
Cooper wasn’t as happy,
“My preference would be for him to be here with me, but that’s his decision, his choice,” Cooper said. “Apparently he got convinced to do it and I’m OK with it. The big key for me is him continuing to get work at shortstop.”
“It’s not like we can stop him from doing it,” I’m OK with it, but hopefully he’ll get his work in.” Link
But when Tejada first said he wasn’t going, Cooper was happy about it because,
“I’m sure it’s disappointing to other people that he won’t play, but I’m happy,” Cooper said. “He’ll get a chance to do his regular routine from working on his defense. That’s stuff that he does every day with (bench coach Ed) Romero, his early work. He says he brought it from Oakland way back in the day and he’s always used this routine. He felt like going there and not being able to do his stuff and not being able to play his position, he’d lose that.”
“… I think he might have gotten away from (his routine) a little bit when he was playing with the Orioles. And he got it back last year and he was a very, very good shortstop last year. So I’m tickled that he’s here. We’ll get him on his routine and we’ll go from there.” Link
They’re going to go to Plan B.
Cooper had planned to play Tejada’s every other day in ST and try to find time for Edwin Maysonet, Tommy Manzella, Jason Smith, Matt Kata, Drew Sutton and Geoff Blum.
“I got six guys. I have to find out who can play it. It might not be fair. They might not all get a shake, but I’ll get them the best I can. I’ll try to move them around to get as many as I can to play it and as much as I can. .. Divide it among all those guys.” Link
The shake just got fairer. Which could turn out for the best as Cooper has said he intends to rest Tejada more this season. And the Astros have 2010 to consider as well.