SAN ANTONIO, June 21st — Today i’ve got something special for our readers. It’s a report from my interview with Simon Kuliszewski, San Antonio’s General Manager. Two weeks ago we asked you guys to send us your most difficult questions and we promised Simon will answer them later. He was kind enough to accept my invitation yesterday, so here you go, most unclear things that concern our fans finally solved!

Joe Ricotta: „Hello Simon, thanks for accepting my invitation, i really appreciate it and i’m sure fans too.”

Simon Kuliszewski: „Hey Joe, it’s always a pleasure.”

Ricotta: „Before we go to fans questions, let me start with asking you about the most recent news: Glenn Dixon is not a Calzone anymore. What’s changed since your last press conference („We need Glenn [Dixon] to still be a part of this team. We believe he’s someone for the long term plan worth betting on”) ?

Kuli: „Yeah, i really was a believer that time. Glenn told me he still wants to play for Calzones and that he wants to prove everyone he deserves all the money in his contract. He had a good start to the season too. But then few losses happened and something has changed. I don’t know what it was, but you could tell he isn’t happy in San Antonio anymore. And when you are thinking about leaving, you can’t give your fullest on the mound.”

Ricotta: „Are you happy with the return for Dixon though? I’m sure he could be a valuable addition to quite a few PEBA rotations”

Kuli: „It may be surprising, but there wasn’t big market for Glenn. His recent performance and salary left in his contract didn’t help. And i like what i’ve got for him, three useful pitchers all of whom can start games. Yoichibei Sakai already started two and we won both of them. He is motivated to play and we need players like that. If someone doesn’t like here in SA, the doors are open. We aren’t forcing anyone to play for us.”

Ricotta: „Ok, let’s move on with fans questions then. Johny1234 asks: How come we didn’t sign any big names in free agency? You freed so much payroll and it all goes to waste…”

Kuli: „Yes it’s been our plan from the start to reduce our salary to get some free space for future moves. We tried to sign a starter, we were in talks with two established pitchers, but their asking price was too high. We didn’t clear the house out of big salaries just to get another burdening contracts on our backs in free agency. Our goal is to build competetive franchise and to stay up there for years, not just for one year. And all this money didn’t go to waste at all. We were able to rise our development and scouting budgets and i think it already is paying off.”

Ricotta: „Speaking of scouting, iLikeCalzones asks: how do you like this year’s draft by SA and how many players from your initial list you were able to pick up?”

Kuli: „I had one player on my draft list and it was Bob Burns. I’m just kidding, it would be unprofessional, but i really liked Bob Burns. We needs pitching badly and he was the best one in the pool. After his first strong two starts in Drumright, he was already promoted to our double A team Sea Lions. We are hoping for his fast development. I’m happy with the rest of the drafted guys as well, especially catcher Vincent Ward and center fielders Mike Harris and Miguel Dominguez.”

Ricotta: „LealFan2000 asks: Why did you release Jorge Leal?! He was one of our favourites here in Drumright and he played so good!”

Kuli: „Well i’m really sorry to hear that. He wasn’t developing fast enough and we decided to let him go. I heard RGV picked him up already, so you can watch him there”

Ricotta: „UnsteadyAnette asks: Are you planning on trading away anyone else in the near future? I have to dump another jersey every month :(”

Kuli: „You can feel safe at least until deadline, we don’t have plans for trading more players until that, especially since we finally started winning. And our jerseys aren’t that expensive anyway”

Ricotta: „SeriousAnswerPlz asks: Do you have many inquiries about ‘Tugboat’ and are we going to lose him as well?”

Kuli: „Few teams asked me about Randy, but as of now he isn’t going anywhere. After Dixon’s departure we need him more than ever.”

Ricotta: „JeremyCalzones asks: Why did you trade away Bob Harris? With all our problems with starting pitching he could help us a lot now.”

Kuli: „It’s a very good question. Yes, our pitching looked bad even before Bob was traded, but we needed second baseman even more and in the same trade we were able to free ourselves of some of the most expensive salaries, including Octavio Pexego’s 16.6M, Xavier Gomes’s 4.2M and Pablo Cabrera’s 9.9M. And Jose Escobido is one of our two best batters now and he is top 2B defensively in the league as well.”

Ricotta: „PoorFan asks: Will you guys lower ticket prices? They are way too expensive!”

Kuli: „No. Ok, maybe.”

Ricotta: „GoCalzones! asks: What’s gonna be your next move and what upgrades San Antonio needs right now?”

Kuli: „Obviously we could use a starter, or better two of them. Center fielder would be useful as well as additional infielders. I can’t say anything right now, but something may still happen before deadline.”

Ricotta: „Thanks for taking your time to answer all these questions and good luck for the rest of the season!”

Kuli: „No problem, thanks for having me.”

And that’s it for today. Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed and see you next time.
Go Calzones!