Ask Alfredo

If anybody is plugged into baseball in the Dominican Republic, it's Angels coach Alfredo Griffin.

He's everywhere it seems. Griffin can be spotted at every Caribbean Series, either in the stands or in the dugout, and was a fixture with the country's club during the World Baseball Classic in 2006 as a coach. He's still a legend in San Pedro de Macoris for his big league career and will always be revered as one of the first famous infielders from the island.

He is the definition of "Soy Dominicano."

So when Griffin spoke about the Dominican participation in the upcoming World Baseball Classic in 2009 recently at Angel Stadium, people stopped to listen. Hopefully, his countrymen were taking notes.

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"(Dominican Republic) will have time and they should be prepared this time around," he said. "The biggest problem is the timing of it. People go from Santo Domingo where they are relaxing, then go to Spring Training and then start playing games very quickly. The conditioning wasn't there and everybody knew that. That's why the pitchers were on such a low pitch-count. That made it difficult for our teams."

"Maybe the players have to get ready sooner," he said. "I don't know if it has to come from Major League Baseball or the players personally, but they have to be ready to compete this time around. We do that, we will do better."

The Dominican team finished the 2006 World Baseball Classic with a 5-2 record, losing to Cuba in the semifinals. They were considered the favorites in 2006, sporting a roster of All-Stars and up-and-coming players. Among the starters were Albert Pujols, David Ortiz, Alfonso Soriano, Miguel Tejada, Jose Reyes along with pitcher Daniel Cabrera, Francisco Liriano and Bartolo Colon.

The roster wasn't enough. Griffin is not guaranteeing an All-Star roster will bring home the trophy in 2009, either. He's wise enough to know anything can happen in baseball.

"In baseball, you really can't predict anything," he said. Every team has good players and if you look at the Dominican team, Manny Ramirez and Vladimir Guerrero didn't participate in the Classic and they are two of the best players in the game. I don't know what happens if they play."

"The Dominican team didn't have a lot of good pitching, either, "he continued. "There weren't that many good pitchers available. Japan played good baseball. Cuba played good baseball. That's why they won. I think if the Latin teams and the team from the United States prepare, they will be a lot better in the next one. I still don't think anybody was prepared or knew what to expect."

That should be different this time around. Ask Griffin and he'll likely agree that more intrasquad and game-type of simulation would benefit the Dominican team. The club simply did not see enough live pitching to be prepared for the stiff international competition. Hitters also seemed to be off the mark, at least by a week.

Just don't ask Griffin where the club should play. Griffin, like most of his countrymen, believe location of the tournament does not matter and scoffed at the notion of the proposed boycott if the Dominican Republic did not play host to a round.

"Those people talked without knowing what was going on and I didn't support that," he said. "I don't know anybody that did. If you want to make a case, present it and discuss it, maybe I can listen, but you just don't say our country is not going to play if we don't have a round in Santo Domingo. I don't agree with that thinking. There are other ways to handle the situation. Players knew better. They knew it was too early to say anything like that so nobody took it seriously."

Griffin should know. He's plugged in. As usual.