April 2006: Question and Answer with Julio Garcia

[Chris]

Julio Garcia, Latin American Field Coordinator for the Chicago Cubs' Minor League Department, has graciously agreed to take questions from posters on NSBB! If you would like to send a comment to Julio, or if you would like to ask Julio a question, feel free to post it here. The deadline for submitting questions is Friday, April 28th at noon. Once the interview has been completed, the responses will be posted.

 

This session will be coordinated as in accordance with The NSBB Q & A Guidelines as well as the NSBB Member Guidelines.

 

Thank you to Julio for taking the time to interact with us on such an up close and personal level. As always, thank you to all of you for making NSBB such a wonderful community!

[Jon]

Thanks for taking the time to answer some questions.

 

What does the new facility in the Dominican Republic mean for the Cubs? What kind of advantage does it provide? How many other teams have similar facilities in the Dominican Republic and Venezuela?

 

I've heard numerous American-born players rave about their experiences in winter ball. Aside from extra playing time, what does winter ball do for prospects that they don't get during the minor league season?

 

We've seen some players change positions after a few seasons. What is the process of determining positions for some of these guys and what are the most difficult parts of that?

 

How difficult is it to work with the government to get your players visas?

 

What was your favorite part of managing in the Midwest League? What was it like to get the game ball from the Chiefs' first home win?