It gets tougher every year. I feel like I have the individual's future in the palm of my hand, and I just don't feel comfortable with that kind of power.
Actually, I wouldn't mind another week down here. Not to play games, but just to work on fundamentals. We didn't win many games, but, maybe just in the last week, we started looking a little better. Before that, we looked terrible.
To me, anybody who plays this game who's not injured can give you 100 percent. Now, maybe your 100 percent may be different than my 100 percent. But you can run hard, run the best you possibly can . . .
We chose not to give him an MRI. The physicals should include everything.
He's a professional. He takes the ball. He's not always healthy when he goes out there, but he doesn't complain about it. He just gives you the best he can possibly give you. It was the same way last year, even though we were really trying to protect him with that knee, he still wanted to throw as many innings as he possibly could.
What you have to do is get me to believe more in you by your performances. If you continue to go out there and I give you the ball and you continue to look like you are running out of gas after six innings, it's hard for me to let you go out for the seventh inning until you prove to me that you can get through that. That's what it's all about.
What we said when we sent him down was, 'Go down, get yourself going.' Did he do that No. We just feel like he has proven he can hit up here before. ... We said we'll give him the first shot. Maybe he'll get going up here.
With us right now, you can give us 20 walks and it'll still be a 2-1 or 3-2 game.
September can really be like fool's gold, ... You don't want to get too excited about Septembers.
We've just been very fortunate we had good success against him and made good pitches on him, ... You have to contain him. You don't just totally shut him down.
Brooks never impressed me because you were accustomed to him making the plays. This kid reminds me a lot of Brooks on those plays. Brooks owned those things. Brooks was very good on those slow rollers coming in.
He feels better about it. He's healthier and feeling good and playing well and coming along real good in spring training with no setbacks. Yeah, that has a lot to do with his good mood. Health is probably the No.1 thing that has something to do with it.
Zimmerman had been struggling. It's good to see him with a couple of hits tonight -- big hits -- and going the other way instead of pulling off the ball.
I just wanted to get it out of the way. That way it's not hanging out there in the blue.
If you have nothing to say then say it, ... It's no big deal. I can't get inside his head.
Usually in a game like that you hope for one good shot against a guy like that and we got it. With the bases loaded and nobody out you expect to get something out of it. We couldn't have asked for anything better with our heart of the order coming up. We had the people we wanted coming to the plate.
It would have been really fairy tale if we could have pulled this thing off. They wouldn't have even touched this in Hollywood.
Usually in a game like this you hope for one good shot at a pitcher like Pedro. It wasn't whether they had good at-bats, they just weren't productive even if they hit the ball hard. We had the people you wanted at the plate in the order you wanted and expected to be productive, but we didn't get it.
There's still hope. We're not mathematically eliminated. But we're in a pretty good hole now.
I don't know if it hurt his development, but it certainly didn't help.
I don't know if staying in the Major Leagues hurt his development, but it certainly didn't help his development. He would have benefited much more if he played a full year in the Minor League level.
I have no idea. Hopefully, at least five innings - and we're in the ballgame.
He's getting better, continuing to improve. He's still not quite there yet. Location is still a little off. But I'm pleased with where he is.
He's a very unique individual. Not everybody can do what he does. It comes from his background, his work ethic. He loves the work load. He wants to throw as many innings as possible. He loves doing it.
This is a key year for him, I think, for him to go back out there and back last year up with another solid year. There is no reason why he shouldn't be able to, barring some type of serious injury.
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