Joe Nathan

It was one of those games where the opposing team kind of takes a breath when they see that Johan isn't coming back out there, ... Cy Young could go out there and they'd be relieved that it's not Johan.

They go hand and hand. That's one of the good things I'll be able to stay on the same schedule there as I would here anyway.

It's great and all. It's not like we're playing for individual things. It's nice to have but at the same time, I'd trade it in for a playoff berth.

Sounds awesome. He's going to do nothing but help us, and hopefully he'll get back to his old form. Hopefully it'll be like the Shannon Stewart trade.

I think it's the cardinal's vision and the pope's vision that it would be a center that would appeal to a lot of people. The hope was that it wasn't going to be 10 people giving millions each ... but millions each giving 1.

It was almost worse. It's like this feeling that you just let a whole lot of people down. I know for myself, I don't want to feel that way again.

The opportunity was there. Everything has worked out great in Minnesota.

We're not going to sit there and say that we need more runs. We know how hard it is, and it's not like our hitters need to be told. We don't need to state the obvious. They're coming in and busting their butt everyday and doing whatever they need to to get better.

We would've liked to have been more game-ready. Guys were missing pitches they don't normally miss.

That was a huge loss. It's one of the more disappointing losses, especially for our team to battle back like that.

This is a huge loss. It's one of the more disappointing blown saves for me.

This is a huge loss. It's one of the more disappointing of this season. For our team to battle back, for them to do what they did and the way the guys threw before, it was awesome.

At least top three. A lot of times wins are out of your control, so all he can do is try to finish off strong with his last three (starts) and get his win total up a little bit aa and hopefully his other numbers are strong enough to persuade some people to go that route.

That's out of his control. Hopefully the other numbers prove to be stronger.

There's broad frustration and even antagonism out there. Americans perceive unions as people who put the interests of their members first. They don't feel the unions pay enough concern to getting rid of ineffective teachers. They see unions as challenging and often trying to stop school reform.

For some reason, I guess I thought we were away. I had a little brain cramp, that's all.

I've had superintendents tell me 'Joe, you're right. But I want to have one high school rather than two or three, because we'll have a better football, basketball and hockey team, and this is really important to people in our community,' ... So one of the things is, how does the community feel about sports And in some places people are really focused on high school sports, and that's a huge factor in the decisions about the size of high schools.

I think fantasy is a good thing, it creates interest. I don't think about it much. It's not like I go out and try to perform for a fantasy team, but I think they are good to create interest and not just in baseball.

It's going to be a tough opening month. I think most of us are just looking forward to getting the season going and looking forward to the challenge of it. Hopefully we can get off to a good start and play the best baseball right away because it's not going to be an easy stretch.

When his name popped up, I thought it was a joke at first. Knowing him, I thought this was one of his pranks or something. ... With this testing, you've really got to be careful and you've really got to pay attention to what's going into your body.

My thought was just to try to get ahead on strikes and make sure I'm around the plate. It's been a while since I've been out there, so in those situations you never know how you will react.