Ideally, you'd like everyone to have young, strong arms, but with that you have growing pains. We've got great experience. |
It wasn't anything I said or we said. If that were the case, I'd say it all the time. I'd call them every afternoon and leave it on their answering machines. |
It's hard enough for Zach to be finding himself. To get himself into counts like that is not going to make his job any easier. |
It's not a coincidence that he has gone to pennant-winning teams because of his skills and the character issues and his leadership in the bullpen. |
It's not always something that maybe a person wants to hear but needs to hear: 'Hey, let's pick it up a little bit, you need to be doing this a little bit better. |
Let's say I was pleasantly surprised. |
One day he was the setup guy, next day he was the closer. There wasn't that analysis of him -- is he going to be able to handle the role? |
The bullpen is something we have talked about since I've been here. Last year, we went with younger arms and it showed. |
This was not so much about his stuff but how well he commanded the strike zone, that he had no discomfort and that he got his pitch count up. The answers were yes, yes and yes. . . . He earned an opportunity to really throw his hat in the ring (for the fifth starter spot). |
Throwing on the side doesn't equate to spring training. There's just not the same intensity. There's nobody with a bat in his hands telling you that you just made a mistake. |
We are bringing him back in four days, so there was no reason to push it. The important thing is, he sat down and had to loosen up six times, so he got a chance to really test the groin. |
We haven't seen any signs of Sunny having the form that he had last year. We talked [on Saturday]. To me, it's not a mechanics issue. I think he's kind of lost in what he's trying to do, as far as how he wants to execute each pitch. It's not coming naturally. |
We just don't want any setbacks. |
We're just going to have to deal with the condition of both of those pitchers when they get here. We do have some plans, whether it involves pitching in Minor League games to get their pitch counts up and get their innings up. That's all we can do is play some catch-up with both of those individuals, especially Sunny, who is vying for that fifth spot. |