My perception was that he was a great physical specimen, and what a worker. He didn't have as much confidence in himself as he should, wasn't as aggressive as he should be, and we began a process - and it was a process - of getting him to believe in himself. |
My thoughts are here, and I want to be here, ... I want to win this now, here. That's my only focus. |
No matter how you tell him it's not going to be that bad out there, you get out there and ... (expletive). This will get his mind right for (the second round) and he needed that. |
Obviously, he [dropped down] in the second, so that meant he was feeling good. I asked him [if he was OK], and he shook his head and really gave me a good look in his eyes, like, 'Yeah, I'm OK now. |
Once the cloud lifted when we clinched, that black cloud of doom - hey, you know what, we've seen the white light, |
Once we clinched the division, we got really hot, |
Once we clinched the division, we got really hot. |
Right now we have a closer — Bobby Jenks. But I don't have a problem with using (McCarthy) in the ninth. I don't think it would be a bad move. |
The attention is nice and flattering, but with all that stuff that was going on last year, I had no intentions to go anywhere. My wish and my hopes for the rest of my career is to be a coach for the White Sox. |
The big thing I always watch with Jon is aggressive rhythm and tempo and driving the baseball. If you're not coming at a hitter with the first three pitches to dictate the count, what are you doing? You're either gonna suffer a slow death, or maybe you'll survive. You're not looking for either one of those outcomes. You're looking to dominate. So let's go. Let's get after them. |
The bottom line is this: You're going to have a lot of energy and your stuff is going to be strong, because of the importance of the game and the crowd and the electricity, ... You've got to control that energy and use it to your favor rather than your demise. If you make the glove your first and last thought and bring all that energy and freshness you have, we've got a chance to get from the relievers what we got from 'Gar.' |
The guy wasn't dogmeat before this year. He was just young and he wasn't ready to give the things that everybody expected. When a player comes to the big leagues and kicks butt and the rest is history, that's the exception to the rule. The norm is what happened with Jon. You give a few beatings and you take a few beatings, but you get to where you want to go. |
The level of competition in Cuba isn't the same as it is in the major leagues. It's about Triple-A. Contreras went (to New York) and was expected to win right away and that wasn't realistic. |
The level of competition in Cuba isn't the same as it is in the major leagues. It's about Triple-A. Contreras went there (to New York) and was expected to win right away and that wasn't realistic. |
The players know who's boss. |