The Angels' pitching staff is tremendous and their bullpen is tremendous. I don't think most people are going to wear this pitching staff out. I mean, Shields hasn't given up a hit to a left-handed hitter all year. So they've got all the ingredients. That's why they go to the post-season. |
The ball certainly carried more today that I would have expected here. They were flying out of here like ping-pong balls. |
The ball sounds a little different when Monroe hits it. |
The ball was flying out there. That's probably not going to happen again for a long, long time. |
The first thing he said (Wednesday) was 'I want to play five innings (Thursday).' He's getting ready for the World Games. He's a proud guy. He put some good swings on the ball. He had a little fun. The only problem was I had to hug him goodbye. I'm not going to see him for a couple of weeks. |
The guys that can are still going to hit with power. What I think [Slaught] brings to the party is we're going to try to create the total hitter. That's one thing I think our club definitely needs. |
The kid did a fantastic job. |
The kids are getting a chance to show the staff something. |
The need to get away from it. They're playing too many innings. We've got a gruesome stretch here the next few days. I thought long and hard about it when I went back to the park last night ... I just made a decision that this might make sense. |
The thing I'm happy about is he's in the strike zone hitting and he's doing one (heck) of a job with our pitchers. That's the thing I'm happiest about. I know he's going to get his hits, but right now he's handling that pitching perfect. |
The whole ball of wax was just lackluster. It's just not good enough. We had a chance to take the series three out of four, and we come out here like we just brought our luggage to the park; well, we've got a game to play, and then we go on the road. That's not good enough. |
There are a lot of things we're trying to establish. The biggest hill to climb is the confidence factor. |
There is a difference between an out and a productive out. There are situations where you need to make a productive out. |
There's a lot going on right now. I'm trying to cover everything I can. |
There's a lot more humor and personality than what I thought there was. So far, I think they've done everything right. They've had fun when they're supposed to have fun and they bear down when they're supposed to bear down. |