This kid has a chance to be the next face of the franchise, ... He's been remarkable since the day he was drafted out of high school. He's up for his first major league at-bat, doesn't even have a sweaty jockstrap yet, and he's getting a standing ovation from our fans. |
This particular camp is probably more beneficial than most because Roger has had the opportunity to acclimate himself to the deliveries of each of these pitchers, to put a face to an arm. He's been watching DVDs and looking at statistics. Now he can humanize these guys. So it's probably been more beneficial than any camp we've had in 16 years, from that standpoint. |
This winter we have set our sights on going back to sort of the old-fashioned Braves way of building championship teams with dominant pitching. That's what we think we have done and we are excited about the pitching staff we have put together for the season. |
Those kind of things are rare. They don't happen very often, and for good reason. It's not anything people can go to any meeting and expect to get done. It just flows out of its own circumstances. |
Throughout this remarkable 15-year run of ours in which the Braves have had so much success, I'm asked one question and one question only, ... And that is, 'How have you guys done it? How have the Braves been able to continue to win and put a championship organization and team on the field year after year after year?' |
Tommy went through a purgatory of second thoughts, To me that was a private business discussion and should have stayed that way. |
Tommy went through a purgatory of second thoughts. |
We all have concerns; everybody does. We're going to do all that we can to be as smart as we can to get our guys in the best possible condition, principally pitchers, so they're less likely to have an injury problem that would set them back and set us back. |
We almost thought there was no need to interview anyone else. When you have a Hall of Fame manager say, 'I really like this guy,' you listen. |
We are aware that there was an incident, ... We will do everything in our power to insure that similar incidents do not occur in the future. |
We bring rookies in who we know can play, and hand them over to [Cox] because we know he's going to make them into a team. It's never with trepidation. It's always with confidence. |
We could not have acquired a more perfect player for us than Edgar Renteria. |
We couldn't have done it without the work that they do. It's true every year. This year it was true to a much larger extent, to a far greater degree. |
We didn't know, |
We didn't know. But we had the attitude like we always do that we're going to be competitive and we're going to do whatever we have to do to make things work. We had that confidence. |