All along the way in my cycling career, many people have been supportive in showing me the right direction. That has served as a catalyst for me to do the same thing for others. |
All he does is drive in runs. If he gets 90 RBI out of the seven or eight hole in the lineup, we'll be receptive to that. |
Almost any decision that I ended up making in the baseball part of our operation Wayne was involved in at some point. |
Anybody that knew Kirby or has been around him, we're all thinking about him. I knew, though, what he'd want us to do. Go out and do what you're supposed to do here. He'd want us to go out and play the game. |
Anyone who is around our organization, we have pictures up of (Puckett) and Rod Carew and Harmon Killebrew and Tony Oliva. We've done a great job of bridging the gap between when Kirby played and the players now. |
Anytime you have movement, it's sensitive and I don't expect it to be anything less than that, ... But he also understands that as an organization we're trying to get to the postseason and it didn't work this year. |
Anytime you have movement, it's sensitive and I don't expect it to be anything less than that. But he also understands that as an organization we're trying to get to the postseason and it didn't work this year. |
Building a bullpen calls for going from the back forward. Having an established closer like Nathan along with a reliable setup guy in Juan Rincon is a key. Then we had Jesse Crain emerge as a quality sixth- and seventh-inning reliever. |
Every club has issues. Whether you have a $30 million payroll or $130 million, you've got issues, |
First off, we're always young. We're one of the youngest teams in the game every year. Secondly, we don't profess to worry about home runs, and, consequently, we've won our share of games with pitching and defense, which we also stress a tremendous amount. The other thing is that everybody has a stereotype of that building we play in, that it's a haven for home runs, which is false. It isn't a homer dome. Those days are gone ? since about '87 when we had four or five guys that did hit a bunch of them. |
For the past five years or so, the bullpen has not been an issue for us and we believe that it won't be again this season. We have people that are unafraid when they take the mound and are able to throw strikes when we need them to. That's what relievers should be able to do, and that's exactly what we've got. |
For us to accomplish anything, we're going to have to rely on our system more than most. And I think that helps. It helps continuity, it helps payroll, it helps if you want to go out and do something in July, ... It gives you flexibility, and it certainly protects you from injury. We're not afraid to pull guys up [from the minors] and give them a chance. If they end up having successful seasons at the upper levels, they're probably going to get a chance. |
Forget speculation. Let's talk about reality. People were talking about Brad Radke being traded seven years ago, and he's been with us for 11 years. |
Garza's a prime example of someone who can benefit from this, because he wouldn't even be here if we weren't losing so many pitchers. So it's a chance for these guys to get some exposure to the Major League staff that they normally wouldn't have gotten, so hopefully they take advantage of that. |
He did fine. He threw the ball well. In fact, I saw him throw the ball as well as he may have ever thrown it. We're just going to go a different route. |