He's gong to have to pick it up and finish with a flurry. |
He's got a history of having done it, so we can't say we're surprised. |
He's got skills, but I told him they weren't playing out. And if the skills he has don't play out here, he would have to play Triple-A next year. It's very black and white. And maybe the idea of winter ball spurred him to have a good September. |
He's got to take some time. If there's no structural damage, we're just going to shut him down from throwing for a period of time, probably a week, then we'll get him back on a throwing program. We'll get his strength built back up. He'll throw long, he'll throw the bases, as we work into it. And then we'll get him out on a [Minor League] rehab where he's going to catch. |
He's had a nice (hitting) streak. Has he been hotter? Yes, |
He's had to have two very very big months to get him where he is right now, but he can get hot like nobody's business. He's probably learned some very valuable lessons through this year. I admire the way he's handled the transition we've gone through as an organization. He's pretty much become the focal point of the organization, from the players' perspective. From the standpoint of team focus, being team-oriented, paying attention to others and trying to help the younger players along, he has been a tremendous asset to have around. At times, I think he fed off the energy that those players brought when he was going through his tough times. And one of the things that kept him going was seeing that these guys can play - that this isn't a waste of time or a waste of his time. |
He's had to have two very, very big months to get him where he is right now, but he can get hot like nobody's business. At times, I think he fed off the energy that the young players brought when he was going through his tough times. |
He's healthy, which is saying a lot. Physically and mentally, he's in a better position than he has been in for a long time. |
He's hit some balls up here at this level that he didn't sniff in the past. Anything down, hard and away, anything down spinning away, he's really worked hard to make some adjustments, and it's really nice to see a guy that's worked that hard. |
He's in a good place. He's confident. |
He's kind of playing behind, catching up, as far as seeing pitches. He saw a number of pitches today. |
He's never going to hurt the lineup when he gets back in. |
He's not going to be invited back to be a part of the starting rotation. We have interest in bringing him back, but it's only in the bullpen. |
He's not happy about it. He'll learn from it. It won't happen again; I'm confident of that. |
He's not making his best pitches in traffic in his three starts so far. That's the next step for him. |