Right now, my job is just going to be to observe and learn for a while. But I know there is talent here. |
Sometimes, you just get a feeling about things. I thought it might take a little longer for him to get comfortable with it, because some different images have to be processed. But apparently, it hasn't. Apparently, he was just doing it wrong before. Now, he's doing it right, and it's easier for him. |
Staying with Jim was the result of a very fortunate time in my life. I really had two first choices of where I wanted to be, with Jim or with the Mariners, a first-class organization to work for, ... at least one of the top candidates. |
The truth is, we're trying to get him to throw exactly like he did in previous years. It's a sense of timing and knowing where your body parts need to be in the delivery on the way to home plate. It's timing of the different parts. |
These Pirates ... They're a great team waiting to happen. I honestly feel as though I have this grave responsibility to shape this young staff into what it could become -- and what it could become is frighteningly good. |
They certainly have talent, but what you really notice is that they're beyond their years in knowing how to pitch. They have an instinct. |
When you commit to a delivery alteration or different focus, which we've done with almost every single pitcher on the staff, it sometimes takes a while to get the consistent release point. It takes a while to be able to throw the baseball without concentrating on that alteration. Once it's ingrained in there to where they can throw without concentrating on that and put all of their focus on getting hitters out, then they pitch better. |
You are always alert to if there is an exception, and my mind is open. In the case of Zach, I don't really think it is at this point. |
You do see some deliveries quicker than others. Sometimes, you get a sense that your body is in their body and you can feel the transfer of power. When you do get a pitcher like that, sometimes the smallest thing sticks out with you. I'm not saying that Ryan was exactly like that, but he was close. |
You just never got the feeling you were part of the process. You were part of it, but a dispensable part of it. But that's all right. Maybe they had their own point of view, and they probably figured (we) weren't going to carry out what they wanted done. They have the right to bring in their own people. But I don't really look at it is I did a bad job or that I failed any kind of test. But whatever I had to offer, they didn't think it was valuable. |