I'm trying to get him out there as much as we can to give him an extra at-bat and an extra inning or two. And he wants it. |
I've never said anything disparaging about Wally Backman and I refuse to do so now. |
I've talked to him about it, and tried to keep him from thinking too much about the situation, and just going out there and doing his job and trying to impress. Things will work out for him, I think, one way or the other. Sometimes you get too focused on the numbers, on 'Where do I fit in,' and that can set you back a little bit. So he's just got to go out there every day and do the best he can, and let the chips fall. |
If [Vargas] goes out and does what he did in the middle of last season, and Halsey goes out and shows you what he did late-April through June, you're going to have a tough battle. |
If anybody deserves this it's him. He's really worked himself into where he'll be pitching Opening Day for us. He'll be our No. 1 starter and obviously that's an honor that he's not going to take lightly. |
If anyone had the right to show up not in the greatest spirits, it would be him. He was anything but. He's played well. He focused on what he had to do. |
If anyone was going to show up here looking like the odd-man out and not being in the greatest of spirits, it could've been him. He has been anything but that. He's played well, focused on what he's had to do and had a smile on his face. |
If he was a starter, I'd be a little bit more concerned. He's a reliever and we've got plenty of time to get him ready. |
If he's a guy we feel we need to go after, we'll go after him. If I feel he's a guy in a particular situation we need to pitch around, I'll pitch around him. |
If I can give El Duque another day I'm going to give him another day. I think a lot of times guys benefit from it especially late in the year. |
If it doesn't hit his glove, it probably goes through and we get a double play. |
If we finished the year at a 2.60 ERA, I'd probably be surprised. But certainly, that was something that everyone was kind of looking at to be our Achilles' heel right away. And so far, six games into the season, we feel pretty good about where our pitching is. |
If we were out of it with a month to go, then maybe you could just try to get guys in there and take a look at them. It's kind of a Catch-22. . . . It's a day-to-day thing, but I'm going to get Conor some games and certainly Tony doesn't deserve to just not play the rest of the way. |
If you are going to get an off day, as much pitching as you can use in this ballpark, it probably works well. |
If you told me it would have been a one-run game like that toward the end, I probably would have bet you. It was two different games. Early on, everybody swung the bat good and hit the ball hard. And then later on, defense and pitching came into play. |