His confidence is up, and he's pitched real good. The ball is coming out of his hand good right now. His fastball is real good and he's thrown some real good breaking balls. |
His fastball is still there, but that doesn't mean he's not fatigued. He's still a very important part of our bullpen. |
His first time up in the big leagues, he was anxious and he tried too hard to prove he belonged. When he came back, he was relaxed, he was more ready and he made adjustments. As the season went on, he got better. He works hard and he likes to be a player for us when it counts. Plus, he's big. |
His foot is a little sore. I don't want him to go through what he went through last year. That's why he got operated on in the winter. The first day he wore spikes, there was soreness in the same place. I don't want him out there [Monday]. |
His name comes up because he's a good player. We didn't present Bobby Abreu in a trade. There was a couple times in the winter meetings when I was there, and I was sitting talking to a couple clubs, and his name was not, it was not like we brought it up and asked about trading Bobby Abreu. |
His role will be fill-in, |
His rubber arm is getting a little rubber. He's new in the role. I think he can use a break, but I'll pitch him two innings [on Friday]. |
His shoulder still bothers him. Hopefully, we'll be able to use him before long. But he's not ready yet. |
His stuff will play big for one or two innings in the bullpen. He makes our bullpen strong. Right now, I think we have the best guys in their roles. To me, Franklin is the guy with the rubber arm. He can bounce back. I explained it real good to him. |
His swing is short and quick right now. He's been working the count better and he's been getting balls to hit. |
Hopefully, there will be some way to get him some comfort when he runs. Let's wait and see a day or two if the soreness goes out. |
Houston's schedule definitely concerns me. Not only are we playing teams in our division, we're playing very good teams that are very tough on us, too. |
How about that Abreu, hitting in the clutch? |
How am I going to stop him? He's on his own. He was being aggressive but he made bad judgment. He was trying to make something happen but it wasn't at the right time. |
How the hell am I going to stop him? ... [Bell] sees the play. He's on his own. He was being aggressive, but he made a bad judgment. |