Maybe I shouldn't have cursed. I had just given him the highest compliment last week when I said he's one of the pitchers I respect most in the league, because he doesn't clown, he doesn't showboat. He just pitches. |
Maybe the ball is on steroids. |
Maybe. It depends on how the other guys are doing, it depends on what I need. It depends on the bottom of the order. It's not definite. I'm always open-minded to changes. |
Missing almost the second half of the season last year really slowed his progress some. Skill-wise, he has the skill. We know that. It's just a matter of him playing and doing the little things. He works hard. |
My feeling is that life supercedes everything. I haven't heard the severity of it, but I know it's not good. When you get to those things, how do you put a timetable on it? |
My hope doesn't need reinvigorating, ... I had hope regardless. |
My hope doesn't need reinvigorating. I had hope regardless. |
My point is not only about teaching and having the ability to learn but also the ability to retain so you don't have to tell them the same thing over and over again, ... It's like a teacher. When you give them a test, you don't know what that student knows. How do you give a test here except on the field? Roger Craig told me, 'Never assume that they know. You can assume they should know, but there's no guarantee.' |
My thing is I've got work to do. I do my job. If we win, everything will take care of itself. That's how I live. If I'm approached, then we'll deal with that. But right now, I can't be worried about that. |
My wife [Melissa] talked to his mom, and she said he led every league coming up in home runs. The main thing is, he puts the ball in play, makes contact and gets hits. He's ahead of most guys already. |
New York hasn't been too good to us. It hasn't been too good to a lot of people. |
No -- I wish he'd gotten better. We all wish he'd gotten better. He wishes he'd gotten better. You don't just lose your skill. Sometimes you can't put your finger on it. He's tried a lot of stuff. It's not through lack of effort or hard work. He's worked hard. Guys around the league ask me, 'What's up?' and I don't know what to tell them. |
No, it wasn't us going through the motions. It was [Lowe] pitching. Our guys are busting it every day. We're just not getting it done. |
No. 1, we've got to get back to .500. That's how it is. That's our first task. |
No. 1, you have to make sure he's OK so this thing doesn't linger all year long. Fortunately for us, he did get some at-bats during the World Baseball Classic and the fact that he did pretty well shows he's not that far off. He saw better quality pitching in that than he would down here. It was to his advantage and ours that he did play. |