There's one [point] I've made since I started to manage and I say it every spring, ... Effort is not an option. Everything else we can talk about. |
There's something to that, but I'm not going to talk about it. That doesn't just happen. And it's pretty dramatic. There are things I see that intrigue me to want to look even closer. |
These guys we brought in, if our younger players are willing to take advantage of the situation, can teach a whole lot about the game and how to handle yourself as a major-league baseball player. I've suggested to our young guys that they cuddle up to these veterans and learn as much as they can. |
They both showed me something. |
They didn't make the decision any easier. And that's what you hope for. You want to have to make tough choices. This is not easy. |
They don't have to be ashamed about performing [the way they did] last night and staying after it the way they did. Two days in a row, we've been in a position in the latter part of the game with a chance to win. Over the course of the next 160 [games], you're very hopeful of the fact that you continue to do that a number of times. If you continue to do that ... you are going to win your fair share of games. |
They got a hit when they needed it and we did very little offensively for the majority of the night. |
They got a home run in the first inning from a very special player. But beyond that, we matched them pitch for pitch and play for play. |
They huddled up. They got it right. That's the bottom line. |
They put constant pressure on the other team, ... It's a very difficult style of baseball to compete against. |
They're going to be going at a level that they're not quite ready to go at on the seventh of March. |
Things are going to be done differently than they've been done in the past, I can promise you that. And it's going to be different in a good way. |
Think about the ... significance of ... how many at-bats he takes this year with men on base because the guy (Casey) hitting in front of him is going to be on base. There's going to be a number of times that he's going to come up to the plate with people on base and have the opportunity to either extend the inning, put a game away or extend leads. All those possibilities will be there. |
This affords him a couple of days to get some things sorted out, because we know offensively he is much, much better than what we have seen to this point. |
This club as a whole swung and missed entirely too much. Putting base-runners in motion where you're gong to swing and miss, it's not really pretty when you do something like that. It's pretty ugly at times. |