I'll say this. Any team that wins using a closer by committee better have a fantastic offense. |
I'm going to try it this way. We'll see how it goes. |
I'm hoping to have one last good year. |
I've been in some camps with some great relievers, but not quite to this extent. I went seven months without picking up a baseball, and I'm still struggling out there right now. |
I've got a lot of respect for those guys. That's a lot of writing and lot of watching games. It's baseball, and I love watching it, but I love being in uniform more. |
If I have surgery and I have to sit out next year, I'd be done. Either he'll say this is going to heal up enough to pitch, or we're going to have to do surgery — which I don't want to do. With surgery, I have no chance and I'll miss all next year because it's a minimum of 12 months. |
It's been difficult not being at the park. I came here to help this organization grow, and I haven't had a chance to do that. I still feel like a player, and I'm sitting at home during the season. This if the first time I've been on a 60-day [disabled list] and I knew my year was over. |
It's doing a lot better than it was. I'm back to normal everyday stuff. I haven't gotten to where I think I'm comfortable enough to start picking up a ball and start chucking it yet, but I still have the whole offseason to get that ready and come firing in the spring. I'll know a lot more on Friday when Dr. Yocum looks at it. |
It's just the way we've played the game all year long, |
It's not difficult (to stop pitching), because I just physically can't do it. That's not something I was looking forward to, but I knew that was a pretty good reality before I came down here. |
It's not doing bad. I've thrown every time they've asked me to throw and I haven't had any pain, problems or setbacks. I didn't start throwing until early January, and it's OK. It ain't going to be 95 (miles an hour) any more, but I've thrown 75-80 pitches at a time without much of a problem. It just takes me a couple of days to recover. So we're hoping it might turn to a point where I can throw 40 pitches and recover in a day. |
Just watching him be able to adapt to the different stuff he's had over the years and still go out one of the top guys out there ... it's not easy to do. Guys who throw 95, 96 have an ego about being able to do that. He just went right into, 'Hey, you know, I throw 87 now. This is what I've got.' And he goes out there and gets it done just as well as he ever did. |
Let's just say I'm lucky I'm holding this in my left arm. My right arm would drop it right now. |
The Tigers took a chance on bringing me in. I was healthy when I got here. It just didn't work out. |
There are a lot of good people in here, and they've got a chance to have a good clubhouse. Just let Tram run with it, and I think he'll do a good job. |