Jim Tracy
Jim Tracy
ability allow approach baseball best continue developed environment genuine league major man natural opportunity player position talent type unexpected
The best way to approach a player with his type of ability and talent is to feel like you've developed a type of environment to allow his development to continue on its natural course. With what we have done this winter, we have put this young man in a position to where his natural progression as a Major League Baseball player has a genuine opportunity to take place without heaping any unexpected expectations on him.
advance approach goes run understood worst
I told him that the worst case-scenario, if he goes the other way with the ball, was for him to get one run in and advance the other runner. He understood me perfectly. I'll take his approach to that at-bat.
approach approaches ball change dugout far given group guy missed noticed players situation swing swung team understand watching
The one thing I noticed about this team while watching from the other dugout is that it swung and missed too much. The approach had to change collectively, in my opinion, as far as each and every guy approaches his at bats. You need a group of players that understand that in a given situation it's pretty important for them to try and put the ball in play, and not swing and miss.
approach change damage expand fair share strike zone
He'll do his fair share of damage when it's all said and done. For him to change his approach and expand his strike zone would be wrong. It would do him no good.
approach type
He's doing everything you could ask, with the type of approach we want him to take as a top-of-the-order guy.
approach fourth game liked looked third
He was terrific. He looked like it was his third or fourth game of the spring, not his first. And I liked his approach at the plate, too.
approach candidate fact good guy kid league major matter mentality pitcher possesses start starting strongly talking time type
If this kid maintains the same type of mentality and approach that he possesses right now, it's a matter of time before you start strongly talking about the fact that he is a candidate to come here and start a Major League game. I look at this guy as being a very good starting pitcher some day.
advocating approaches ball continuing couple guys pitch smart swung taking time
I'm not advocating taking a ball on the first pitch every time up there. A couple of times (yesterday), the first pitch was there, and we swung at it. But I'm continuing to see these guys take smart approaches to hitting, and that's encouraging.
catch speed
We're going to speed Duff up and get him some at-bats. We've just got to catch up a little bit.
easy few gonna guy identical last leave quality recognize saw seeing start starts step teammates took
What we're seeing right now is, in my mind, identical to what we saw last year, when it took him a few starts to get untracked, and then you see one quality start after another. His teammates recognize that's he gonna leave everything that he has on the field, and it's very easy to step up for a guy like that.
came says schedule
What the schedule says is what you do. I think we came out of it pretty good, all things considered.
arm ball decrease instead pushing slot throwing timing
When your timing is off and you're pushing the ball instead of throwing the ball, there will be a decrease in velocity. If the timing is off or the arm slot is off, you won't see the same thing.
impact push runners talking
We're talking about a catcher. Squatting, up and down out of the crouch, runners going, boom, the impact of landing. ... It doesn't make any sense to push it.
rest
We're not going to say we're not going to see him for the rest of the year, ... We're going to take it day-by-day.