Jim Tracy
Jim Tracy
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.
anxious ball club days deal follow forward history looking pirates pittsburgh players proud somebody understand
I'm looking forward to spearheading this ball club to back to some of the days when the Pittsburgh Pirates were somebody you really had to deal with. I'm very anxious in making the players understand there is history here - history for them to be proud of and history for them to follow up on.
balls early good guys hits hitter middle pitch plate sitting suggesting
I'm not sitting here suggesting that guys don't get hits on an 0-2 or a 1-2 pitch ... but ordinarily, on 0-2, you don't see balls get hammered. When you come up through a minor-league system, you know early on that when you get a hitter 0-2, a ball sitting right in the middle of the plate is not a very good location.
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.
ballpark
That's why you come to the ballpark every night.
ball bring bullpen determine game gets handle hit losing mistake pitcher pitching record side watch
That's his game to determine at that point. You take him out of the game like that there, you bring in the bullpen and a mistake is made, a ball gets hit in the gap, and he's the pitcher of record in the losing decision, and he got to watch it on the other side of the dugout. I don't handle pitching that way.
ball extremely threw
Ian Snell threw the ball extremely well. He was very impressive.
adjustment ball count early forced fourth himself kept opposition order pitch swing
Ian Snell made an adjustment from what he was doing early on and got the ball down to where he could be very effective. He forced the opposition to have to swing the bat. He got himself some early-count outs. As a result, he kept his pitch count in order and was able to go through the fourth inning.
balls beginning best breaking command fastball progress threw
It was the best Snell has done. I'm beginning to see some progress from him. He threw enough breaking balls for strikes. He had much better command of his fastball tonight.
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.
ball hit wonderful
Cirillo didn't hit the ball well at all. He just hit it in a wonderful spot.
ball hit point protect purposely
I purposely ... started him, just to see how he'd respond, ... And he hit the ball long and foul, but the point is, you've got to protect the runner.
ball breaking count early second strike
In the second inning, his breaking ball for a strike early in the count was a lot better than it was in the first inning.
ball fact good recognize strike swing
If you want to swing off of live pitching, go right ahead. But recognize the fact of what a strike is and what a ball is. Let's get a good swing at a good pitch.