Jim Tracy

Jim Tracy
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I started to fall in love with the game of baseball when my dad gave me my first set of baseball cards, ... I kept the ones I recognized. The guys I didn't were the ones I put in the spokes of my bicycle with clothes pins.
clubhouse full guys
Is Oliver Perez important to us? And Kip Wells? Sure, they are. But we've got a whole clubhouse full of guys that are important to us.
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Is he not a guy going into day one who is considered a Gold Glove candidate -- and a Gold Glove candidate that can go out there and get 200 base hits if he uses the whole field and hits intelligently with the situations that are in front of him?
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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.
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Both have very similar stuff, stuff that can beat you down on any given day. But you don't want guys with very similar stuff pitching on back-to-back days.
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Both guys are going to catch in situations and games that make the most sense for them and the club.
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I've always felt that honesty is the best way to go. These guys aren't kids anymore. They are men. Sometimes you tell people some things, and they don't want to hear it. We've all been in that position. Deal with it. Here's what it is.
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Every team needs people like that. It's not just what he does as a third base coach, and I happen to be believe he's very good at what he does. Having this guy as a buffer between my office and the clubhouse ... that's huge.
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To summarize for you, both guys passed (Saturday). It doesn't make any decision over the next few days any easier. But that's what you hope for. When you're in a position where you have to make choices like this, they're not easy. It's a great problem to have.
bench continue guys
I will use all 13 bench guys - I have and will continue to do so.
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I won't say where they are going to start. But he is the type of guy we are looking for to hopefully place in between two left-handers that have somewhat similar stuff and not give opposing clubs an opportunity to see the same type of stuff on consecutive days.
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We need some starts where we get seven or eight innings, and it would be great if we could even get one at some point in which the guys in the bullpen wouldn't even have to pick up their gloves one day.
guys length specialty
We can't just have specialty guys with 12 pitchers. We're going to need some length in our bullpen.
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We have two kids there. Both are very competent kids -- smart enough to understand what we're talking about -- and they will figure it out. We've got to find opportunities for both of them. We'll take it a day at a time and go from there. As I've said all along, with these two guys on the club, I don't want to see either one of them sit for too long a time and not participate. It's advantageous to both of them to do it that way.