Jim Tracy
Jim Tracy
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.
chance combined contact given great helped hitter last less man none saying sean seasons second strike
I'm not saying things would have necessarily been different if Sean was in the lineup but I think it would have helped to have a hitter who combined to strike out less 100 times over the last two seasons up in the situation. You need to make contact with a man on second and none out, and I think Sean would have given us a great chance of doing that.
attacked guy hitter
You don't want to see a guy go 3-2 on a hitter all the time. (Perez) attacked (yesterday) -- that's what I want to see.
hitters pitches
We know he's very capable. He has the pitches to get major-league hitters out.
arm coming elbow hitter leads lower pitches pitching slot supposed swing throwing
His (left) elbow is lower than it should be and he's not pitching like he's coming off a slope. At times, his arm was where it was supposed to be ... but his inconsistency with his arm slot is what leads him to throwing pitches that no major-league hitter would swing at.
ball bunt coming contact drive guy hitter outfield perfect pitches run
He had two perfect pitches to bunt. That's the guy you want up there to get the bunt down. You get the bunt down, it makes them have to make decisions. And we had a guy coming up who's a contact hitter who can drive the ball to the outfield to drive the run in.
believer fact gets hitters league looks major people stuff
I am a big believer in the fact that stuff gets people out, not what looks cosmetically correct. Stuff is what gets major league hitters out.
absolutely andrew basketball lived loved player smartest
I loved those kids. I loved Andrew . . . I loved him. Smartest player I had in that program. He lived for it. Absolutely lived for basketball at St. Martha's.
behind casey guy hitting jason joe knows offense perfect somehow
In a perfect scenario, you'd have Joe hitting sixth. But if it's not perfect, I could see him hitting fifth, somehow behind Casey and Jason Bay. This is a guy who knows how to keep the offense moving, hit to all fields.
advocating bad good pitch preaching swing time walk weak winning
I'm not advocating we take the first pitch every time we walk up there. But, if you're going to take a swing at a first pitch, have it be a really good swing. If we keep preaching that, there won't have to be a whole lot said if you make a weak out on a marginally bad first pitch. It's not the way you play winning baseball.
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.
baseball challenge players understand winning
I mean, how do you play winning baseball that way? I challenge players to understand how the game's played.
clarify law says state strong study sure
I know the state law already says that, but I just want to clarify it. We want to study it and make sure that the law is strong enough to keep that from happening.
breaking good impressed interested numbers strikes threw
I know the numbers didn't look too good. However, the thing I was very impressed is that he, for the most part, pitched ahead, threw a lot of strikes and threw some very good breaking pitches. He went after hitters, and that's something we are very interested in seeing.