Jim Tracy
Jim Tracy
hitters pitches
We know he's very capable. He has the pitches to get major-league hitters out.
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Pitch the ball, catch it and put it into play, you're going to have to show me that it doesn't work, because I've seen it work. We have the components in this clubhouse to make it work, I really believe that.
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Pitching and defense has been the name of the game in baseball forever. I don't care what level you're playing at. My philosophy since I started managing has been that, before you can look at any other phases, you've got to feel fairly comfortable that you've got some people who can pitch and you've got to be able to catch the ball. If you can't do either one, your chances of being very good are slim.
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I think he has a chance be a terrific offensive player. But part of becoming a great offensive player is having a full understanding of the strike zone and understand what pitchers try to do to him in certain situations. The only way you get to that point is you keep carrying the bat to the plate.
adjust mike pitching
We'll adjust as we see fit. But Mike won't necessarily be pitching the ninth.
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When half of the team is the pitching staff, there are some intangible things that are important. We can sit here and talk about hitting all we want. But that won't help the other part that is vitally necessary to the success of the Major League team, and that's the interaction that takes place between two guys 60 feet, six inches away from one another. That's just as important as anybody's batting average.
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Those are young pitchers who made the adjustments, learned how important it is to get ahead in the count. There isn't much I can say positive about the first 3 2/3 innings of this game. Oliver had a decent first inning but after that there was no command to speak of.
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I think it's very safe to say that Ryan is not a finished product defensively. I also feel that, when you look at a major-league baseball team that has 25 active members and half of that is your pitching staff, it's pretty imperative that that stuff back there behind the plate gets taken care of.
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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.
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Any time you face a pitcher the caliber of Chris Carpenter, you get one opportunity against him. He started quick and it took us until the seventh to get our opportunity to crack through.
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That's the difference between Oliver Perez on Opening Day and Oliver Perez in Cincinnati. He was pitching uphill.
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To me, he's one of the game's best pitching coaches in the National or American leagues. He has not only the ability to teach the physical aspects of the game, but also the ability to communicate with his pitchers.
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Did the starting pitcher give you a chance every fifth day to go out there and win? -- that's the biggest element I look at. (Santos) was pretty good at that last year.
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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.