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April 25, 2011 The Week in QuotesApril 18-24TIM LINCECUM IS NOT AN ANIMAL
"I would say we're moving to expanding the playoffs, but there's a myriad of details to work out. Ten is a fair number. The more we've talked about it, I think we're moving inexorably to that."
"Personally I think it's kind of funky, just because the game has been this way for so long. Why mess it up, other than for monetary purposes, and that's probably what he is looking at. That's like, 'OK, don't worry about us as human beings or players.' "
"It doesn't seem very fair, and personally I don't know where his head is at. It doesn't seem right to me. I don't know, man. I don't see why you need to fix something that isn't broken. Players like it the way it is. It's dog-eat-dog. People know they need to win 11 games to win the World Series. Nobody wants to have to worry, 'Oh [expletive], now I've got another [expletive] team in the [expletive] mix.' Now we have to worry about what that takes and what they're going to do. What if the wild-card team is not deserving of getting in?"
"In my opinion, it gives franchises and cities something to look forward to other than just eight out of 30 teams getting in. And it's usually the same eight. For us, small-market teams, it gives you an opportunity to backdoor your way in and get a city excited to play in the playoffs. I think it's good."
"I think it's good for baseball. As long as it doesn't get crazy and get too watered down. It's never going to get to the point where you show up and you're in the playoffs, but I think it's good for baseball. There's been no decision made on how to do it, for sure. They're just throwing a bunch of stuff around. But I think it'll be good for baseball. Basically, to me, baseball is like any other business: you try to give your customers what they want." AFTER ALL, THEY DID PAY HIM ALMOST $4M A YEAR
"It's obvious the organization needed to be tended to, paid attention to, and I know it wasn't easy for the commissioner to come up with the decision that he did."
"All this momentum is building, and then all of sudden this letter comes in and says, 'You don't have any money. You don't have this or that.' I think it was irresponsible. To me, if you're going to send somebody out here to take something over, you don't write a letter that says, 'Gee whiz, here's all these problems with you, and here's everything else, but don't worry, later on in the week we're going to send somebody else out.' You do it the same day... What are you supposed to do for four days?"
"You don't need any rough spots or bad things to happen to appreciate the O'Malleys. They're a terrific family, they're down to earth. You look at what they did for baseball and the Dodger organization, they did things right."
"I think our team is concentrating on the games at hand. I've talked to them. Donnie's talked to them. They're focused on winning games and that's where their focus should be and that's where we expect their focus to continue to be, as well as Donnie's and mine." HIS FLAWLESS FAREWELL TOUR HITS NEW YORK NEXT
"Me? No, I got a lot of money. I got a lot of work. If I'm not managing the White Sox, I will manage somewhere else. Maybe Mexico, Japan. I know I will manage in Venezuela. I can do a lot of great stuff in baseball. This job might just have a title. I might go to Fox. They want me. I can do a lot of stuff. Job security, everyone who sits in this chair, all those guys out there, they are in the same boat I am."
"If I get fired, I deserve to get fired. I don't think Jerry or Kenny will fire me just to tell the people, 'We don't like Ozzie,' or 'Look at what we are going to do.' They will fire me because my players will get me fired. That's the way I look at it. That's the last thing that goes through my mind."
"I come to work, put a smile on my face, talk to you guys and do my manager's job and go home and cry. In front of you guys, I'm fine, I'm cool." SCOTT HAIRSTON HAS RARELY BEEN THE SOURCE OF SO MUCH HUMAN MISERY
"It has certainly been shocking to us. It was one of the things we had to work on in spring training."
"We don't have a lot of moves to make. We brought in a lot of players, role players, primarily because we don't have at the top end of our system players who can make a contribution right away... There aren't many of those guys."
"When you're a pitching staff that doesn't strike out guys, you can't allow the base-on-balls."
"When you got one of your pitchers talking during the game about what he's going to do next winter, that's inexcusable. That's a mental error as far as I'm concerned. We're in April and you're worried about next January?" THIS IS NOT A GAME
"To me, our game is not a sprint. It's not the first three weeks, it's not the first four weeks. It's something that you have to deal with when you're with the Yankees, because guys stay here a long time."
"You understand going in that you're going to have to deal with aging veterans.... It's just a difficult point of life, because our mind tells us one thing and our heart tells us another."
"Those are ignorant people who say that. They don't know the game. I could play 140 games at 90 percent, 80 percent. But that's not the way I play. I play 100 percent. I don't see people saying he's fragile. They say he plays hard." THE REST
"I think he's a five-tool guy. He can beat you in a number of ways, like with his power, or he can steal a base when you need it. He obviously hits for a high average, and his defense can be real good at times. He's probably, talent-wise, up there with some of the best in the game."
"The people in charge would prepare all this stuff and the telecast was all about getting all this stuff in."
"He's throwing 103 and I don't know what I'm trying to do. After the first pitch, I moved a foot farther from the plate and started hacking."
"My theory is that drug testing in Major League Baseball is working and people are getting away from using illegal steroids. They are moving to legal products such as creatine, but they don't know how to use it in conjunction with their workouts."
"I'm not sure if they missed a sign or it was a hit-and-run or something. I have to brush up on my unwritten rules. It may be an L.A. and Milwaukee version. I don't know. I just was curious. I was a little surprised but I believe there was a missed sign." --- Alex Carnevale is a contributor to Baseball Prospectus. 1 comment has been left for this article.
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"After the first pitch, I moved a foot farther from the plate and started hacking." What a great quote and a terrific way to describe what it would be like for an average Joe to face MLB pitching.