July 15, 2013

The Week in Quotes

July 8-14

by Andrew Koo, Chris Mosch and Satchel Price

LINCECUM RIDES ADRENALINE TO FIRST CAREER NO-HITTER

“I wasn't thinking it was the last out at the end of the no-hitter. I was just running on adrenaline the last couple of innings. My mind kept wanting to go into pitching mode.”
—Giants pitcher Tim Lincecum on the late innings of his no-hitter against San Diego on Saturday night. (Henry Schulman, SF Gate)

“Believe me, I was thinking about where he was with the pitch count. But he was under control and even got better with his delivery and command. He had that 'eye-of-the-tiger' look.”
—Manager Bruce Bochy on the 148 pitches Lincecum needed to get through his historic outing. (Chris Haft, MLB.com)

“You don't see it very often. He probably threw 40 pitches in the bullpen before the game and eight between innings, so it adds up to around 200. For him to continue to execute pitches was remarkable.”
—Catcher Buster Posey. (Dennis Lin, UT San Diego)

“To be honest with you, I thought that was a hit off the bat. Hunter comes flying in out of nowhere and makes the Superman catch. It was hard not to feed off the excitement that that caused.”
—Lincecum on right fielder Hunter Pence’s diving catch in the 8th inning to preserve the no-hitter.

“We just couldn't get anything going. The team's ticked. We're not swinging the bats. We're not pitching. We're not playing the way that we can play. There's no doubt about that, we're not getting it done, bottom line.”
—Padres manager Bud Black on Saturday’s defeat, which marked San Diego’s 18th loss in its last 21 games.

PUIG SPEAKS OUT ABOUT MEDIA, HIS OWN AGGRESSIVENESS

“In Cuba, there wasn't much press. Here, I have a lot of press on me, and it's not something I really like. Maybe they don't understand the situation I'm in. I'm not bad, I just don't like the press and I don't like the fame. I'm having fun and I want my team to get the attention. There are a lot of guys in the bullpen or in the dugout waiting for their turn to talk. It's not that I don't want to give an interview, I just don't want all the press all over me.”
—Dodgers rookie phenom Yasiel Puig. (Jesse Sanchez, MLB.com)

“It's everywhere we go, and it's every time he steps his foot in the locker room. It's like bam, bam, -bam. He just wants to go play. We have to give him a little bit of a break. We have to look at it a little bit from his side. He's coming from a different country, just gets to the big leagues and it's like 'wow.'”
—Manager Don Mattingly on the pressure surrounding Puig following his historic first month. (Kevin Baxter, Los Angeles Times)

“I've been an aggressive player since I was a little kid, and I thank my father and all the trainers who worked with me over the years for that. It's my style. But in this game, I'm learning you have to let guys like Hanley Ramirez and Adrian Gonzalez do their jobs. I feel bad about messing that up sometimes, but they help me when I make errors. That's something I'm working on. I'm always going to give maximum effort, but I'm realizing I have to be calmer.”
—Puig on his high energy and aggressive play.

“I don't mind a guy playing with a little attitude, honestly. I played with Rickey Henderson, he was a guy who irritated a lot of people, but he was a pretty good player.”
—Mattingly on Puig’s swagger, which players and former players around the league have openly critiqued.

BRAVES SURVIVING INJURIES BUT LIMP INTO ALL-STAR BREAK

“You just never know. I think Vegas lost a lot of money today if they saw our lineup and the guys we ran out there. But you can’t judge and handicap heart and putting the ball in play.”
—Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez on the Braves’ 5-2 win over Cincinnati on Sunday without the Upton brothers, Jason Heyward, or Jordan Schafer. (David O’Brien, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

“It’s been a while. In Triple-A I got three starts in center field. I took fly balls and had early work (in the outfield) every day in Triple-A, but up here I really wasn’t doing it because of the way the roster was set up—there were so many outfielders, it seemed impossible (he would play outfield).”
—Infielder Tyler Pastornicky on playing center field during Friday’s game. (David O’Brien, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

“I remember it happened to us in San Francisco in 2002. We lost every outfielder. We lost every one of them. We lost Barry [Bonds], we lost [Tsuyoshi] Shinjo, we lost Kenny Lofton. We lost all of them. I was wondering, 'What the heck is going on?' … My dad told me don't think worse because it can get worse. I remember saying at that time, 'This can't get any worse than this.' Bam! We lose another one.”
—Reds manager Dusty Baker on empathizing with the Braves’ many injuries following a similar experience as Giants skipper 11 years ago. (Jon Cooper, MLB.com)

“I think that we're lucky that the All-Star break is around the corner where you can use those four days. If we were in the middle of a 19-day stretch or something like that, it would be a lot tougher to deal with the injuries, but with the four days of the All-Star break, I think it comes at the right time, if there is such a thing. I think if it's in the middle of a long stretch, it would be a no-brainer to say 'We're going to have to DL somebody.'"
—Gonzalez (Eric Single, MLB.com)

“Bobby [Cox] was not afraid to put them in there when they came up here, and we'll keep that tradition going.”
—Gonzalez on his willingness to depend on other players to step up when the stars get sidelined.

CUBS GEARING UP FOR FUTURE AFTER KRIS BRYANT SIGNING

“We have to stay true to our vision. If you start trying to take shortcuts and rush prospects through the system, you end up shortchanging their development. We wish we could speed these things up a little bit.”
—Cubs President of Baseball Operations Theo Epstein. (Carrie Muskat, MLB.com)

“One thing that will separate us as a farm system is the numerous potential impact guys we have. We've had some depth for a while, but now there are a handful of guys we can look at and say, 'If we do a nice job helping them reach their ceiling, they could be potential impact players in the big leagues.' We need those guys to get to where we want to go. It's nice to look at that, but we have a long ways to go.”
—Epstein

“You have five, six, seven guys who have tremendous bat speed and athletic ability. It's nice to know a year has gone by and we have a lot of guys getting really close, and signing a kid like this, the best hitter in college baseball, is just another piece of the puzzle.”
—Manager Dale Sveum on Bryant joining a group of top prospects including Jorge Soler, Javier Baez, Albert Almora, Dan Vogelbach and Arismendy Alcantara. (Carrie Muskat, MLB.com)

“I expect a lot out of myself. I probably put higher expectations on myself than most people do. I go out there every day and expect to do great. I wasn't shocked at all. I know I have the talent in me to do great things on the field. I've been blessed with great, great skill in this game, and I did have a great year.”
—Bryant on his college ball success at San Diego, where he led the nation in home runs, walks, runs scored and slugging percentage. (Carrie Muskat, MLB.com)

“We're pretty excited about these guys, but these guys are pretty far away right now. We all know what happens to prospects. Yeah, it'd be awesome to see all four of those guys and more up in the big leagues in a couple years. But history tells us that is probably not going to happen. There's no doubt they're really exciting and they have tremendous potential, but none of them have played past Double-A yet. That's something that's not lost on any of us in the front office. We keep a level head about where they are, and as excited as we get, we always remember that.”
—Senior Vice President of Scouting and Player Development Jason McLeod. (Sahadev Sharma, ESPN Chicago)

“That's the main goal, that's what the organization talked to us about before we signed. To be a championship team, to be a World Series champ, that's what we're all looking forward to. It's a process, and we're just trying to work hard right now to get there as fast as possible … It's coming, it's coming. Sooner or later, we're coming.”
—2012 first-round pick Albert Almora

TWITTER

Citi Field might want to supply fans with shields now that @ynscspds is in the Home Run Derby.

— Brett Anderson (@BrettAnderson49) July 9, 2013

—In a continuation of last week’s tweet, Yoenis Cespedes was called on to participate in the Home Run Derby.

RT @Gdeuceswild Congrats to Tim lincecum! Welcome to the club man!!! Great job!!

— Edwin Jackson (@EJ36) July 14, 2013

"Hey guys I would give you all high fives but I can't lift my arm."- Tim Lincecum

— Brett Anderson (@BrettAnderson49) July 14, 2013

—A sea of players congratulated Tim Lincecum on his 148-pitch no-hitter, including Edwin Jackson and Matt Garza, who threw 149 and 120 pitches, respectively, in their own no-nos.

THE REST

“I'm definitely being careful, making sure my legs are under me and slowly working into it instead of going all out. Sometimes your instincts take over and you have to make a move that your body's not ready for.”
—Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, who was activated from the DL on Thursday after missing nearly four weeks with a fractured rib. (Glenn Rabney, MLB.com)

“When you get a player like that who can add value, not only when he's at the plate but on the basepaths, but also when he's out there at second base, those are the types of guys we feel we need to have and have long term. Removing some of the uncertainty for him and for us at this point makes sense.”
—Astros GM Jeff Luhnow on the four-year extension that the organization reached with second baseman Jose Altuve on Saturday. (Brian McTaggart, MLB.com)

“People said don't play him against left-handers. Well, I feel like this guy can get big hits against left-handers and guess what? He has. He still has presence against left-handers, which helps the other guys. You have to stick with guys. If you react off everybody else, you're going to have guys in and out of here daily. You have to have a little faith every now and again. But you have to have reasons and indicators to have that and I had plenty of those.”
—Mariners manager Eric Wedge on the resurgence of outfielder Raul Ibanez. Ibanez is currently on pace to breeze past Ted Williams’ record of 29 home runs in a season by a player age 41 or older. (Greg Johns, MLB.com)

“For me, it's more important to have the ring, especially since I signed as a free agent here, and I tried to get a ring here for the city of Chicago. The Hall of Fame, maybe when I get retired, I can see my numbers and what I did in the big leagues, and maybe my kids and my family can be proud.”
—Cubs outfielder Alfonso Soriano when asked if he felt he deserved induction to Cooperstown. (Carrie Muskat, MLB.com)

“That's bogus, the way I look at it. In batting practice every single day, we have rounds where all we try to do is hit home runs. People always say a bunch of bogus stuff: 'It messes up your swing.' Ah, no.'"
—Pirates outfielder Andrew McCutchen on the belief that participating in the Home Run Derby can mess up a hitter’s swing. (Tom Singer, MLB.com)

“I didn't just say, 'OK, I think I'll be good now. I'm tired of [stinking]. Everybody's like, 'What's your secret?' I've always been a good hitter, I've just never been a good hitter at the big league level. What no one is talking about is how much pressure was really on me last season, because if I hadn't performed last year, it probably would have been my last shot.”
—Orioles first baseman Chris Davis. He’ll go into the All-Star Break with 37 home runs. (Brittany Ghiroli, MLB.com)

“He's a few years older than me, but we grew up a few minutes from each other. Growing up, everybody kind of strived to be like him. He was kind of the first high Draft pick out of our area, and I really credit him for a lot of scouts discovering that area. This was kind of before a lot of the showcases where you could be seen. You had to go get seen. He was that first one, that first-round pick. I remember the day he got drafted. They announced it over the PA system, 'cause we were still in school. The excitement, the buzz around him made me work harder.”
—Mets third baseman David Wright on growing up in the same area as Rockies outfielder Michael Cuddyer. (Lyle Spencer, MLB.com)

“I was still going to school, still substitute teaching, doing all of that, and I was coaching, too, so that kind of passed the time, kept me busy. We were on spring break with the high school team, so that kind of occupied my mind, but the week after spring break, I said 'Hey this might be it for me, but there's a chance I might come back.' The high school coach was like, 'You're not coming back.'”
—Blue Jays reliever Steve Delabar, on his unusual path to the majors and the All-Star game. Just three years ago, Delabar was a substitute teacher and baseball coach, and finishing a university degree. (Gregor Chisholm, MLB.com)

“We were very touched. My gosh, he'll think of him every day when he picks up his son. There's not too many things that you can do that are more meaningful than that.”
—Janet Gigeous, mother of the late Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart, on starting pitcher Jered Weaver naming his newborn son after his former teammate and friend. (Alden Gonzalez, MLB.com)

Andrew Koo is an author of Baseball Prospectus. Follow @akoo
Click here to see Andrew's other articles. You can contact Andrew by clicking here
Chris Mosch is an author of Baseball Prospectus. Follow @chris_mosch
Click here to see Chris's other articles. You can contact Chris by clicking here