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April 7, 2014 The Week in QuotesMarch 31 - April 6REPLAY CONTROVERSY ALREADY UNDERWAY “My understanding of that play is if the ball drops straight down as a general rule, they assume the player never got the ball to his throwing hand—he never had control of it. I don’t think that was the case here. The ball popped up first, which means it would have had to be in his hand to pop up.” “I’m not sure. This is a work in progress. Maybe at some point I’ll ask why this wasn’t overturned, but to be honest, I’m not sure I understand it. If it’s a force play, if he’s not trying to turn a double play there and he just catches the ball like that, he’s clearly out. I guess I don’t know what the rule is. My understanding doesn’t fit with what happened on the field.” “This is going to be the toughest replay of all of them because it’s such a judgment. The way it was explained to us, if the catcher is in front of home plate toward third base, straddling the base, that is considered blocking home plate if you don’t have the ball. And I believe that’s how it was… I believe this is going to be the toughest overall for them to get right all the time. To me it’s a vague interpretation of what blocking home plate is, and I think it needs to be in writing. The way it was explained to us, if you are straddling the base in front, towards third base, that is considered blocking home plate.” “That’s what we’ve been taught to do for years. But I think that’s what they’re trying to get away from.” “I like it. I think it's good. Obviously, it was important to us [Friday night, when it overturned an inning-ending out at first base and put Yangervis Solarte in position to hit a two-run double]. I'm a fan of it.” “We’re seeing through the rest of the league and we’re seeing how crazy stuff is going already. I think we spent most of spring trying to think we’re prepared for it. We’re seeing things happen already this season that nobody anticipated. I don’t think that’s going to change.” “I'm confident in these umpires' abilities. You're going to find out just how good they all are. We're all just trying to find out how to use [expanded replay] properly and efficiently to advance the game.” RED SOX RING IN NEW SEASON WITH VICTORY PARTY “I like how the trophy kind of pops off there. Diamonds are always nice. I think the two coolest things for me are the ‘Boston Strong’ (symbol) and ‘Ross.’ That’s pretty neat. I don’t think you could get a bad one.” “I thought they were giving me somebody else’s ring. I was like, ‘Hey, you’re giving me two.’ They were like, ‘No, that’s the MVP one.’ I was like, ‘Whoa, whoa.’ It was very kind coming from them, and I thanked them very much.” “They’re all downers when you lose. We obviously wanted to win—home opener in front of our fans. There at the end, they executed and had some good at-bats before we could get to them.” “The people who witnessed it. It will be a part of them for the rest of their lives.” ZIMMERMAN DEALING WITH SHOULDER INFLAMMATION “We look at it and say, 'It's a little bit of overload.’ So we have to curtail that just a touch to make sure he feels good. What does that involve? Maybe it doesn't involve as many throws. Maybe it's cutting down the amount of grounders he takes in pregame. I know that he likes to go down, especially when it's cold, to the cage and throw. Maybe it's an adjustment to that, too. I talked with him today, we're going to look at it again on Tuesday. We can't curtail it right now because we have to make sure he's good to go and that he feels good” “It's just more sore than it usually it is. For the last how many years, I've played when it felt good and I played when it felt bad. Yesterday, it felt worse than normal. I just thought it was the right thing to tell Matt (Williams) and see what we got... It feels okay when I swing. Through spring and last year and things like that, it felt good sometimes, it felt bad sometimes. But it never really felt like this, so I said something.”
THE REST “You’ve got a guy like Jose Reyes who is one of the most talented guys in baseball—crazy explosive, very, very fast—but when you are doing these explosive movements it puts an enormous amount of strain on the human body. Although we may think of him as being fragile, the fact that he can do it at all is incredible, and the fact that he can play so much without getting injured is incredible.” “As a hitter, you’re looking at one side of the plate against an elite pitcher. If you try to cover everything it just doesn’t work. When you’re facing a guy who can cut the ball, run the ball and work hard and soft to both sides, hitting becomes extremely difficult. That’s where Adam is right now. He’s that pitcher. As good as he’s been, that makes him even better.” “We’re going to be fine, man. We haven’t been able to put anything together offensively, but we have what it takes to play better and win ballgames. We don’t need to worry about it.” “I feel terrible, plain and simple. I am pretty lost right now, actually. I am trying to see where my swing is at, watch some video where my hands are. I am trying everything right now. We will see where I am at tomorrow. Give Pops a call. See what he says also. Swing doesn't feel good. That is all I can say. Trying to go in every day and try to do some drills that work and feel good in the cage, feel good on BP. I haven't had my BPs where I hit the ball to left or right and things like that. It has been pretty (expletive) actually.” “We are better than we’ve shown. We know what kind of five-man staff we have and we are going to build off each other and go. We are just trying to get in the win column and go from there.” “He’s the ultimate perfectionist. He wants to do everything. He wants to hit. He wants to steal bases. He told me the reason he was moving out there at second base [in the third inning] was because he wanted to steal. I said, ‘Come on man, that’s not your job.’ But that’s the beauty of Jose. He’s always thinking. I sometimes sit there and start laughing. You try to have a game face on, but sometimes when I sit there I just start laughing. He’s such a competitor. It’s just a different vibe when he’s out there. I think [Saturday] we all felt that.” “I think it's one of the best things to ever happen in my career.” “When the ligament is ruptured, it’s a no-brainer. He needs surgery. When the ligament is compromised, now it’s a gray area. This was more of an acute injury and that’s where the ligament’s been compromised. Probably felt it more on one pitch than anything else, but it wasn’t like a clear rupture of the ligament where it’s a no-brainer to have Tommy John. The ligament was compromised. The course of action was a conservative, aggressive rehab treatment. But his symptoms just didn’t get better. He and we felt that it was best to go ahead and have the surgery now.” “In '84, the whole place came alive and I saw the first fans on the rooftops. It started with two guys in maybe late July on the rooftop. Then, we went away for a road trip, came back and it was maybe eight or 10 guys on the rooftop and a couple folding chairs. Just to see that transformation, to see it be a tough ticket here for the rest of my career and a packed house [was cool]. This is real, true baseball here. There was a lot of conversation about that from opposing players that liked coming here just for the atmosphere.” “It was probably the best he’s been. I know September was great for him and it’s right back to where he was there, honestly I think he might even be better tonight.” “Regardless of whether we had come back and signed an official contract, in my heart I would always be a Houston Astro. It’s just great to get a chance to formally or publicly acknowledge that and put a period at the end of the sentence.” “You see guys, sometimes they get hit early and they don’t make it out of the first inning. First big league batter he faces hits a home run, and it doesn’t faze him at all? That’s a great sign.” “I’m not going to be doing anybody any favors if I hang my head. These guys need me. These guys have been playing their butts off. We should be 3-0. Obviously I’ll take the blame. But if I sit there and sulk and pout, it’s not gonna do anybody any good.” “I’m feeling like I'm fighting right now. This is my home. I need to pitch well in my home, in Denver. It's important.” “He was pretty on-point. Most of the night, he did a good job attacking hitters and getting ahead. When he's pounding the zone like he did, it gives you a lot of different options.” “This year, we have veteran players. If they play well, we’re likely to keep them as opposed to move them. There’s always going to be that temptation, especially if you have an area where you think — if come mid-July we’re clearly not contending, and there’s a club that needs a guy that we have and they’re willing to give up enough to get him, we’re never going to shut that conversation down. But at the same time, I do think we value the relationship with the fans and we’ll make a—we’ll balance all the factors, including the fact that we do want to show significant progress.”
Nick Bacarella is an author of Baseball Prospectus.
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