May 29, 2006

The Week in Quotes

May 22-28

by John Erhardt

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"It's getting to be pretty sickening. I'm sick to my stomach, going and losing every day."
--Kansas City first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz, on the Royals (Kansas City Star)

"I'm not going to point fingers at anybody outside (the locker room). I don't care if Casey Stengel's our manager and (we have) the greatest general manager in history: If the guys aren't willing to put out the effort and do what they're capable of doing, it's not going to get any better."
--Royals pitcher Scott Elarton

"If it doesn't burn you when you lose, then it's not going to get any better. There comes a point you have to address it within yourself."
--Elarton

"You can blame whatever you want to blame. Injuries, we got off to a bad start. You can throw all those excuses out there, but bottom line is we just have to get the job done no matter who's on the field. And get beat with some pride. If you're going to get beat, then go down swinging."
--Elarton

WON'T SOMEONE THINK OF THE CUBS FANS?

"I'm hearing good reports on him. I'm hearing he is playing pretty good. We'll address that when I get home. It's not a bad option."
--Cubs manager Dusty Baker, on recalling Tony Womack from Iowa (Chicago Sun-Times)

"I talked to people out in Sacramento [on Tuesday], and they told me Womack was playing good. They said he wants to play good enough to force me to call him up. That's fine with me."
--Baker

"What's frustrating to me is me. I'm not doing anything. I know if I'm having a better year offensively, we'd be winning more games."
--center fielder Juan Pierre

"When you're 18-29 and you blow a save, you deserve it. I'm a realist. I know what's going on. I deserved every last one of them."
--Cubs closer Ryan Dempster, on getting booed after a blown save (Chicago Sun-Times)

"COULD YOU, UM, WORK ANY HARDER THAN THIS?"

"I think it was a horse[bleep] game. I think when a team can get 14 hits and score two runs, that means we're not executing. If we think we're going to play like this, and they think they're going to be a contender and in the pennant race, well, they'd better look at themselves in the mirror."
--White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen, after his team's 11-inning 3-2 loss to Toronto (Chicago Sun-Times)

"We're not playing baseball. We just hit. To win a pennant race and to be where we're supposed to be, you have to do everything you can possible to help this team. And if they're not willing to do it, there's going to be a lot of [bleepin'] changes in the [bleepin'] lineup pretty soon. Everyone thinks it's a good game. Bull[bleep]. You can say we battled. Yeah, we did. But we shouldn't be in that situation to battle."
--Guillen

"If they don't like what I say, [bleep] them. They can pack their [bleep] and do whatever they want to do. But we're better than this. Way better than this. If you want to be third place, second place or fourth place, keep playing like that. If you want to win this thing, we have to be better."
--Guillen, on the players who may not agree with him

"I told them if they don't like it, go--there's a lot of other major league teams. But they know who they're playing for. I love my players. I wish every manager could have the 25 guys that I have. They would know that they were going to have fun. Some managers have a bunch of bad guys. I've got great kids."
--Guillen, after his team responded with a 7-5 victory

DON'T LET THE BASTARDS GET YOU DOWN

"For somebody who can't play this (expletive) game to sit there and criticize me ..."
--Reds center fielder , on recent talk radio claims that he should move out of center field to help the team (Cincinnati Enquirer)

"What you guys fail to realize is what you guys write doesn't just stay in the clubhouse. I have to live with it. I have to go places. I have to go to the grocery store."
--Griffey

"All I want to do is go out and play baseball. To be judged after eight games is horse (manure)."
--Griffey

"It's easy for people to criticize somebody and not be out in the outfield. He should have caught that ball ... Like I'm not trying."
--Griffey

"Why does he care? I haven't listened one time."
--teammate Adam Dunn, on Griffey responding to talk radio

"I could care less; in my career, I've been hearing it for a long time. It will never stop until you win five or six World Series in a row and hit a Joe Carter home run. I've done a lot of special things in this game, and for none of that to be considered clutch, it's an injustice."
--Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriquez, on how he's constantly criticized for not being clutch (MLB.com)

"I don't take anything personally; I enjoy it, it motivates me and I think it's comical. I think anyone that drives in over 130 runs numerous times in his career, it's impossible not to be clutch."
--Rodriguez

"That thing was dancing all over the place tonight. I was just swinging hard in case I caught one, and I caught one. I thought it was huge, because in this ballpark, 4-1 is 2-1 and 7-1 is more like 5-2. You still know you have to get nine big outs."
--Rodriguez

THE MORE YOU IGNORE ME, THE CLOSER I GET

"They just pitch balls because they want me to chase. If they walk me, fine, because they think, 'Let's go for Cuddy.' But he's killing them right now. He's eating all the steaks."
--Twins center fielder Torii Hunter, on how his patience at the plate allows Mike Cuddyer to do damage (MLB.com)

"I didn't want to start him out against lefties, as they might eat him right out of the shoot up here. But I'm going to put him against the right-hander from Seattle that's probably nastier than both those two."
--Twins manager Ron Gardenhire, on how he wasn't going to start Jason Kubel against lefties Jamie Moyer and Jarrod Washburn, but would against righty Felix Hernandez

"I mean, how many times can you go out there? I just didn't want to give them the opportunity to get to third base. I got to home, first, second and I was not going to give them the opportunity to get to third. I was just one short of the cycle, really."
--Gardenhire, on getting tossed from the game after arguing a call for the third time

"I don't know if he had any place he could go to except under the bag to get out of his way. I don't know how he impeded on that. The runner basically tries to use him as a rug."
--Gardenhire, on the dubiousness of calling Nick Punto for obstruction

"I can't watch it. I just walk away."
--Gardenhire, on Tony Batista's open batting stance (Minneapolis Star-Tribune)

"Really, if an alien showed up from the planet Zongabot, and you told him absolutely nothing about baseball, and you handed him a Louisville Slugger, he would have a better batting stance than Tony Batista."
--Kansas City Star columnist Joe Posnanski, on Batista's stance

"Everybody doesn't like the way I hit. But everybody likes the results."
--Tony Batista, owner of a career .298 OBP

THE REST

"Look at what he's done in the bullpen. Last year from the All-Star break on, he was the best reliever in baseball. He's off to a great start this year. When you have a major strength, there's no sense weakening that. With Heilman in the bullpen, you can win three out of five games. As a starter, he can win only one out of five."
--Mets pitching coach Rick Peterson, on why they're not moving Aaron Heilman to the rotation (New York Times)

"I don't concern myself much with what happened before I got here, but I do know that he's considered something of a Yankee killer."
--Yankee reliever Kyle Farnsworth, on David Ortiz (New York Newsday)

"You know, 'Hello.' And, 'How are you.' Some random phrases, too. 'Who ate all of the sushi?' Or, 'I lost my luggage.' Every day I ask him how do you say this or that."
--Brewers pitcher Chris Capuano, on learning Japanese from teammate Tomo Ohka (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)

"Contraction is off the table."
--Commissioner Bud Selig (St. Paul Pioneer Press)

John Erhardt is an author of Baseball Prospectus. 
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