NEO WILL DESTROY THE MATRIX
"That's the general consensus, yeah. I don't want to say we're playing better than we anticipated, because we came into this thing anticipating playing pretty well. We've played very good baseball from day one in spring training. We've gotten to that point. The kid is producing down there. He's in a league of his own. It's a need here—production at first base. The time is right."
–Royals manager Ned Yost on the major-league debut of Eric Hosmer.
"He was the happiest one for me there in that clubhouse—that says a lot for a guy like him. He's hitting balls hard down there, it's just stuff's not going his way right now, but some of those balls are going to start dropping, and there's no doubt in my mind he's going to be up here doing the same thing I'm doing in the near future."
–Royals first baseman Eric Hosmer on fellow prospect Mike Moustakas.
"I had two people roll their windows down driving in today, telling me how excited they were about this kid being here and the way that we've played. Normally I drive down the street and nobody says a word. So, to have it happen twice in one day, was a little odd."
–Yost.
"I was excited when the coach was going out there, that they were going to bring the lefty in. But they ended up sticking with McCarthy because they wanted the righty-righty matchup. With Mike [Aviles] at the plate and [Jarrod] Dyson on third, you just knew the run was going to get in somehow."
–Hosmer on getting walked intentionally in Saturday's game. (Dick Kaegel, MLB.com)
HOLDING YOU OVER UNTIL BRYCE HARPER
"I'm excited. Any time you get to see your top prospect—someone you have been reading about for three years—you're going to be looking forward to it and feeling some excitement."
–Braves catcher Brian McCann on the major-league debut of Julio Teheran.
"He's got good stuff. He's got a good changeup, good curveball, mixed it up pretty well. He just needs more experience and he'll be all right."
–Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard.
"I thought he was outstanding. I could guarantee you there's no park he's pitched in that's got 45,000 people and there's no lineup that he's seen that has these type of hitters. It's not an A-plus because you'd like to give the young man a win. But it's an A."
–Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez. (Carroll Rogers, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
THE YANKEES?
"That's the best I've felt on the mound in my professional career. It's no secret what I want to do in my career and where I want to end up."
–Tigers starter Justin Verlander on his Saturday no-hitter against the Blue Jays.
"You always root for your teammates and want them to have the best outcome possible, but there's not much better outcome you could have. Well, I could think of one better outcome, but not too much better an outcome than this."
–Tigers third baseman Brandon Inge.
"The shadow from the roof was terrible. There were a couple of times where there was foul balls hit that Peralta and myself looked at each other, and thought, 'I have no idea where the ball went.' So imagine trying to keep a no-hitter and also at the same time, not being able to see the ball. That was the most stressful time I ever had."
–Inge on dealing with conditions at the Rogers Centre. (Matthew Mowery, The Morning Sun)
LET'S GET THE MAN PILL INTO PRODUCTION STAT
"We are so spoiled up here. The best down in the minors can't even compare to up here. You realize you got to take a man pill. It was time to take a man pill when I was out there pitching in Port Charlotte. I was internally starting to whine about the heat or not enough water. You find out how much you can complain and how great an attitude they have for just being able to play baseball."
–Rays reliever J.P. Howell on his minor-league rehab assignment.
"That check went pretty quick. If you need a new pair of jeans you ain't getting them."
–Howell on his paychecks in the minors.
"I'm going to ring up some bills, but it's worth it. It's exciting to do that for those guys, because the appreciation they have for that is through the roof. I remember when I was eating PB and Js after games, and that's not the right way to do that in terms of recovery."
–Howell on buying dinner for the team after he pitches. (Roger Mooney, Tampa Tribune)
THE REST
"We still have a lot of guys who have solid career track records who are performing well below. As a result, the collective offense has been frustrating for everyone to watch. We spend all of our time thinking of ways to improve it, but right now we're focused on the guys in this clubhouse."
–Padres general manager Jed Hoyer on the team's 14-20 start. (Tim Sullivan, San Diego Union-Tribune)
"It's a universal issue. We're talking today about this because it's a player—a Major League player from the Cleveland Indians. I'm sure that about 100 other people have those issues, but you guys don't care about them, or you don't have anything interesting to write about them…. I think you should run your life. I don't think that baseball should have to be in every hometown where every guy lives. It's society's issue. Everybody needs to be responsible for their own acts."
–Indians manager Manny Acta on Shin-Soo Choo being charged with driving under the influence. (Jordan Bastian, MLB.com)
"It's like a general manager once told me, 'I can never understand how people get upset about a team in April. There are five months to go. Don't draw any conclusions now.' It's the same with attendance. Cleveland will be up, Kansas City will do much better. We lost 13 games. Look, I've been watching these things for 40 years. Overall, I know the ticket business. We're off to a beautiful start."
–MLB commissioner Bud Selig on early-season attendance concerns. (Tom Verducci, Sports Illustrated)
"I don't find I have to tip-toe around anything. My job is to talk about how the Mets are playing great or how they can play better. And when facts come in that change the news part of the broadcast, like we saw on Sunday with the Mets-Phillies game, we become news reporters. And when there is news, I like to think about Gary Cohen as our Cronkite. It's up to him to really give the facts because any editorializing by us on someone's personal finances is in bad form. I think it's rude, personally."
–SNY analyst Ron Darling on criticism that he doesn't talk about the Wilpons' financial problems on the air. (Justin Terranova, New York Post)
"When you look up and down our averages, he's one of the higher ones."
–Yankees manager Joe Girardi before Derek Jeter's 4-for-4 Mother's Day pushed his average to .276. (Mark Feinsand, New York Daily News)
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Alex Carnevale is a contributor to Baseball Prospectus.
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