Dave Duncan Guys Quotations

He was struggling with his delivery and his control. His pitches weren't sharp. But I told him it's a great sign because you're going to have 10, 12, 15 games during the season when it just isn't working. A lot of guys give in to that. But he didn't. He kept battling.

He had a good set of eyes to watch guys in the bullpen. His biggest strength was always his consistency. He could throw a ball for a strike pretty much anytime he wanted to.

We think we're a pitching-strong team. Our guys aren't doing anything they don't expect to do.

When you have a number of guys expressing concern, naturally you share their concern. And there's not much you can do about it other than get frustrated and maybe scream and holler a little bit. But you certainly can't change it. You'd like to think you're getting a fair shake. It has the appearance of being one-sided. And over the course of the game that kind of weighs on you.

At the same time, these guys are going to have to step up and be the pitchers they were the majority of the season for us to have a successful postseason.

It's big because for these guys to come in and do the job that they're being asked to do early builds confidence in them and for us as well. You hope that it happens enough that it snowballs a little bit and these guys establish the attitude that they need to have.

It was pretty easy to wait. I don't want him going out there the least bit restricted, and then all of a sudden his delivery changes and he gets into some kind of bad habits or hurts himself worse. The bullpen is well-rested, especially the guys that are able to give us innings: Eldred and Thompson. It's a pretty easy decision to make.

These guys are going to have to step up and be the pitchers they were the majority of the season for us to have a successful postseason,

These guys pay attention, ... All of these guys are interested in it so that makes you pay even more attention to it because they'll come to the bench and we'll talk.

It's not just winning games. It's the way he's pitched. He's been pretty dominant. I've seen guys win a lot of games before. But with the exception of Vida Blue in 1971, I've never seen a guy that has controlled the game, game after game after game, like he has.

It's hard to identify who's No. 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Because at different times, each one of those guys gets on a roll. And at that particular time, he's the No. 1 guy for us. ... Every one of them has had their periods of time when they threw as good as anybody.

All of those guys competed equally. Any of them wouldn't have been a bad choice. From start to finish, Hancock was the most consistent throwing strikes.

All the pitches they got hurt on were belt high. I don't like it, but I understand it. Next time out, we hope to be seeing guys take another step forward, making more quality pitches, get them in that mode.