Dusty Baker Last Quotations

I would say he's not where he was last year at this time, yet. Sometimes you have to hit with your mind. I'm sure he can do it.

Some of it depends on how healthy Todd's legs feel. He is still recuperating from last year. The hard ground down here puts pressure on your legs.

No. He pitched so well the last time out. This time out, he's a different pitcher. Sometimes you have to figure it out yourself. He has the stuff. You could see from the last time out. It was just a bad day.

Missing almost the second half of the season last year really slowed his progress some. Skill-wise, he has the skill. We know that. It's just a matter of him playing and doing the little things. He works hard.

Guzman has missed a lot of time. He's very close. You don't know if he's quite ready. Certain guys need to pitch. He has missed parts of the last three years (with injuries).

Carlos pitched great, certainly well enough to win, ... It was just a matter of too much Chipper Jones. They said Chipper was hot (.469 in his last nine games). He's certainly hot. He is hot.

Carlos was awesome last night. It seemed like he was having fun and it seemed like the team was having fun. I'm sure he's glad he went.

He has been knocking on 99 for a while and never had 100. He was knocking on it last year and got cold at the end.

He's got some skills, definitely. He's got great range, quickness. His bat has really improved over the last year and a half. Fundamental stuff? There's still a few things he needs to work on. He'll probably get a pretty good shot of that here.

Maybe I shouldn't have cursed. I had just given him the highest compliment last week when I said he's one of the pitchers I respect most in the league, because he doesn't clown, he doesn't showboat. He just pitches.

I talked to him last night and this is the first time he's been in a playoff situation. I just told him to go enjoy it.

Juan has a pretty good idea of when to run. There were quite a few guys who had green lights last year. It's just a matter of them running. I gave guys the green light a lot, but sometimes I was a bit upset when they didn't run. A real base stealer can run better when he feels he can run versus when you tell him to run.

It came at the right time. Michael, the last couple of days, came through with some heroics.

You'd hope so and think so. Usually when it comes down to the last couple roster spots, you go on what you have seen here as well as the past.

You learn the hard way then. We had a long discussion last night. The thing about temperament, which you guys don't believe, but I was very similar. You have to constantly work on it as a person.

Well being a manager is sort of like being a father. I was always held to be responsible because I was the oldest of five. No matter what happened in my family I was always in charge and always at fault. Being a manger is like being a father where your dad is the ultimate last word and disciplinarian.

There are some guys who have the nod because of experience. There are some guys who have demonstrated better control and better stuff than others. We'll see how they do the last couple weeks of spring and how they do when they go to Triple-A or Double-A.

We knew what we were getting with Juan. We've seen him do it so much against us. We did it a couple of times last year. I keep pointing out that you have to have the personnel to do something like that.

I understand how they feel. I was sitting there last year seeing things I haven't seen since junior high school. I completely agree with them.

We are still leaning probably toward 11 pitchers. Anything can happen these last couple days. But you don't want to tell somebody something and then say, 'Oh, so-and-so got hurt, and you're back on the team.

Pressure is what you put on yourself. You can't do anything about what the Sox did. And you can't do anything about the last year of your contract.

I've got a game plan. Some of it depends on how healthy Todd feels, how his legs feel. He's still recuperating from last year at the end of the year. With the hard ground down here, it puts pressure on your legs.

I'm sure something will work out for him. I certainly don't think he's through. Injuries have hurt him the last couple of years. I'm hoping he gets a job.

If you know Carlos, when was the last time you saw Carlos take it easy? This is something out of our hands. The main thing we want to do is make sure he's in the best shape. After he leaves here, he's out of our domain and control except for reports.

That first inning has cost him a lot of pitches. He's been throwing so many pitches the last three starts, that's why we took him out. After the first inning, he started throwing the ball better. He had a lot of deep counts, a lot of 3-2 counts. Those pitches mount up.

The last couple days Michael has come up with some heroics.

The last couple weeks, he has really progressed. It's impossible to predict a rehab. You can't rush him, or he will be in-and-out, in-and-out. Hopefully, it's not too long.

The last few days, we haven't been as sharp. Baseball players aren't used to getting up at 5, 6 o'clock every morning. You have one day off in six weeks, that's a pretty good grind.

I'll just take the same. Everybody asked if last year was a career year. I don't believe in career years. Once you do it once and find your formula, you should be able to do similar. He knows what he's doing now. He has an idea. He knows how to make adjustments quickly. He's very consistent. He recognizes very quickly what the opposition is trying to do to him and he knows his own limitations.

He struggled early on and made a couple of young mistakes, ... The last two innings, the sixth and seventh, were when he threw the best.

He struggled some last season. He made some mistakes he doesn't usually make, and they didn't miss them. He's in great shape.

He's ahead of the pace from last year. Last year, his velocity wasn't nearly as good.

You've got to make sure he's OK so this thing doesn't linger all year long. You saw the difference some last year in the second half after he hurt it.

A gutsy performance by Mark. We knew we were going to keep him between 90-100 pitches because the last time out he threw 130. We were really watching him this time, that why we took him out so early.

You can't put your finger on it. The last couple of years we've played them tough. That's not the team you want to play every day.

It's similar to what happened last year. We'll see today. It's sort of out of our control some.

It's just the last few days that he's been complaining that he can't run. Hopefully, it won't be too long. It doesn't appear too serious.

We want to get him in the position to give him the best chance to make the club. He worked hard last winter. We know he can help this club. I can tell he's helping some of the young guys and the veteran guys about how to go about their business and how to play this game.

I don't like to move a lot. My last stop, I was there 15 years. My house, I've been there 15 years. I'm not crazy about moving.

I can remind Carlos all I want. But when you get out there against Cuba or whoever and start banging it around ... I think he'll forget exactly what I told him. That's how your competitive juices flow. If you know Carlos, when was the last time you saw Carlos take it easy?