Jim Tracy Ball Quotations

Ian Snell made an adjustment from what he was doing early on and got the ball down to where he could be very effective. He forced the opposition to have to swing the bat. He got himself some early-count outs. As a result, he kept his pitch count in order and was able to go through the fourth inning.

Ian Snell threw the ball extremely well. He was very impressive.

He had two perfect pitches to bunt. That's the guy you want up there to get the bunt down. You get the bunt down, it makes them have to make decisions. And we had a guy coming up who's a contact hitter who can drive the ball to the outfield to drive the run in.

He's going to get the ball in the ninth inning. We'll see how it goes. We've got a guy who is a complete novice in that environment. But what I see is a player that an opportunity has been created for him and he's seizing the opportunity.

He got 13 ground ball outs, and that's good for a nine-inning game. That's an indication of how well he pitched. That's a very positive sign ... It's March 18th, and you want to see your pitchers starting to sharpen.

That ball was sinking. It's still pretty dog-gone good.

I thought he battled. He didn't have his breaking ball until his last two innings. That's a tough club to pitch against with basically just your fastball.

We did everything we could do to get ourselves back in it. Once again, we were a base hit from tying it and a ball in the gap from going ahead.

We did everything we could to get ourselves back in it. We were a base hit from tying it or a ball in the gap from taking the lead. You have to have a lot of good things happen to do that.

When your timing is off and you're pushing the ball instead of throwing the ball, there will be a decrease in velocity. If the timing is off or the arm slot is off, you won't see the same thing.

That's his game to determine at that point. You take him out of the game like that there, you bring in the bullpen and a mistake is made, a ball gets hit in the gap, and he's the pitcher of record in the losing decision, and he got to watch it on the other side of the dugout. I don't handle pitching that way.

The one thing I noticed about this team while watching from the other dugout is that it swung and missed too much. The approach had to change collectively, in my opinion, as far as each and every guy approaches his at bats. You need a group of players that understand that in a given situation it's pretty important for them to try and put the ball in play, and not swing and miss.

I'm not advocating taking a ball on the first pitch every time up there. A couple of times (yesterday), the first pitch was there, and we swung at it. But I'm continuing to see these guys take smart approaches to hitting, and that's encouraging.

I'm looking forward to spearheading this ball club to back to some of the days when the Pittsburgh Pirates were somebody you really had to deal with. I'm very anxious in making the players understand there is history here - history for them to be proud of and history for them to follow up on.

Cirillo didn't hit the ball well at all. He just hit it in a wonderful spot.

In the second inning, his breaking ball for a strike early in the count was a lot better than it was in the first inning.

If you want to swing off of live pitching, go right ahead. But recognize the fact of what a strike is and what a ball is. Let's get a good swing at a good pitch.

He surely can do that. I'd have to say he gets a tremendous read on the ball off the bat. He certainly covers a lot of ground.

I purposely ... started him, just to see how he'd respond, ... And he hit the ball long and foul, but the point is, you've got to protect the runner.

You've got to do better than that. If you are going to change the fortunes of your ball club, you've got to be able to beat these guys.

If I'm a pitcher and I'm paying close attention, I'm certainly not going to be afraid to attack somebody's bat. I want the ball in play -- because they're going to make plays.

He can go get a ball and make it look easy and effortless. I want to see how versatile a player he is, but he will have a home at third base for some time.

If he's hitting in 2-0 and 3-1 counts, the ball is going to be put in play -- probably hard. You just hope it's hit at somebody.