Joe Girardi Bit Quotations

He knows how to pitch. He has the ability to change speeds with all his pitches and locate. He just needs a little more seasoning. Obviously, he was part of a big trade, and the organization has a lot of faith in him. He's a young man, and we just feel he needs a little bit more experience.

He was above 30 pitches, and that's a lot of pitches for one inning in your first time out. I wanted to protect him. He was underneath the ball a little bit and he didn't have command of his fastball. That's going to happen in his first time out. I just didn't want to make too much of it, get him out and not get him hurt.

He's a little bit behind, but we just have to make sure we don't rush him. He still has a ways to go. It's almost like day one for him for spring training.

He's a little bit behind, but we've got to make sure that we don't rush him. He's in a little different boat than all the other pitchers here, but we said all along that we weren't going to rush our pitchers. We're not going to abuse him. We're going to evaluate him later down the road.

He's a little bit behind. We've just got to make sure we don't rush him. He's still got a ways to go.

Until Jake establishes himself a little bit they might pitch around him more.

You go from being excited to panicking a little bit when a guy slides into him. Your emotions can get a little wavy. For me, being a baseball player, it's just exciting to watch what kids can do. When you think about it, he probably should be a junior in college.

I kind of got emotional watching them play. They were trying so hard. Our guys grew up a little bit tonight.

It's part of it. To me, shortstop, the defensive part is very, very important. And that won't be overlooked. I'm not going to sacrifice that. But you don't want a guy to struggle and play miserably offensively, but he plays great defense. We need a little bit of both.

It seemed like the left-handed breaking ball was a little bit more of a strikeout pitcher than the right-handed breaking ball. The point I made is that it's not easy to score runs.

They are two really gifted athletes. They are fundamentally sound defensively. They are little bit different types of hitters. Hanley has a little more pop. Robert is probably more of a hit-and-run type of guy. They are two very gifted shortstops who should create some excitement over the next four weeks. They'll go at it, and let's find out.

It looked bad at first. I was real nervous. I think the whole organization got real nervous when we saw that. But I think we were all a little bit happier when he got up.

He's in a little bit different boat than all of the other pitchers here, but we've said all along we're not going to rush any of our pitchers. We're not going to abuse them.