Joe Girardi Last Quotations

He's a good looking young hitter. He showed that last year. We made some mistakes, and he beat us.

I actually thought Vargas was better tonight. He was down in the zone. He just threw a lot of pitches. I thought he was more effective tonight than in his last start.

He showed for a month last year that he was a guy who can hit some home runs. If you hit home runs, you obviously are going to put up big numbers. He had 11 in a month -- basically, in 100 at-bats. If you project that out, that would be real nice for any club.

I talk to Joe on a pretty regular basis. I talk to him about situations and advice. I'm anxious to see him. He's always been good to me as a player, as a coach. He gave me a ton of responsibilities last year. He's someone you can model yourself after, not only as a manager, but as a person.

I think it's a huge opportunity for him. He is healthy. He hasn't been healthy the last couple of years. But he was healthy in Tampa, that's why he pitched so well.

Miguel played a few days in a row. Josh is going to play a few days in a row. We'll eventually work up to three days in a row. It's hard because we have two catchers that need to play. We'll start stretching them out the last couple of weeks.

We've seen the last few days what he's capable of. That's exciting stuff.

It would have been a great opportunity. I just wish the timing was different. I don't think major league coaches can be part of this tournament because it could last the whole month of March, when we're in spring training.

You could almost see the weight lift off his shoulders. I've said the last few days that his swings were getting better.

It is the way that it is supposed to be. Your top two hitters get on, and the 3-4-5 guys drive them in. We have lost some tough games, and we were pretty much blown out the last two days. It was good to see our guys come back and battle.

It's a huge opportunity for him. He hasn't been healthy the last couple of years in Chicago and it hurt him.

It's kind of mind-boggling because he seemed to be on top of his game tonight. He's done it twice in his last two starts and the organization has never seen him do that. He usually locks in and focuses more.

It's going to come down to the last days and that makes it tough. That's the nature of our camp this year.

I don't think Hanley lacks confidence. I think Hanley is not surprised that he made that play last night. Now, he might have surprised some of his teammates who haven't seen him play on a daily basis. But I don't think Hanley is surprised he made that play. He went a long ways over. I'm not surprised at what he does.