Hitter Quotations | Page 2

He's a leadoff hitter with a lot of dimensions.

Hopefully we can get somebody who can run. I want a second hitter so we can put Iguchi down in the sixth or seventh spot to get more (run production) out of him.

He's been a great lead-off hitter for us, just like I envisioned he would be.

He's going to be a 3, 4, 5 hitter throughout his career. He's not going to sit in the seventh spot. And I don't know if you've noticed lately but we haven't been winning too many games, so something's broke.

What makes you a better hitter is getting a pitcher's tendency, or you see the infield moving early or maybe even the catcher tells you what's coming, because it would be very difficult to look for a light and then also on the release point. It's a lot easier as a runner at second base to relay signs or locations, but you can't even see the signs sometimes from second base. And lights from center field? That's not the case here.

He does everything easy on the baseball field. If you're not watching, you might miss something. This guy has the most natural, fluid stroke in the system. I would say he's a natural hitter with easy power. The ball just jumps off his bat. And he throws like he swings. His throws just carry. He has a solid Major League arm. He does things so easily, you don't know he's there.

He gives us another piece as we try to construct our team. He's hit .300 as a pinch hitter in the past.

He is about as intelligent a hitter as you can get, it?s amazing how quick he makes adjustments. You see him get fooled on a pitch, he steps out, you can see him clear his mind and you can see him make that adjustment. That?s what makes him better than a majority of the guys in the big leagues. Good hitters make adjustments in between games, and he makes adjustments in between pitches.

He is a classic high-average hitter because he takes a relentless approach every at-bat. Every at-bat he's the same way. He battles the great pitchers, he battles the real good ones, the good ones, the ones that are trying to make it.

He is a contact guy, but he can also get some batters out using the strikeout. Basically, his command of his pitches dictates where the hitter makes contact. You like to have that in a pitcher.

He hit a home run off Paul Byrd to right-center field when we were playing against him. It's the farthest opposite-field home run I've ever seen a right-handed hitter hit at Safeco Field. It probably went 15 rows back. He did the bat flip and the whole thing. I got to second base later and he told me that was the first hit he ever had off Byrd.

He needs to recognize when he throws a good pitch, he doesn't need to throw a better one. You just have to get a hitter out, you don't have to embarrass him.

He'll get some but it's not going to be an everyday thing. I don't necessarily think that Jeremy is a leadoff hitter or we want him leading off.

He made a mistake pitch and a clutch hitter took advantage. He did some good things and then he made a mistake.

He feels good, that's the biggest thing. We'll just have to see how it is when he has a hitter in the box. A lot of guys really don't have their best stuff until we have a hitter in there.

Just so many times before, we've had a lead in the bottom of the seventh and then not come away with the win. I mean, holy cow, their pinch hitter comes up with two outs and two strikes and slaps an outside fastball by the second baseman, and you go holy cow again. I mean, you think, what do we have to do to win?

My problem has been my feet and that's difficult for any hitter to overcome.  I've played with a lot of pain this year but I haven't told anybody. It's not an excuse. But it has hurt. I have to talk now because it's been troubling me.

My whole thing is getting on base. My on-base percentage is the No. 1 thing. That equates to runs, ... I'm just trying to be productive as far as being a leadoff hitter and being on base.

Lilly, he seems like every time we face him, it must be his best night. When you as a hitter feel confidence about a pitcher you faced before and hit really good against, and it doesn't matter if it's his best night, ... you're going to hit him.

Matt is a solid left-handed hitter and base stealer who will provide us with depth and flexibility. He can help us in a variety of roles, including the ability to play all three outfield positions.

I say this respectfully. He's a freak. He's a very good hitter without a strike zone. He can hit the ball in, hit the ball off the plate away, hit the ball up and go get the ball that's down. He covers the plate, and beyond.

Stephanie is a great all-around player who will most likely play outside hitter for us. She has solid fundamental skills needed to play college volleyball, and has a good feel for the game. With experience under her belt, Stephanie will become quite a student of the game.

Redman's problem the last couple of games is he stays behind hitters. The hitter has the advantage,

Steve's a big-time player. He flat-out the last half of the year was the best hitter in the conference and the region. We expect him to lead the way. He's going to be the guy we're counting on for a lot of RBIs.

Pittsburgh is more of a pitcher's park, but I'm more of a gap-to-gap hitter and I feel I still have a passion for the game and a pride in playing it.

I was a little more focused. Today I was intent on getting the first hitter out. It's good to go out and get that first save. I know I can do it, but I didn't get it done last time.

I think (Cathey) is the best contact hitter that we've ever had. She's always putting the ball in play.

Last year, he really came through in clutch situations. He?s a real good hitter for being so young. He?s patient, he works hard, and he?s having a good year. One of the reasons we are where we are is because he?s been driving in a lot of runs.

Krissy gives us a lot of hustle and good speed in the outfield. She's another hitter that consistently puts the ball in play.

Jermaine is a very professional hitter and he has very good at-bats. He kinda kick started it and helped us against (Brad) Radke. It's like, 'Who is going to do it today?' I think we are rocking and rolling here.

I remember watching the Oceanside team in 2001. I fell in love with that little left-handed hitter with the great stroke (Matthew Cerda). It'll be fun to see who the stars are this time around.

Just in baseball terms, he's a leadoff hitter who can work the pitcher, make him throw up to 20 pitches. I'm sure Johnny Damon is going to come back to haunt us.

Johnny and I spoke a few times over the last week and I strongly encouraged him to sign with the Yankees. It is good to know that our lineup next year will include a natural leadoff hitter whose presence allows Jeter and A-Rod to return to their preferred places in the batting order. Johnny is a good friend and a great guy to have in the clubhouse. I am very excited about having him as a teammate again.

I'm sitting watching, thinking that they've got the best closer in the game on the mound and we have the best hitter in the game at the plate. It was an unbelievable feeling.

I thought Neely would be the designated hitter but he has worked himself into a starting position. Neely is one of our best defensive players in the infield.

I still think people have a tough time visualizing me as a catcher. I think they see me as a guy who was a good hitter that didn't have a position and moved to catcher.

I think that it's been a rough year for him, period. But at his age, and only playing half a season at Double-A (because of a shoulder injury in 2004), you really have to offensively believe that he will be a different hitter next year.

Juan has wheels and can handle the bat pretty well. Tony knows what he is doing. Juan is the type of hitter who can do a lot once he settles in and gets in his groove. He has a great stroke down through the zone. He's not the only one who struggled early. I hadn't been swinging the bat that well either. He's going to mean a lot to this lineup over the long run.

It is great to have the top hitter in the league coming back. He will be a major part of our offense this year. I have always admired the way he plays the game. Chad will be moving back to his natural position this year, second base, and I am looking forward to working with him.

I think the biggest thing is his pitch selection. He's starting to recognize the breaking ball a little sooner. He's got tremendous hand-eye coordination. The more that he gets comfortable, the better hitter he's going to become.

I think there have been dramatic changes. We lost our leadoff hitter and shortstop and lost the guy who was our closer and anticipated to be our closer. We lost our pitching coach. Those are dramatic changes that our organization has to deal with.

Rob is a great all-round player who is our strongest outside hitter. We had him hitting in the front row and setting in the back row last year. Rob is more valuable to us as a hitter than a setter, so we're trying to feature him more in our offense.

Our best hitter was on deck. I knew the last thing he wanted to do was face Renteria. I would have been glad just to hit a clean single somewhere. The last thing I'm trying to do is hit one to the wall, but it worked out.

Our top hitter isn't playing, so we're going to have to ride the arm of Jen Kumar and hope we can continue to play good defense and give her a few runs to work with.

I think he's more conscious of trying to pitch to the weakness of the hitter rather than just going after everybody the same way. That's pretty much what he did when he first came over.

I was trying to throw strikes. That's what happened, I didn't throw strikes. I have to come back to the next hitter and throw strikes.

I think I can be a .300 hitter and drive in 100 runs again, definitely. When I had a knee injury (in 2003) I kept playing but I fell into a lot of bad habits. I've worked with Donnie to break those, and I think that hard work paid off last summer. I see no reason why I can't do the things I did before.

I think she's the best outside hitter in the city.

It doesn't mean that's where you should be, you know? ... When Carlos understands what he is, when he learns to make adjustments better, I see him being a third or fourth hitter because he can steal bases, he can hit and he's going to get bigger and stronger, sort of like Ken Griffey Jr.

Katie had a tremendous freshman season. She's a very good hitter and has a lot of potential.

It could happen in any game, but you know what? I don't hold any grudges. He's probably bitter still, but I'm just going to continue to pray for him, and hopefully it will get better, his temper will change. I still have respect for his bat, he's a good hitter and I'm just going to continue to do what I have to do. And I was glad that, when I'm OK, I don't need to hit anybody.

I think it's because my mechanics are so much better. My arm and hand are in a position where I couldn't get them consistently before. I still break down. ... But more times than not, it's right where it needs to be and the hitter isn't recognizing it yet. It's going to be a weapon.

You'd like to see more of a battle from your clean-up hitter in that situation.

I was a pretty long hitter when I was younger. I was pretty wild, too. I had to learn to control the ball a bit more. Then last year, I decided to open up a bit more and I gained a good climb in distance. My length has grown due to some confidence in my swing, and some trusting. Once you get that, you can open it up a bit.

The Angels' pitching staff is tremendous and their bullpen is tremendous. I don't think most people are going to wear this pitching staff out. I mean, Shields hasn't given up a hit to a left-handed hitter all year. So they've got all the ingredients. That's why they go to the post-season.

We've discovered the hard way there's no way to pitch to him. He's such a disciplined hitter at the plate and has such good plate coverage, it's almost like you can't even trust your pitchers to pitch around him. You've just got to intentionally walk him.

Most of her home runs have been lined shots that have just taken off. I think just about every ball that she's hit has been hit hard so far. She has been a very good clutch hitter so far.

You just try and focus on the next hitter and try and get an out. The fourth inning was horrible for me. But our offense did a tremendous job of picking me up.

You just try to minimize the damage and you get your concentration down to one hitter at a time, in and out. I was fortunate enough to get three strikeouts there and get us out of the inning.

You don't expect that out of your ninth hitter. For most teams, the ninth hitter goes 1-for-4, but today he had two hits and a sacrifice bunt that set up another run.

We get a single by the second hitter in our lineup, and then Redmond comes up and hits a ball in the gap. It gets you rollin'.

We haven't gotten to see a full season from Khalil Greene. I'm curious to see what kind of numbers he would throw up if he is healthy for a full season. He's got some of the quickest hands you'll see as a hitter and on defense he has some of the softest hands.

That was big. Sherrill gets a big strikeout against a very good hitter and then Mateo gets one of the most dangerous hitters in baseball in a situation like that.

We tried to bust him on the inner half of the plate and we missed. It was a gamble that we took ? we didn't want to let their best hitter beat us ? and then their next kid stepped up and got a big hit.

When Zach gets pitched to hit, he's as good a hitter as we have in the league. And Chris has proven that he can hit anybody as well. So, it's a nice, it's a nice situation. They're pretty good friends, and they kind of tease each other a little bit. It's a pretty good three-four combination.

When you're out there in the big league pressure cooker, a pitcher's attitude -- his utter confidence that he has an advantage of will and luck and guts over the hitter -- is almost as important as his stuff.

We did some good things. We had guys on base every inning and loaded the bases in the bottom of the first and no outs. (But) our hitter goes after a bad pitch and hits into a double play. Then the next guy grounds out. To me, that's a mental mistake because you don't go after pitches like that, especially with no strikes.

Yeah, he's the type of hitter that when he gets the bat on the ball it's going to go.

There have been times we haven't used Randy Keisler because he's our long guy. This might free up Keisler for a hitter or two early in the game.

We used to do it back in the olden days. I'm just trying to get him to understand we want the hitter to make contact. The biggest thing with Kip is he tries to make too fine a pitch early in the count, then gets behind. If he gets ahead, his strike zone will expand. And, when that happens, he gets lots of soft grounders, soft fly balls.

We're not good enough to put a stand-pat lineup in. They know that. We're going to take our best guess. You just have to do something. We're so young that I don't think they know what a No. 3 or No. 4 hitter is supposed to do, they just go up there and hit.

With Tony being out we moved Phil from the fifth spot in the order to bat second. He's a good contact hitter and moves runners.

We've always felt Heidi was a real good hitter, and she's definitely a feared hitter in the conference, but it just seemed like she just wasn't able to put it together for long stretches. And this year she's just been in a really good place, I think, both physically and mentally.

We are a different team with Aaron Powell healthy. He is such an outstanding hitter and having him in there really makes our lineup better, top to bottom.

Elliot is a great hitter and has good pop for a second baseman. He's proving he can hit the ball to anywhere.

Elvis has swung the bat very well. If we were to start the season right now he'd be our DH. He's been our best hitter since we got back (from winter break).

Bobby is going to have to decide on his lineup to decide who's the leadoff hitter and decide who the closer is going to be, so we have some spots on this roster and on this team that are going to be big decisions. But we have plenty of time and feel we will be able to get it done in spring training.

Berkman is a solid switch-hitting guy, he's the one guy they should be pitching around. Berkman is a different hitter in Houston than on the road. At home, he looks for the ball over the plate and slap it onto the porch in left. On the roach he tries to be a pull hitter. Kornerko is solid power hitter and a real good breaking ball hitter. They are the two guys who can beat you.

The pitcher has to find out if the hitter is timid, and if he is timid, he has to remind the hitter he's timid.

Ben is our stud in the middle and the veteran on this team. He's the hardest hitter on this team and everyone really looks up to him for enthusiasm.

Every hitter has holes in his swing. Some holes are smaller than others. When pitchers figure Jacobs out, he will have to make the changes.

Every hitter is a pretty big situation because they can all hit it out of the ballpark, but obviously, with the bases loaded, two outs right there, that was huge.

Every hitter likes fastballs just like everybody likes ice cream. But you don't like it when someone's stuffing it into you by the gallon. That's how you feel when (Nolan) Ryan's throwing balls by you.

Every hitter struggles. If Delgado or Floyd struggle, it's my job or someone else's to pick them up. If I'm struggling, someone will pick me up. No one wants to struggle, but it is part of the game.

Everybody in baseball marvels at what Greg does. He's such a complete pitcher, such a great pitcher. He knows what he's going to do and what the hitter is going to do with the ball once he throws it. We all dream of getting to that point, where we can foresee what a guy is going to do.

Everybody wants a hitter this time of year, everybody wants another 'pen guy this time of year. We may be adding two outstanding 'pen guys in the club in the same week.

At the beginning of the week I thought this looked like it was made for me. Because of the tightness there's really no huge advantage of being a long hitter because there's no place to hit it.

I've been a very aggressive hitter all my career,

We were in need of a potential back-up catcher, but we also knew that he was pretty versatile. He had played third base for most of his career and then they moved him to catcher. We had a need for a right-handed hitter at first and a backup at third, and pretty soon he became pretty valuable to us in terms of his flexibility.

We're talking about a premier hitter in the prime of his career. That's a lot of offense to replace. It's not easy.

There are a few guys around here who think he is the best hitter we face. And I'm one of them. I have no clue how to get him out. Every ball he hits, he hits hard.

Another guy who will show what it means to be a Penn State student-athlete, Michael is a proven college hitter who should provide some power for us. He comes from a great academic school, and we'll look for him to provide some leadership as he will be replacing two seniors at third base.

The way he's swinging the bat, I can't take him out of the lineup. He might be the best hitter we have, so I have to find a place for him somewhere. But he's probably strongest defensively as a catcher.

It would be like guys talking about cars. Rebuilding a carburetor is nothing for them. For me, that's an impossibility, it's not going to happen unless I take it somewhere. But for a hitter those are terms that are pretty commonplace.

Vlad has had some stretches occasionally where hits haven't fallen in. But he's the type of hitter that takes one swing to get him locked in seeing the ball again, and he can go crazy. That's a dangerous player, and they have done a good job with him so far.

Totally luck, totally luck. Lance Berkman is a great hitter and he knew what I was going to throw. I get it in maybe just a hair, just enough. I don't want to have to do that again tomorrow because he's a great hitter and I consider it dodging bullets when I do that. Seriously.

Both girls will play important roles this season, ... Kristen has great hands and court awareness, while Sarah is another powerful hitter for us.

Brooke was a great outfielder and knew her position well. Losing Brooke definitely is an offensive blow as it takes an above average hitter out of our lineup.

Brendan, we feel, can be effective against any hitter up there. I felt in that position to try to let Brendan go against Ibanez. Unfortunately, Ibanez got the hit and tied the game.

Brent is a good heads-up player in the outfield. David got a lot of work in a reserve role last year. He was an outstanding pinch hitter for us. He got four or five game-winning hits for us.