Pitcher Quotations | Page 5

Every time he comes to the plate, he's focused. Every single time. He's concentrating on the pitcher in the on-deck circle, and when he gets up, he's intense and ready to change the game.

B.J. Ryan is both an outstanding pitcher and person and we're excited to have him join our Blue Jays family,

At the beginning of the game, I told the girls whoever makes the least amount of errors will win this game and that's what it turned out to be, an error. We knew their pitcher was good and our pitcher was good. It was definitely a pitcher's dual.

Billy actually passed the pitcher but I thought that the pitcher got the corner of the bag and Billy got the middle. It was close.

Did the starting pitcher give you a chance every fifth day to go out there and win? -- that's the biggest element I look at. (Santos) was pretty good at that last year.

Down the stretch, we've been struggling with our pitching staff, but he's taken the ball. He's been our best pitcher down the stretch when things have been tough. It means a lot, it really does. He continues to go out there like he did in 2003, no excuses, just give me the ball.

(Cosby) has a hurt heel and he couldn't get comfortable, but he still battled. He still threw strikes and he wasn't walking people. That's all you can do as a pitcher and that's all we can ask for as coaches.

Don't punish the pitcher for our offensive problems that we've had this year.

When you only get two hits, and you make two errors and both errors give up runs, you lose. Our pitcher deserved better than that.

The pitcher had an above-average split. He kept throwing it good and I was fortunate that he left one up and I was able to put it over the fence.

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.

The pitcher has to get the catcher the ball quickly. I don't know what the time (to the plate) was, but it was quick.

The pitchers, again, did a great job of holding them to only three hits. It was the errors that cost us this game. They used the same pitcher in the second game. After 11 innings, we still couldn't seem to get our bats going.

The pitcher they're going to throw at us in the first game is a transfer from Texas A&M. He has a pretty good arm. He has good velocity, and he puts good stuff on the ball.

Ben is a proven pitcher who has shown he can beat anyone in the country. We're looking for him to be our number one guy and have a good season for us.

To improve that much throughout a season shows how hard he works and how dedicated he is at being a great pitcher. I've seen him in the beginning of the year and was very impressed. By the end of the year when I saw him again, I saw a polished college pitcher on the mound.

You hope your starting pitcher holds on. Jose did a tremendous job. He just went out and pitched.

Every season's big. I don't want to say it's my biggest year. But ... personally I want others to respect me as a proven pitcher in this league.

Coming back from shoulder surgery you don't want to change the type of pitcher you are but I definitely don't get away with as many mistakes as I used to when I was able to throw the ball 95-96 miles an hour. I have to be more precise with my location and keep the ball down and let my fielders work.

The timely hits came our way in this game. To come up with a pair of two-out rallies against a pitcher like Roth shows our guys were not going to quit in this one.

I understand why people think that way, but anyone who knows anything about me knows that money is not what drives me. My drive has always been toward being the best pitcher in Major League Baseball, and that will be my drive right up to the day I hang up my spikes.

I've been coaching for 31 years, and I've had some great pitchers, and I've had a lot of no-hitters. But in my career I've never ever had a pitcher pitch a perfect game. ... That's something I will cherish and remember as long as I can stand on my two feet.

They are a lot like our club. They take quality at-bats. They are patient and they have an idea about what they are doing and the pitcher they are facing. They've got speed. They've got some guys who can hit the ball out of the park. They have got quality guys from top to bottom, and you've definitely got to be on your game and make quality pitches to get these guys out.

The worry spots are pitcher and catcher. But they just have to have time to get comfortable with each other.

Think about it -- not only is he a power hitter, but he doesn't strike out much. When he goes to the plate, in my mind, that pitcher is in trouble and that's the way he is. There's no doubt in my mind that this guy is going to put up big numbers if he stays healthy.

The top four in our order are pretty solid. Matt's a good on-base guy. He's disciplined at the plate. He can put the ball in play, takes pitches and works the pitcher over.

You cannot be on the board of directors and also be doing investment banking work for the company. I don't care if he steps out of the room or not. You cannot be the umpire and the pitcher in the same game.

We were down 6-0 to a pretty good pitcher (Pat McCoy). But one thing I've learned is with aluminum bats, you're never really out of the game.

We were embarrassed Tuesday. We had a good practice (Wednesday). We didn't give our pitcher a chance Tuesday.

The South Park coach made a classy gesture by presenting the game ball to our starting pitcher and then she went home and had the ball cut in half and gave the other half to April, which I thought was pretty cool.

The team that gets rid of the other team's starting pitcher first has the best shot.

The second time a young pitcher sees the same team, that's what made today's outing even more impressive. They have some idea of what you're going to do out there.

The second game was just a lack of intensity. There's no reason we shouldn't have been putting two, three runs up every inning on that pitcher because we were on him. But then we had some lack of intensity. We're up by seven so let's laugh and joke -- and that's my fault. I've got to keep the intensity on this team.

It was a huge at-bat, because the game was pretty close. We had guys on first and second, so in my mind I was thinking gap-to-gap, trying to hit a double. The pitcher hung me a curve ball, so I got a little out in front but stayed through and hit it down the line. We got both runs in.

When you have a good defense, you have the luxury of pitching aggressively. It's bad when you have a team that doesn't catch the ball, then you have to pitch defensively, and that's the worst thing you can do as a pitcher -- avoid contact.

When you have an at-bat like that, it wears the pitcher. It sets the tone. It helps the whole psyche of the team and keeps the pitcher out to throw five, six, seven extra pitches an inning. That adds up. (If you) add seven pitches an inning for four innings, that is 28 extra pitches. Through four innings (Walker) was at 73 pitches.

When you have a pitcher as gifted as Tyler, you've got to like your chances. He throws strikes, he hits the corners, he's just a special pitcher. When we're playing nine-inning games like we are now, most teams need a few pitchers to get through a game. Tyler is very efficient, so he can finish it off himself.

When you have a pitcher of her caliber, to give up two runs in the first inning just gives her more confidence. It was going to be one of those games that if it?s 0-0 going into the fifth, it?s a different game.

When you have a team behind you as a pitcher that will put a lot of runs on the board, it sure helps you to relax. ... It was a great season opener for us.

When you face a pitcher the caliber of Chris Carpenter, you only get one opportunity like that.

When you get a young pitcher who has been pitching well...you want to get him on the ropes and keep him there.

When we knew this game was coming we thought it would be something special, and it was. You have a Hall of Famer against a young pitcher who is something special. In 10-15 years we may look back at this game and say it was a Hall of Famer against a future Hall of Famer.

We will have discussions about that, especially a pitcher sliding head-first into first base.

When you know you're facing a good pitcher like they had going today, you try to do anything. We tried to make a few plays and we just kind of didn't go at the right time and they handled it well. That was the difference in the game.

We've, hopefully, got three ready. He saved us an extra pitcher today.

We've got to get a pitcher back, ... somehow.

An investigation of the Republican administration by a Republican-controlled Congress is like having a pitcher call his own balls and strikes.

The way our lineup is set up, if Carlos feels he's comfortable doing that and you get it down, you made the right play. In a situation like that, a good pitcher like Carpenter, it's not a bad play. If you get it down, no one says anything. You pop it up, it's a story.

The vice-presidency isn't worth a pitcher of warm piss

It was a new pitcher and I was just thinking sit back and wait for your pitch. Especially with a lefty, I wanted to keep my shoulder in. I didn't want to pull that out and just put the ball in play. That's my main thing when I'm up to bat just put the ball in play and make something happen. Nothing's going to happen striking out. I ended up getting hit.

It was a nice series win. It was great to come out and hit the ball the way we did tonight. We got great pitching out of our starting pitcher today.

You get a pitcher to throw eight balls in a row like that (actually eight balls in nine pitches), and it can be hard for him to get back in the zone.

We tell the runners to freeze on a line drive. The pitcher made some good plays, though, so it's just tough for the runner at first.

Vanessa pitched a pretty good game and was strong at times and a little shaky at times. But it's tough on a young pitcher when you are close to closing out a game and then there are errors behind you at critical situations.

Vanessa was throwing really well coming into the game and we wanted to see how she would handle a game against this kind of opponent. But when you have a young pitcher and don't give her the confidence that you will make plays behind her, it gets rough out there.

You do see some deliveries quicker than others. Sometimes, you get a sense that your body is in their body and you can feel the transfer of power. When you do get a pitcher like that, sometimes the smallest thing sticks out with you. I'm not saying that Ryan was exactly like that, but he was close.

Uribe can't hit a guy who throws junk. And then he hits a triple against the toughest pitcher in baseball.

To me, he looks more comfortable now. With him, if he gets on base, he can put pressure on the pitcher and they try to be too quick to the plate. When that happens, they can make a mistake, and we can take advantage of that.

We've got a good offense, our kids can hit the ball. I really think they'll hit most any pitcher around, because they're seasoned enough to be able to hit. We do work hard on our offense, but we've got a lot to work on defensively. This is not indicative of what this defense has been.

We all know as a staff that we hold our own fate. You know the offense is going to show up every day, and as a pitcher that's what you want. There's no room for excuses. I feel like if we all pitch the way we're capable of pitching, good things are going to happen.

We all know how good a pitcher he is, ... He sure proved it today. The same with our pitcher. He threw a pretty good game, too.

We're swinging at quality pitches. We're swinging at our pitches instead of the pitcher's pitches. If the pitcher is throwing the ball where he wants to, he's going to be tough to beat.

We're swinging the bats very well right now. We haven't faced a dominant pitcher yet, but our batters feel like they can hit anyone now.

Bethany does well but as always the pitcher needs defense.

Britton will probably be our No. 1 pitcher and he's only a freshman. Because I have experience and am one of the main leaders, I'll be here to help out a lot of the young guys and get everybody ready to play.

Brett is a confident pitcher right now. When a pitcher has the type of confidence that he has, and the type of pitches he throws, it makes him tough to beat.

Brandon is an outstanding pitcher but he hasn't pitched. I know he's going to be out there and the guy is a great pitcher. I hope he can go out there and have really good starts for us. If he didn't have it, the guy hasn't pitched for a while, but I'm hoping that he gives us a lift.

Even though we got down, I felt that we were seeing their pitcher really good and if our kids were patient, that we would have a good chance to get back in it. And we did.

Everything looked normal for him, his fastball velocity, everything was good. He just lacked location. He had trouble getting the ball on the inner half. He's the type of pitcher that has to establish inside to those right-handers and he was having trouble with it. He just wasn't sharp. That's kind of expected when you miss a week or two of competition.

We didn't hit well. Their pitcher kept us off balance. He mixed his pitches well and we were not able to get much going.

We didn't make offensive changes. Pitching-wise, you bring in a legitimate front-line pitcher in Kenny Rogers and we got back one of our own from the beginning, Todd Jones, and more importantly, with the players that we had, we've got a staff that's going to be able to take us to the next level.

We did a good job of advancing runners and keeping the ball in play. It was tough. Their pitcher (Holt) has an odd pitch. He has that palm ball. These kids don't see much of that.

Stormy settled down and started hitting her spots. She's by far the best pitcher we've seen all year.

Adair is as good as anybody. I've voted them as high as third and as low as fifth. That pitcher completed them.

The most important thing about my pitching is that I'm satisfied, that I know I'm being the best pitcher I can be.

Randy is Randy and his power is incredible. But Wang has the best stuff in our clubhouse, no doubt. He'll be our No. 1 pitcher eventually.

The oldest pitcher acquires confidence in his ball club - he doesn't try to do it all himself.

The thing about baseball is, it takes one pitch to change a game. He just got the bat head out. Every pitcher in America's going to say, 'Darn it, that shouldn't have been hit.' But he hit my pitch.

Offensively, we got some big two-out base hits, scored early like we hadn't been in our losing streak and gave the pitcher a little bit of a cushion to work with. At the end of the game we hit some home runs a little bit like we had been when we were in our winning streak.

Some teams want a pitchers' park and some teams want a hitters' park. That's not the case in St. Louis. ... It's a fair playing field. It doesn't favor either pitcher or batter. Frankly, that's a carryover from what old Busch Stadium had.

Facing the Yankees 19 times a year, that lineup is so power packed -- even the eight hole and nine hole sometimes. It's tough to pitch to. It's mentally wearing on you as the game goes on. For me to be over here in the National League, just to have the pitcher in the nine hole, gives me a little bit of breathing room. I don't think there's any lineup in the National League that can compare with that one. For me, it feels like it's easier to get over the hump.

Unfortunately for Carlos Hernandez and the Venezuelan team, he left a pitch there for a great hitter. That's why the great hitters always take advantage when a pitcher makes an error.

We are excited to add an experienced starting pitcher to our rotation, one that represents the team we are trying to build both on and off the field.

We'd been getting ready for this game for a long time. I told our guys at practice yesterday not to get frustrated. We were facing a great pitcher in Wheeler and it wouldn't be easy.

South Brunswick should have a good club this season. They have their No. 1 pitcher back, and this game should be a good starting point for us. I think they'll be one of the top teams in the division this year.

Devin is a heck of a pitcher. He is a first-team all-conference pitcher for a reason. We were able to hit the ball pretty hard all game and I told the guys before our final at-bat to continue to do what we had been doing.

No matter how great your pitcher is, things are going to happen and you're going to have to back her up.

Some days it's going to take the starting pitcher to come out and dominate, and you might win, 2-0. But for the most part, we're going to score runs. With a team like this, you don't panic.

Deanna was mediocre when she started. But she decided after her freshman season that she was going to work her tail off at becoming the best pitcher she could be.

Defensively, we didn't help our pitcher out. She made a lot of nice pitches and we either made an error or made a mental error and we just have to work on that. It's early in the season.

Cody has such a tremendous work ethic. She was awesome her first three years but this year she's turned it up another notch and that says a lot about her. She's the most consistent pitcher I've ever worked with.

As long as he keeps his focus and continues to realize there is no real opportunity to be satisfied and he maintains that hunger, ... he could wind up being a real good pitcher in the Major Leagues.

A younger pitcher might have been more worried, but Emily was just fine.

Audrey (starting pitcher Decker) had a a rough start. She should have been down 1-0 instead of 4-0 at the end of the second. An error cost us three runs.

You've got to tip your hat to a pitcher now and then.

Zach Duke showed us last year, and in his first start, what type of pitcher he is.

That's what patience does. When a pitcher is down we've learned to wait and let them throw. Neither of their pitchers were hitting their spots and that was evident so we just jumped all over them.

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.

That's just a little more than a third of an inning more per start. My goal is to be more consistent, and I know I'm capable of that. There were a lot of games when I either had a lead or I fell behind early. I want to be the type of pitcher that can pitch for a long time and keep his team in a tight game.

That's not how this game works. A few years ago, we scored a lot of runs against Bud Smith, and then he came back and threw a no-hitter against us. It depends on how the pitcher is going. And there have been guys we should've killed, but we didn't.