Jeff Pentland Quotations

Obviously, when you don't get any hits, there aren't any opportunities.

I don't even want him thinking about home runs.

We made a lot of progress. I'm not one to put expectations on people, but I think you're going to see a different Jeremy Reed this year.

He just amazes me with what he can do.

Jeremy's one of our priorities right now because he's our center fielder and we just need to make him better. We're spending a lot of time with him to take care of some of the holes he has and just to make him a better hitter.

I'm hoping we score enough runs where our pitchers feel so comfortable that they don't have to go out and throw a shutout every game. Hopefully, we complement them a little bit better this year.

When a team goes bad, the first thing you notice is they get a little wild and start swinging at balls that God can't hit.

When a team goes through what we're going through right now, we can't go up there and get wild. We have to stay in the strike zone. When a team goes bad, the first thing you notice is guys start swinging at balls that God can't hit.

We're starting to swing at pitches that God couldn't hit. We have to stay with our approach, and we've been getting away from it at times.

We've just got to rebound from this situation. We've got a lot of ability here, and we've got a long ways to go. We've got to gather up as a team, because it's a team offense and it's not any one individual that's going to get the job done.

You have to be able to run well in the No. 2 spot. With Ichiro on base, the No. 2 guy will take pitches, so he's going to have to be able to hit well with two strikes. I think we've got guys who can do that.

They talk about his defense, but what I saw offensively was not a weak shortstop. He's got more strength than I was led to believe. Anybody can do the drills when the ball is coming at you at 50 miles an hour (in batting practice), but I like what I see early.

Rome can't be built in a day and I know there's been a lot of good people here before. It's a challenge for me certainly. Hopefully, I can help and I can make a difference.

Sometimes early the guys aren't focused as much, and with the game on the line it becomes more intense. I think we've shown the ability when the game is close and late, and our at-bats have gotten better. We'd like to keep that going for nine innings, but we haven't done that.

Sometimes the biggest successes aren't the guys you hear the most about.

Adrian wanted to talk about his hands, and I wanted to discuss his legs. Really, this was a situation where he needed greater movement off his back hip. This spring, he regained control and direction of his swing and body movement, and you see the difference.

The last couple days I saw some frustration in our players because they want to win. But they call it offense. You have to stay on the attack and not be defensive up there. It's no fun not scoring runs, no question about that. There's kind of a sense of urgency sometimes when a pitcher goes through you that quickly. But obviously they have good starting pitching and we're going to have to deal with it because they're in our division.

I'll give pitchers credit where it's due, but we have to control what we do. We've got to go up there smart. We can't just go up there winging it.

In the middle we weren't very good today. They didn't particularly have a good day, but it's just one day out of all these. I thought the energy was there. The thought process was there, but the execution was not.

A lot of times the game is basically played away because that's easier. Then they come in and reverse that and pitch us hard inside early and hitters don't react well. They start pulling off the ball and kind of looking for it (inside). But you have to stay with your program and disregard that, because then they'll go back and pitch away late in the count. You can't deviate from your approach.

It's a really good sign that he's hitting. He left hitting the ball pretty good. He was hitting it long ... and far.

It's mostly confidence. From a technical standpoint, you look at last year's tape and compare it to the year he had with Dodgers, and there's not a lot of outstanding problems. He's close technically, with maybe a little tinkering or refining needed here and there.

We spent a lot of time on communicating with one another, getting a feel for one another, and understanding that the best thing that happened for him in 2005 was that he got his first year in the big leagues under him.

We're very good friends. But essentially I learned a long time ago, you need to do things your way. If it happens, so be it. If it doesn't, they'll probably bring in another guy.

They're both a big part of what we're trying to do to get better, but it's not just them.

He's got a chance to use a lot more of the field now. He becomes much more dangerous when he does that because it gives him a chance to utilize his speed.

I don't think we have any real big holes in our lineup.

We've got some guys going good and we've got some guys who are struggling. Usually April's a tough month. Guys come from Arizona where the weather's perfect and the ball flies all over the place. Then you get into the reality of the season, and it can work against them, not so much physically as mentally.

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