Willie Randolph Quotations | Page 2

He never voiced any concern about being here or playing here,

He made some bad pitches, ... It happens every once in awhile - not too often.

He felt good, he was throwing well. We stayed with him.

He had 17 saves last year I believe, right? He's been in situations like that where he's pretty comfortable. If you're in the bullpen, for the most part, I'm going to use you.

Jose's going to get his stolen bases. If you get a good fastball to hit, and you're a good fastball hitter, I want you to swing at it, almost like a hit-and-run.

Keep it going, I love it. The guys were having fun tonight and obviously everyone was making a contribution. That's what you need to do the job on the road and hopefully we can get something special going.

Listen, when he pitches if I don't see what I like to see I'm not going to be totally patient. You go by your track record.

Look at his track record. No doubt about it. I love the fact he's on our staff. I hope and pray he's the guy we all know.

(Matsui) has to get back into game shape. The kid's doing really well defensively and we're winning a few games, so there's no rush, that's for sure.

Some guys take a little longer to exhale. It's a natural thing, a human thing. I think that most of the guys I've seen in the league, as time goes on they get more and more comfortable. I hope that's the case with him.

That doesn't mean a whole lot to me.

I respect a man that speaks his mind and is honest in what he believes. I don't feel he meant any disrespect.

I said last night I would see how he felt. He had a pretty good game for us but I still didn't even ask him if he wanted to play because he got hit.

Spoilers are losers, ... I don't want to ever have my team feel good about being spoilers.

I saw him on TV. He's got a good curve, a sneaky fastball and he pitches inside. I was impressed. But we're going to attack him. You don't give him too much respect. He's a young player, and you've got to attack him. You don't let him get too comfortable.

I saw him pitch lights out many times against the Yankees. He's always been a little up and down. He really, at times, would come in and shut the door.

I saw him pitch lights out many times against the Yankees. We have to play this stuff out. I'm just being really positive about him because I know he can do certain things. But until he gets into this new environment playing for us, you don't know that.

I think we should be 10 games over really.

Just because we're tight doesn't mean we talk all the time, especially when you're trying to beat each other. Very rarely do the managers talk to each other after the game.

Just because you have a nice feel coming into a city doesn't mean you're going to carry it over. I wasn't thinking just because we scored a lot of runs in Arizona that we were going to come here and do the same thing necessarily. We got after it pretty good there. But that's a great hitters' ballpark, a different pitching staff.

Pedro does a lot of his work indoors anyway. We wanted him to not pound as much early on in camp, but he's going to work into his routine and do what he needs to do.

Pedro just made some bad pitches. He elevated some, and the ball was carrying. It was very unusual for Pedro. He's human. You don't expect to see four home runs off anyone, especially not him.

Pedro told me that his arm feels great. He has this little, minor thing with his toe, but I don't think it's going to bother him at all.

Pedro will be ready. I trust Pedro that he'll be ready to go. That's what I go by.

Maybe I should have handled that differently. I don't know. I'm hoping a lot of the things I did now will help us in the future.

It is fair to say that it could have held him up. He could have gotten into a routine quicker if he had been around more.

Just because that last four or five guys don't look too promising, anything can happen.

I think Mike is going to be a little longer. I don't see him rushing back or anything like that.

I think any manager in his right mind would love to have a Pedro Martinez.

Our pitching is like everyone else's in the league - very uncertain.

Our pitching. I told them that we're not going to do anything unless we pitched well. Our starters have done a nice job and our bullpen has been much better.

Overall I was pleased with the spring. All the guys who played in the World Baseball Classic came back healthy. We're ready to go.

Our game is speed and obviously you can't use your speed if you don't put the ball in play. I think he's eventually going to be a decent leadoff hitter. Last year everybody wanted him to be Rickey Henderson, and he couldn't do that.

I think he understands that he needs to make sure everything is right before he gets out there.

I think he's OK. I don't think it'll be that serious.

I think everybody needs to finish up strong, ... He's obviously been a little inconsistent lately. Not put any particular notice on him. He needs to hit his spots. He's thrown well at times. He's shown flashes here and there.

I think if it was anything serious, they would have given me a heads-up on it. I don't think it's anything big.

I still feel in my heart and my gut that it was the right thing to do,

I was excited to hear that Rickey wanted to join us. He was a tremendous teammate and brought tons of enthusiasm to the clubhouse. I know he'll be an incredible help.

I think he's going to be a good player.

I think he'll probably throw off the mound soon. Obviously, he's going to have to get off the mound sometime. I just can't tell you exactly when.

I think he looks totally different than he was last year. He's looser and freer, and the ball is coming out of his hand real well.

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.

It doesn't make sense to give a young kid like Hernandez an old man's spot like that this early.

It feels good for me that we're climbing.

It feels great. Are you kidding me? It feels awesome, man. We just like to keep playing and build on the house money. Keep building.

It feels great, awesome, are you kidding me? We just need to keep playing, and to build on the house money.

It feels great. I'm real proud of those guys.

Just wanted him to concentrate on his three innings. It was just good to see him out there.

Kaz is looking much better. It might be the right time for him to get going, so that's good.

Kaz must have worked hard in Florida (when he was on the disabled list) because he looks better to me in the field.

I think that's what happened . . . he didn't have the feel for the ball. Pedro likes to pitch inside and hopefully he will have a better feel.

I thought Zambrano looked a lot looser, there was more fluidity to his pitches, he kept the ball down. The key to success for any pitcher is to pound the bottom of the zone, but with him, especially. He looked totally different.

I think we had, what, three players who had six hits. You've got to put it together more than that.

I think you just have to give the pitcher credit. He threw the ball well. Usually the pitcher has the upper hand when you haven't seen him, and he was a little bit funky with his delivery.

It can't hurt. He's been there before, and bottom line, I hope he can produce and help win us some games.

It builds confidence. Making a contribution to the team is important for a young player. I'm happy for him. He works hard. He wants to win. You root for a kid like that.

It boils down to how the guys play for you. That's the most important thing for me. I've done a good job getting my team ready to play every day. That is, as a manager, all you can do. The other stuff you can poke holes in. The main thing is I've learned a lot about the game.

It could be like facing Randy Johnson. Or even worse, because he's so wide (in addition to being tall).

It could be someone else toward the end of the season who could be the swing guy.

I thought Victor got the ball down really nice. I just think he looks totally different than he was last year. It looks like he's looser, freer, and balls are coming out of his hand real well.

I thought we had it, man. He came in there and did a pretty good job. After the full count he had to challenge him, I guess.

I wasn't in the situation, so you'll have to ask him,

Time is dwindling down, ... We can use a jolt right now.

We'll probably be going back-and-forth all season with these guys.

You know he's going to do something special, ... but because we haven't won a lot of his games, we kind of lose that. I've said it about Roger Clemens: When you have a great pitcher like that, it's not always automatic.

You'd like to capitalize on the teams ahead of you, but it's not like it's just gonna happen that way all the time.

You'd like to have all your players. We're short and have to go with what we've got. I don't know how this will affect us.

We'll know where we are by the end of this trip and then we'll still have to go home and finish strong. A lot can happen, but the way the schedule sets up, regardless of how this trip finishes up, we still have a lot of baseball to play.

We'll get two out of three and be satisfied with that.

We'll get two out of three and go on the road,

Those are the guys we have to go through to be where we want to be. We're looking forward to that challenge.

I would hope that when he's ready, he's ready to play,

The Art of War' is one of my favorite books. To me, it's all about winning. When you go into competition, there is an art to it. There is a way to do it if you want to be the best.

We're working on little things with his hands and feet. Nothing major. He's starting to feel comfortable with the things we're doing. He's still learning. But he's young and he'll continue to work. There's no reason he can't be a good big-league third baseman.

We have to just go with how he feels day-to-day. Pedro knows how to get ready, and he knows his body as well as anyone, so I didn't go in with any preconceived ideas or notions about anything. His arm is healthy, and obviously he's a little bit behind.

We have to make the most of what this is. It will be good to get everybody back and get into a flow. We have two weeks to go. That's sufficient time to get it rolling.

We have to win the game. He's our closer and I thought he'd come in and close it out.

We could look at guys we might normally not see much of in spring training, and this could pay off later in the season if we need to bring somebody up.

Winning the first game of the series doesn't mean anything if we don't win the next two, or one of the next two.

You bring so much more to the table with all those tools. Unless he's really setting himself back, that's part of being a professional athlete. We didn't want him to run through a wall or anything like that, but ... he might hit a three-run homer to win a ballgame.

You kind of flinch a little bit, when you see can see that both of them have a bead on it. When the guys start laying out a little bit, leaning toward the ball, that's when you assume that maybe something nasty could happen. Very scary.

I was really impressed with him. He's nice and free and easy, and, boy, he's huge. Big boy. It's pretty impressive to just see the ball fly out of his hand without any effort.

That was something that I usually like to do periodically, but today was a perfect time to do it. I always like to let guys know where I'm coming from and what I expect. It worked out good, because if we were on the field, we probably wouldn't have had it.

We are where we are because everyone has chipped in. I want everyone to feel that they're a part of it.

We got off to a nice start, so I don't want to rush anyone back. I'm not one to panic at this point in the season.

We'll continue to let everybody play. This is a competition. I'm not ready to make a judgment at this time. Day to day, things change.

We'll continue using everybody who's in camp. It'll be a competition.

When you're in the heat of something, you go with what you've got or what you trust, OK?

We can use a little jolt or whatever,

We played some good teams, some good baseball at times. Just didn't get over the hump.

We had to. You have guys that tweak a hamstring and walk off the field. But any time you've got to be helped off the field, you're not going to be making your next start. There's no reason to take a chance on hurting him and pushing that. That to me was no question. There's no way in the world he's going to be able to go in time.

We had a little of everything -- good and bad and Julio.

That's very important. I like my pitchers to stay focused and execute pitches and not get wrapped up in the score, but that's not very easy to do. Jae got a little tired at the end. We had some long innings, but he did keep us in the game as far as getting throught the first five pretty easily.

That's the toughest thing for a young player to learn, and at the major-league level he has to be able to do it consistently. It's tougher to turn the double play at second than at shortstop because your back is to the runner. You have to have a lot of heart, nerve and confidence.

That was good to see, ... It was just one time, but hopefully that shows him he can get up in there.

We've still got a lot to learn about each other, a lot to learn about winning. It just feels good to get that first year out of the way. It feels good knowing coming into this camp that you know your personnel better and feel more comfortable with what you expect.

There are personal things you have to deal with and he had permission to do that. I don't have the details. It wasn't anything to do with doctors, injuries or his toe.

We're assuming and hoping that he's going to be the guy.

Today, obviously it's pretty much bad game management. Anytime you give up 0-2 home runs, that's not what you want to do. We had that quick 1-2-3 pitcher and then all hell broke loose in that one inning where he should have gotten out of that real easy. He just made bad pitches at the wrong time.