Willie Randolph Quotations | Page 3

There is little question about David becoming a great player. But it will be interesting to see how he adjusts this year. He won't be a surprise to anyone anymore. The pitchers know about him, and they will make adjustments. I want to see how he adjusts.

Those were big plays. Could have obviously gotten us some momentum going.

When you're playing the Braves, you can feel good going in but not too good going out.

Tommy threw the ball well again, but Jason Schmidt pitched well, too. He made the pitches when he had to.

Tommy was outstanding, vintage Glavine. He's been coming on steady for us since the early season shaky starts.

We had an understanding of that going into the game, ... If we had a chance to win the game, he would have stayed in.

We probably could use another arm. We have a long stretch of days where we don't have any off days. It's nice to have a lefty, and he also can pitch multiple innings. He gives you a lot of options.

We played well enough to win. I'd rather win, but you can't be disappointed.

The overriding factor for me is if he can help our club.

We're not trying to go out and totally intimidate anybody. The bottom line is, we do have arm strength, and that's to your advantage in some ways. The key, really, is throwing strikes.

We'll see how he feels and go from there. He's feeling pretty good. I don't anticipate any setbacks.

We'll see how it goes. But I like his body. He's got a great athletic body, of course. I watched him a little bit in BP, and he's got quick hands and he's got speed.

We want to just take him slow, that's all. Pedro does a lot of his work indoors anyway.

We'd like to win all the time, but it's not possible all the time. We'll get the two out of the three and be satisfied and go on the road.

We worked hard this year, and we want to finish up strong, and that's what we're going to do. I don't believe in playing major-league games to just look at people. That's what spring training's for.

We're trying to get rid of all the sickness before the season.

Winning like we did ... it might have proved something to the Phillies. But that doesn't matter as much as proving it to ourselves. Coming back is the best way to go. A 'we-can-do-it moment.' Yeah, I like that. Because we can do it.

We're not able to put the nail in the coffin so to speak, just adding on. All crucial runs, all stuff that comes back to bite you later. We must be gluttons for punishment I guess.

We think we can help him in some cases. He's always had a great arm. Mechanically, there's always something a pitching coach can pick up to tweak a little bit. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't.

We thought he was a defensive guy. Then in spring training, we saw he had some thunder in his hands. We'll take it.

We're right where we want to be, ... I'm positive, man. I feel good about my guys. No gloom and doom. ... Big 10 days coming up. I feel fine.

We always fight back. We've been that way the whole year. We don't hang our heads about anything; we try to get back in it as much as we can.

You don't know what to expect when someone goes through something like that,

We're going to miss (Mark) Mulder, ... That's good, I guess, huh?

We're going to keep him in the bullpen. I like the way the bullpen looks right now.

We're going to keep playing until the end,

We're going to let Pedro pretty much dictate when he's ready to get on the mound or do whatever he wants to do. We're going to let him take his time. He's a veteran. He knows what he needs to do. We don't need to put any schedules on him because that can always change.

Every time he got it up, they hit.

At 3-and-0, you don't want to give him a ball anywhere around the plate.

To get to the next level, we have to get way past that thinking.

You hear a little of this, ... But that's all right.

Every situation is totally different for me. Every team that faces Barry Bonds has the same dilemma. You just pick your spots in the course of the game and you try to make the right decision and hope that it's executed. It's no different than any other team. Obviously, he's still a presence and obviously he's still one of the best hitters in the game and you have to be very conscious of him.

Everybody could use an extra day. It's not about Pedro. It's about this time of the year having the luxury of six (starters) who can help you out.

At the time, I thought it was a good time. I just wanted to save a few bullets if I could ... You've got an 8-0 lead, you should be able to bring in one of your back-end relievers.

I used to wear his old man out.

I've coached third base for 10 years and I don't second-guess my third-base coach, ... It was a tough decision. I didn't tell him to tell him to go. You have to ask the guy that sent him.

I've been kind of walking on eggs with him because I really haven't had an opportunity to give him much rest. It's a tribute to him that he's worked as hard as he has. After having a couple tough years with injuries, he's dedicated himself to making sure he stays in the lineup every day. Being young helps that, but there's a lot of maintenance going along with that, and I think the kid deserves a lot of credit for doing that.

They are all tough, man, ... and this is tough as it gets.

Things still could change, but Vic threw the ball well, ... As I said earlier, we'll evaluate as we go, but anytime a guy throws well, does well, he gets the upper hand.

The good thing about the World Baseball Classic is we get to see some kids play that we normally wouldn't.

To put him on the DL right away would be playing it safe, obviously. But it's also important that we don't rush him onto the DL because he is feeling better today. So even if he doesn't play this weekend, he might be able to go on Tuesday.

We need to get him going. That's why you go to a guy early in the season, so he can get his confidence going. He'll be all right. We'll just give him the ball again and he'll make some pitches and get himself going.

We seem to make a mistake at the most inopportune times, ... and that's what happens when you lose close games.

The team's been playing well and we'll just start another streak tomorrow.

When you don't get calls, then you don't pitches where you want them to be. But overall he pitched pretty well.

We've got three or four guys on the depth chart who might step up and knock my socks off.

I've talked to my guys about it. All teams, when they go through a growing process, these things happen before you get to a certain level. I told them to make sure they don't like the taste they have in their mouth. It's going to be a good learning experience for them.

The schedule is the schedule, but I like my team. If there are any advantages we have (over the other wild-card hopefuls), it is our speed and the depth of our pitching staff.

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.

It was ugly, ... It's not the way you've got to do things to get back and stay in things.

You have to have a lot of self-confidence to get by in New York. If you have faith in your ability as a player or the decisions you make as a manager, you can do well. But if there are any cracks, they come out, because everything is magnified.

You guys must not have much to talk about.

You go through the first loop and you make a few adjustments so it's accommodating in some ways to players and getting their work in. Last year I wanted to set the tone with a hard workout and get guys' attention, and get guys working and to understand that's what we're here for.

Victor has a lot of movement on his pitches, so sometimes he's going to be out of the zone. But this year is a different year. And I'm hoping that he can stay around the zone, so he can use his stuff and let his stuff naturally work for him, because he's got good movement.

Victor was fine tonight. Last year, he was good for us for a little stretch. I'm hoping he'll get back to that again. I have a lot of confidence in Victor Zambrano.

We'll have to wait and see. We have a long spring. We have a lot of options, a lot of flexibility in our hitters. One thing is constant and that's our aggressiveness and speed and we'll definitely come with that.

We'll just see how it goes, ... He isn't shut down.

We wanted to sweep once we took the first two. I get greedy. But it's a long season. We've played for a month, but I don't think we done anything yet. And one more victory wasn't going to change that.

We wanted to play in and cut down the run at the plate. Basically we were in. A few steps here and there, but basically we weren't back.

We wanted to play in, ... and cut the run at home plate.

We wanted to play in and cut the runner off.

We walked the tightrope a little bit, but it was a good game for the fans to watch.

We went in with the notion of not having him pitch more than five or seven and 80-something pitches or whatever. He went 120 last time out. He's been really banged up.

We are stronger and more balanced with Aaron there. Aaron makes the whole nucleus that much better.

The thing about Pedro is that even if he's a little bit gassed, he can make pitches for you, ... I had a feeling that against some of those young, inexperienced hitters, he'd be able to make a pitch, and he did.

The thing I liked about today more than anything was we picked each other up. I really thought the pitchers did a nice job of picking guys up and we had to scratch for some runs, but the bottom line is that Billy came in and closed it on a great throw by Carlos.

The thing you like about him is he's very comfortable and very poised in the field. Yeah, he didn't play second today, but that's impressive to me.

No reason to change what's working. We've been playing well. I wanted to leave Miguel in there.

With our 4-5-6 hitters coming up, I'm not sending him. I don't second-guess myself. I just react to what I see.

No matter how bleak things look, in this clubhouse we're going to stay positive and keep playing. Things can change around.

Bannister still needs to make this club, so I'm not going to get ahead of myself with all that. I have liked what I've seen from (Bannister) all spring. If he continues to pitch well, obviously he has a chance.

All along I felt he would be fine. I didn't want to push the panic button because I speak to him every day and know how he feels. I had no doubt. It was just good to see him out there and getting his work in. He got through with flying colors, which is good.

That's just the way it falls. I told you earlier I wasn't going to get into that personal catcher thing.

That's why we don't panic. That's why we still feel good about this team.

That's why you don't panic, ... That's why you don't overreact.

That's why you don't panic. That's why you don't overreact. We know very well that things can change at the drop of a dime, so we'll just keep playing.

That's hard to say. He's young. It depends on what kind of year he starts out with. If you look down and he's tearing it up, and we need someone to help us out, yeah.

That's his spot and he needed the work.

That's what we want to do. We want to keep adding. Keep the pressure on.

A lot of guys could have said I'll take the surgery and take their time coming back. But he got back out there because he felt a responsibility to this team and I applaud him for that.

They're trying to find a rhythm and everything, so guys like that, you just let them do their thing.

They're the division champions. Those are the guys we've got to go through to be where we want to be. We feel good going into the series. We want to feel good going out.

Pull a muscle in the on-deck circle, how do you do that?

Sometimes fate and timing can be really scary. It probably turned his career around.

Sometimes big hitters try to do too much. Sometimes he gets down on himself, but we keep him going. He's going to bust out of it.

Sometimes they give me a little juice, a little energy.

Sanchez kept us on the edge of our seats. He made pitches when he had to. He likes the ball every day.

Pretty exciting night for us. Nice win for us in the first game of a homestand. Now we've got two more big ones.

Right now, we just have to wait and see. But it doesn't look too good.

Even if he comes back, he's going to have to work his way back in there. ... There's no rush. That's for sure.

Even if he would have lost or had a so-so game yesterday, he's still going to bring something to the table every time,

There was a little tightness last night and I guess he wanted to nip it in the bud right away. I think he just wanted to have peace of mind to have someone look at it.

There's nothing to address. We're going to play the game the way we've been playing.

There's nothing wrong with his arm. It's probably a combination of a lot of things, and the fact that over the last two years he's thrown a lot of innings. It's nothing serious to the point where you have to worry about anything. It's just a matter of when you have an investment like him, you want to make sure you don't run the risk.

There's no time frame yet. We have a Plan B.

There's no pressure. I've always been a winner and I expect to win now. I don't consider that pressure.

There's no reason obsessing about it now. It's over, done with, and you can move on, but obviously it was nowhere near what we were expecting to do.

The way things are going for us, ... you never feel like things are totally safe.

This could be a springboard. As long as we keep winning, I'm not going to apologize for anything. It's been a crazy year. Strange things have happened.

This is a big one for us. We're looking forward to this challenge.