Top 75 Pitchers Quotes

The reason I think I’m a good pitcher is I locate my fastball and I change speeds. Period. That’s what you do to pitch. That’s what pitchers have to do to win games.

Ball parks are smaller and baseballs are livelier. They’ve practically got pitchers wearing straitjackets. Bah! They still allow the knuckleball, and that is three times as hard to control.

Most of the managers are lifetime .220 hitters. For years pitchers have been getting these managers out 75% of the time and that’s why they don’t like us.

The reason I think I’m a good pitcher is I locate my fastball and I change speeds. Period. That’s what you do to pitch. That’s what pitchers have to do to win games.

Watching National League pitchers trying to hit or even bunt is depressing.

In high school, baseball was life. My senior year, I had the highest batting average on the team. I was one of the starting pitchers. I wanted to play Division III ball and eventually coach.

You throw batting practice, you warm up pitchers, you sit and cheer. You do whatever you have to do to stay on the team.

You could ask any position player and they’ll tell you: pitchers aren’t athletes.

Twenty games is the magic figure for pitchers – .300 is the magic figures for batters. It pays off in salary and reputation. And those are the two things that keep a ballplayer in business.

Clubs are taking away the steal of home. Not only are more pitchers throwing out of the stretch position, but more third basemen are playing closer to the bag. But another reason why nobody does it much anymore is that some guys, no matter how fast they are, just aren’t comfortable trying to steal home.

Pitchers make adjustments, and it’s up to the hitters to readjust and sort of tweak what they do.

If multiple starting pitchers underperform at the same time, it’s always going to leave you in a stretch where it’s hard to play better than .500 baseball.

If you are used to going five innings and then go six or seven, you won’t have your good stuff. They need to start that from the minor leagues and give pitchers strong arms.

All pitchers are born pitchers.

Too many pitchers, that’s all, there are just too many pitchers Ten or twelve on a team. Don’t see how any of them get enough work. Four starting pitchers and one relief man ought to be enough. Pitch ’em every three days and you’d find they’d get control and good, strong arms.

Baseball will never address that problem unless it has to, though, because I would guess 70 percent of the pitchers in the league use some sort of technically illegal substance on the ball. It’s just that some organizations really know how to weaponize that and some don’t.

I vividly recall the physical sensation and emotion of playing defense behind my teammates – pitchers dominating opposing lineups, throwing up zero after zero as the innings progressed.

What are you going to do? Admit to yourself that the pitchers have you on the point of surrender? You can’t do that. You must make yourself think that the pitchers are just as good as they always have been or just as bad.

Pitchers did me a favor when they knocked me down. It made me more determined. I wouldn’t let that pitcher get me out. They say you can’t hit if you’re on your back, but I didn’t hit on my back. I got up.

You had to pitch in and out. The zone didn’t belong to the hitters; it belonged to the pitchers. Today, if you pitch too far inside, the umpire would stop you right there. I don’t think it’s fair.

This is the big leagues; pitchers throw a lot of strikes. I feel like they attack me. That’s why I go up there and swing.

Pitchers are going to break. You can limit their pitches and limit their innings, and they’re still going to blow out. Pitching is hard on the arm.

There aren’t many hitters who like facing knuckleball pitchers. They may not be intimidated by them, but they sure are thinking about them before they go into the box.

Letting the ball travel is an important mental cue. It’s simply about making an attempt to see the ball and to slow it down. It’s a relaxation technique used to avoid being jumpy and attempting to hit the ball directly out of the pitchers hands.

I haven’t seen a player in this game, as long as I’ve been in it, that can’t be pitched to… Barry is an outstanding ballplayer. I respect him an awful lot. I also have confidence in my pitchers that they can pitch to Barry Bonds and get him out.

Short pitchers often have compact, repeatable mechanics that can lead to good control and command.

I don’t think facing one of your own active pitchers would be a good idea, unless I got super lucky and hit a ball through the middle or something. That would not be good. I’d pull every muscle in my body.

I can maybe depend on my fastball a little more than some other pitchers.

There’s only one cure for what’s wrong with all of us pitchers, and that’s to take a year off. Then, after you’ve gone a year without throwing, quit altogether.

When you look at starting pitchers, once they make it through year four, then – knock on wood – you see a lot of injury risk go down.

Young and wiry pitchers allow for the opportunity to add muscle, which often leads to improved velocity.

The Yankees have better starting pitchers than Arizona. Arizona just has two… the Yanks have four.

This day and age, you look at baseball as a whole, and not just the pitchers’ side of it. You have the weight programs, you have the technology, and as a pitcher, you need to keep up.

Preparation is very important. The pitcher is going to do his job and prepare for you, so you as a hitter must do the same. I always watch videotape of pitchers before the game and even sometimes during.

The Yankees have better starting pitchers than Arizona. Arizona just has two… the Yanks have four.

The Negro League had some of the best players in history. Satchel Paige was probably one of the best pitchers in the history of baseball, and many believe catcher Josh Gibson was a better hitter than Babe Ruth.

I love to be in the ballpark. I love to just go in and enjoy a great baseball game, a great pitchers’ duel.

You had to pitch in and out. The zone didn’t belong to the hitters; it belonged to the pitchers. Today, if you pitch too far inside, the umpire would stop you right there. I don’t think it’s fair.

We just kind of relied on written scouting reports through the eighties and even the early nineties. I’ve really been amazed by some of the data that’s out there, especially with regards to tendencies of hitters, and certainly tendencies of pitchers as well. I would have loved to have gotten that data when I played.

Pitchers did me a favor when they knocked me down. It made me more determined. I wouldn’t let that pitcher get me out. They say you can’t hit if you’re on your back, but I didn’t hit on my back. I got up.

I enjoyed hitting in the Major Leagues more than in the Minor Leagues. I didn’t want to tell anybody it was easier, because I didn’t want to sound cocky. But Major League pitchers had better control, and most of them were around the plate.

I enjoyed hitting in the Major Leagues more than in the Minor Leagues. I didn’t want to tell anybody it was easier, because I didn’t want to sound cocky. But Major League pitchers had better control, and most of them were around the plate.

I think what people are really crying out for is simple information they can trust when they’re bombarded by attack ads, fundraising pitchers and all sort of comment and opinion all over the place increasingly.

Pitchers are smart. They know they are much better off if they mix things up and keep you off-balance.

Pitchers made an adjustment to me. It’s up to me to come up with an answer.

This is the big leagues; pitchers throw a lot of strikes. I feel like they attack me. That’s why I go up there and swing.

All the in-depth scouting reports we have on the opposing pitchers – just kind of learning how to study that, it’s huge.

All pitchers are liars or crybabies.

I hate when pitchers get me out multiple times. It’s probably an ego thing, but I don’t like that.

And when I went to Houston, they had a conditioning coach by the name of Gene Coleman. And that was the first time I had gone to an organization that had a program with a weight room and designed specifically for pitchers.

There aren’t many hitters who like facing knuckleball pitchers. They may not be intimidated by them, but they sure are thinking about them before they go into the box.

Left-handed pitchers get paid a lot of money to get left-handed guys out or else they wouldn’t be in there. They feel confident going up against lefties. If you look at most lefties’ numbers, typically they happen to be better against lefties than against righties. That’s all it is.

I study pitchers. I visualize pitches. That gives me a better chance every time I step into the box. That doesn’t mean I’m going to get a hit every game, but that’s one of the reasons I’ve come a long way as a hitter.

There’s only one cure for what’s wrong with all of us pitchers, and that’s to take a year off. Then, after you’ve gone a year without throwing, quit altogether.

I would think every organization has pitchers who have good talent but just don’t have what it takes to make it with what they’ve got.