Good pitchers, after a tough outing, bounce back. Real good pitchers don’t let too many poor games get in there.
You could ask any position player and they’ll tell you: pitchers aren’t athletes.
I hate when pitchers get me out multiple times. It’s probably an ego thing, but I don’t like that.
I shop at thrift stores a lot. I have a lot of silver pitchers and I put my flowers in those. I collect antiques, so there are a lot of old rocking chairs… My friends call my home the vortex because nobody wants to leave.
I figured that pitchers had a better chance of getting drafted than fielders, so I decided I should be a pitcher. But I never expected to be picked in the first round. I wasn’t even sure I’d get picked at all.
Learn the league, learn the pitchers, learn how they’re going to go after you.
All pitchers are born pitchers.
I try to do my best every game to help the pitchers and help my team win. That’s it.
Most pitchers are too smart to manage.
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.
I don’t look at myself as one of the best pitchers in the world.
I think there’s a growing number of pitchers who want to have a plan going into a game about how they’re going to go after that lineup. I’d say 75 percent want to have an idea, and they plan their attack. I know that 75 percent of hitters do not have that same type of plan against a pitcher.
It would be a lot different for me because there is a lot of information that you need to know about as a player. How pitchers are pitching you, how defenses are playing, certain situations about certain pitchers.
I think the biggest adjustment I’ve made before coming here was going from High A to Double A. I was going in facing pitchers who had more experience and knew how to throw all their stuff for strikes and in hitter’s counts, things like that.
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.
Poets are like baseball pitchers. Both have their moments. The intervals are the tough things.
Give me 10 high school pitchers, let me spend a week with them, and I’ll show you 10 pitchers who won’t balk. It’s not that difficult, and they better learn it.
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.
Pitchers make adjustments, and it’s up to the hitters to readjust and sort of tweak what they do.
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.
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