Quotes from J. D. Martinez

You can ask every coach from Ron Gardenhire to Dave Clark, anyone who has seen me play, they don't know why they say I'm a bad defender.

My teammate Torii Hunter taught me how to lead and provide encouragement to the locker room.

Obviously, this is a job, it's a grind, but it's what you love to do. It's your passion.

I stand by the Constitution and I stand by the Second Amendment and it's something that I take pride in. It's something that I'll back up.

Rodney Linares really stuck his neck out in Greenville to play me, because they had their prospects, guys who they had invested money in.

The last thing I wanted to do was get buried in Triple-A behind prospects.

People are always asking if I was mad at Houston. Honestly, I'm not. The truth of the matter is that when I was there, I didn't perform and they actually did me a favor by cutting me loose. They could have really held me there, not let me leave, bury me in Triple-A, put me behind some prospects and I would never even play.

Whoever's hitting in front of you or behind you is going to determine how you get pitched, but there's nothing you can do.

Any time you go into the playoff game everyone's adrenaline is high and tensions are going, stuff like that.

You know, this league is all about adjustments, and the one thing you kinda notice when you're playing every day is how teams make adjustments. Once you start having a little bit of success, they are going to make their adjustment.

I played street basketball for a while and wanted to play competitively, but I was so used to the street-style of game that I would have fouled out by the end of the first quarter.

I think I'm a funny guy.

I had to make baseball work. I threw myself into it.

If a pitcher goes up there and he's throwing a ball and it's a breaking ball down and away or a fastball up and in, a perfect pitcher's pitch, and you're able to just foul it off and stay alive in the at-bat, just keep grinding, keep working through the at-bat and hoping for that mistake that he's going to make. And if he doesn't, then you walk.

I have so many memories of going fishing and camping as a kid, and my dad had season tickets to watch the Marlins - and that's where I fell in love with the game.

I always talk about it like I'm a hitter first and if I'm doing things right and my body's in the right place, I drive the baseball.

I believe that you're a hitter first and you're a slugger second type deal.

That's one thing I learned from watching great hitters hit. A lot of hitters, they're ready to hit from pitch one.

I've always loved hitting, and even as a kid, I always hit.

I love to talk about hitting. It's a passion of mine.

Whenever you see me and I'm hitting ground ball after ground ball, you know I'm not feeling right.

I don't go up there and try to hit home runs.

I think my failures in Houston is what made me who I am. I think it's given me that drive, that drive to keep working, because you never know what can happen type deal.

Obviously, I'm sad to leave Houston. I love the fans and players and everyone here.