Quotes About Strategy

I'm a finesse pitcher without the finesse.

You can't go out to the mound hobbling and take a pitcher out with a cane.

When I hit, I felt I was in control of the home-plate area, and it was important that I felt that way. If I let the pitcher control it, it would give him an advantage.

That's a thing you always hear - the hitters make adjustments. I think the pitcher has to make some adjustments, too.

A pitcher is not a ballplayer.

I just try to make the pitcher work.

I'm a fly-ball pitcher, guys.

I loved baseball. I was a pitcher. I loved being on the mound because I also loved being at the center of the action, the cat and mouse battle with the batter on every pitch. You had to develop grit.

Half the time, I have trouble following our own pitcher's sequence.

I think I'm constantly trying to grow as a pitcher. You start going out there, you're learning stuff, you're finding different ways to try to get guys out. Trying to be creative.

Anytime a pitcher hasn't faced a hitter, I feel the pitcher has the advantage. The more times the hitter sees somebody, the more the advantage goes to the hitter.

It's easy to sit there in the dugout when the game's going on and talk, chitchat about this and that. But I think paying attention, watching the pitcher, watching the game develop, putting yourself in situations you're not even in yet, anticipating the game, stuff like that, I think that really helps you take that extra step.

What's important is to get into the pitcher's head: to know what he's made of.

As a pitcher, you can't afford to get too ticked off.

When you have these big, strong power hitters who can hit the ball a country mile, and they're strong for a reason and able to do that, as a pitcher you have to keep up.

If a pitcher makes a mistake inside, I'm going to hit it.

I like that the pitcher hits. I think that my feeling is that everybody should play a position. In order to hit, you have to play a position. That's just my view of it. I feel that's more baseball, and the games are managed different. I enjoy the National League, how it's played.

I understand what sabermetrics get across, and what they're getting across is to keep it simple. Especially for me, as a pitcher, that's something that helps me - finding ways to keep it simple. Numbers can only tell so much.

You can't use your hot pitcher three nights in a row. You've got to let your stars freshen up and back off them.

I'm a breaking-ball pitcher.

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

Sometimes pitchers' duels are just as interesting as home-run affairs.

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

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.