Quotes About Pitching

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.

You can't have your bullpen throwing three or four innings every night. Just not fair to them.

I never knew how to throw a fastball, never learned how to throw a curveball, a slider, split-finger, whatever they're throwing nowadays. I was a one-pitch pitcher.

I never resorted to the spitter until I was obliged to. I nearly ruined my arm throwing curves.

Throwing a ball is not natural, whether it's overhand or underhand.

At an early age, if you develop a delivery or a throwing motion that is direct to the plate, then that's fine. If you have one that's slightly open, that's fine, too.

Dry deliveries. That helps when I get the ball back in my hand - like I never really stopped throwing. The goal for me is to increase arm strength.

I'll get in that habit of throwing the ball over the plate too much. You want to keep it going, get those guys back into the dugout. But it's not a good thing when you're over more than a third of the plate.

My changeup needs to be better. Until I feel comfortable throwing that pitch - or any pitch - in any count, I've got stuff to work on.

I'm trying to throw more curves because I'm always throwing fastball, slider, fastball, slider.

I make commercials for a living; half of it gets thrown in the garbage, and I pitch TV; half of those shows get thrown in the garbage, so I essentially work for the garbage.

Sometimes I rush my swing because I am so anxious to play well. In Cuba, the quality of the pitching is not the same as it is here. There you might find one or two pitchers at 94 or 95 mph. Here, every day I find several, and each pitcher who comes along throws his hardest stuff.

When I was pitching 'Hooligans,' with a budget of $15 million, most people said they don't want to see a picture about soccer thugs.

I became a good pitcher when I stopped trying to make them miss the ball and started trying to make them hit it.

Put the right pitching mechanics together with good health, and there's nothing surprising about lasting a long time.

It's not easy to play a guy in the field after he's just pitched. There's a time for arm recovery too that you have to be cognizant of.

Pitch tip: Speak confidently about your product, but be able to admit when you need more information, and get it to the people you're pitching quickly after the meeting.

A couple of Astros players told me I was tipping pitches, but now it comes out they were stealing signs. Was I tipping, or were they stealing?

Just take the ball and throw it where you want to. Throw strikes. Home plate don't move.

I've got a fastball, change-up, forkball, curve, slider, knuckle-slider, knuckle-curve, I had about seven pitches I could have used at any time.

I want to be the guy that can go out there and go at least seven, eight innings every time out.

When you're more comfortable out there, you start seeing different things, relaxing more, being able to trust your pitches more and not try to overdo things as much.

The game can come down to one pitch. But when you're actually out there on the mound and when you're pitching, you can't be worrying about the margin of error or whatnot. You have to go with your strengths and what you believe is the right pitch and keep executing pitches.

The difference between relief pitching when I did it today is simple, there is too much of it. It's one of those cases where more is not necessarily better.