Dusty Baker Itch Quotations

Some of it has to do with the fact that we have a strikeout pitching staff. I always liked my teams at the top of the league in defense and double plays. Any time you can get two outs on one pitch, it's a lot less pitches for your pitchers. A lot of times, it gets you out of the inning out of trouble.

Just a sad day on the pitching side.

That was great pitching from both sides. You know Harden is one of the top young pitchers in the American League. We had a couple guys out there who were dealing.

Stealing isn't just speed. Most of it is knowing the pitcher and knowing what a guy does. He might dip his head before he goes to the plate or he might drop his hands slightly before he goes to the plate or his feet are narrow when he goes to first or he might slide-step.

I don't know if anybody is going to pitch that long. That's No. 1. He's a great competitor, a great guy and a great teammate.

At this point, it's hard to imagine him not pitching forever.

The ball kept coming over the heart of the plate. It was supposed to be outside and it caught too much of the plate. He threw a lot of pitches (105) in a short period of time.

That first inning has cost him a lot of pitches. He's been throwing so many pitches the last three starts, that's why we took him out. After the first inning, he started throwing the ball better. He had a lot of deep counts, a lot of 3-2 counts. Those pitches mount up.

The only mistake 'Z' made was on Delgado. It was supposed to be a fastball away, and it came back over the plate. He made some great pitches and had a big triple for us. It's a great feeling to have that kind of offensive support from everybody.

If you rescue him every time, you'll have to rescue him all the time. If you leave him out there, you learn about them or they become a pitcher by coming through. He can say, 'I can handle the situation,' but until you've been in the situation, you don't know if you can handle it or not.

Marshall has shown control and poise. He has a very good delivery, and it looks like he has three pitches he can control pretty good. He doesn't seem in awe of being here. I'm very impressed.

We were told he would pitch sometime in that first game -- possibly.

He throws strikes, he's not afraid. He doesn't pitch away from the bat. He knows how to pitch. He has three good pitches. He's still trying to get a feel of his breaking ball some. He's been impressive. It's the first time I've seen him and I like what I see.

Maybe I shouldn't have cursed. I had just given him the highest compliment last week when I said he's one of the pitchers I respect most in the league, because he doesn't clown, he doesn't showboat. He just pitches.

It's the same with pitching. You talk to Greg Maddux and I'm sure he has a game plan, but he also sometimes can feel when a guy is looking inside or if a guy is looking for something else or it depends on which pitch he takes and how he takes it. Some guys get it early, some guys get it late, some guys never get it.

You want him to go out and pitch the way he has pitched before.

No. 1, you have to make sure he's OK so this thing doesn't linger all year long. Fortunately for us, he did get some at-bats during the World Baseball Classic and the fact that he did pretty well shows he's not that far off. He saw better quality pitching in that than he would down here. It was to his advantage and ours that he did play.

Roger knows how to pitch and he definitely knows how to win,

He started out not very sharp and he had 37 pitches in the first inning. That's almost three innings worth and we were debating whether or not to send him out in the seventh or not but he wanted to pitch and he ended the game strong.

Usually you come right in and face 'live,' but you get into bad habits because you're trying to protect your hands and protect your bats. Basically, this is more for the pitchers the first couple days than the hitters. The main thing is, you hope they can throw strikes.

We're going through a real tough stretch now. We've got to find a way against two tough pitchers the next couple of days to try and get out of this.

You're always concerned about it and you wonder how they're going to handle it. We've only played a few games. It's a period of adjustment for anybody changing leagues. You don't know the pitchers, you don't know the umpires, you don't know the philosophy of the pitching coach on the other side -- especially when you've been in the other league.

They've got some of the best hitters in the world on that team. We were going to have Carlos throw seven innings or 90 pitches. The 90 pitches came first.

I didn't have any choice because I had a short bullpen. If we tied the game up, and I'm out of pitchers, where I have to hit for them -- I only have five guys. That's why I double-switched, to get the most innings out of the guys pitching without running out of pitchers and running out of position players.

A gutsy performance by Mark. We knew we were going to keep him between 90-100 pitches because the last time out he threw 130. We were really watching him this time, that why we took him out so early.

I don't doubt that this guy is smart enough to do anything that he really wants to do. I don't know if he was quite pitching to the ballpark . . . and if you ask him he probably wouldn't tell you anyway.

I talked to him. He's tired of it, too. You could tell he was a little distraught about the whole thing. He wants to pitch. He wants to pitch with nothing wrong.

They've done a great job of not only him pitching well there but getting ready for us, too, which they promised us they would do.

They are both throwing the ball good. It's just a matter of location most of the time. I'm confident it will come. They've pitched well in the past, so why wouldn't they pitch well in the present and future? I'm not too worried. You want them to be in great form right now, but we do have some time. They have a couple of starts left.

I'll use the DH as long as I can until the end of spring, when the pitchers will be going far enough to hit. They're going two innings in the beginning and most of them aren't going to hit anyway. Once they get going four, five innings, I'll start using the pitchers. Initially, I'll try to DH whenever I can to get guys at-bats.

I don't think that radar gun is right up there. There were some pitches I knew were mid-90s, and they said 87 on the board. I don't know if that's by design.

He's going to have nerves -- that's natural. Hank Aaron told me when I came up, 'It's natural to be nervous. Just don't be scared.' You wouldn't be human if you weren't nervous. But after you throw that first pitch or two, your nerves subside and it's the same game.

Usually, if he makes a mistake, they don't hit him out of the ballpark with that sinker, ... He made a mistake; that's what happens with youth. We have a young pitching staff and a young bullpen that's subject sometimes to walks and also subject to mistakes.

This late in the spring, you're more apprehensive than anything. He said it was mild. He felt it on one of his pitches -- he sort of winced.

He doesn't say it, but it's on our minds. The thing is he wants to pitch as many innings as he can to win.

You know how I feel about things. Until you're mathematically eliminated, you've got a shot. Who knows? (Sunday's 14-3 victory over Florida) could have started us on a long winning streak. I was thinking, 'What happens then?' I had visions of 'Woody' being remorseful in (not pitching in) the playoffs.

He needs to hit. We want him to start hitting, and all our pitchers from now on will go as normal.

The Cardinals have a fine team, a real good team. We'll come out next year and try to get the lead or at least stay close -- and stay healthy. They're No. 1 or 2 in pitching, and that shows you how important pitching is. We get our starting pitching healthy and we'll be all right.

We hung a slider and Albert doesn't miss sliders too much. He doesn't miss pitches up in the zone.

We hung a slider and Albert doesn't miss sliders too much, ... He doesn't miss pitches up in the zone.

A lot of it depends on the strength of your starting pitching. If your starting pitching is good, you won't need 12 too much. Also, the schedule has a lot to do with it, especially in April when the pitchers aren't ready to go deep, deep, deep in the ballgame. You don't even know at that time if you'll need five starters. You might only need four. You hate to lose that guy's endurance by not pitching. It'll work itself out by the time we get ready to leave.

He's getting more confident, more control of the strike zone, more confidence to throw any pitch in any count. That's what you call progress and what you like to see of the young man.

We had him on the hook in the first inning, and then he got that lead and then he started mixing his pitches in better than he did in the first inning. That lead does a lot for you.

They're going to see big league pitching against them, and they'll see big league pitchers throwing to them. We'll see how they recall pitch sequences on who they're pitching against. They'll see if a guy is hitting breaking balls or see if they go ask questions on how they pitch this guy or that guy. Does a guy hit this -- what are his strengths or weaknesses. They have to pay attention because they're big in this equation.