John Schuerholz Guys Quotations

I can't say we have more passion than anyone else, ... I can't say we have more intuititiveness. I can't say we have more creativity or more imagination, or we work harder. Our own internal expectation is to do those things better than everybody else we're competing against. I'm sure everybody else says the same thing, but our guys have found a way to do it.

He was an absolutely outstanding pitcher in the role he took on last year. We tried hard to get him last year for our pennant run and again this winter. Our people evaluated him as one of the top guys in the business in the role he's now doing.

He gets those guys to subjugate their individual egos and blend them into one team ego. It's an ego of one.

He's a good young player and he's going to have a fine career. He'll develop like all of our young guys have developed -- at his natural pace. It will happen when it happens.

We had to reconstruct the team midway, and in order to do that we had to rely on young guys because our of budget, ... I don't think anybody knew they were going to do what they did, but we made up about 11 games in the standings since that happened, and they really energized the team, quite candidly.

We all have concerns; everybody does. We're going to do all that we can to be as smart as we can to get our guys in the best possible condition, principally pitchers, so they're less likely to have an injury problem that would set them back and set us back.

We had to do it up against a very strict salary/payroll guideline, and that meant we had to go young in order to afford the replacements on our roster. And if we have to go young, we always prefer to go young with our own guys because we know we've done our due diligence drafting people, checking character of people, learning about their personalities and watching them grow and mature.

Throughout this remarkable 15-year run of ours in which the Braves have had so much success, I'm asked one question and one question only, ... And that is, 'How have you guys done it? How have the Braves been able to continue to win and put a championship organization and team on the field year after year after year?'

We say that every year and we prove it every year when we bring guys up from our Minor League system and they help us win. This year, we sort of did it with capital letters and neon lights and flood lights on the letters because we had so many of them here. That's a direct tribute to scouting and player development.

And this year, we altered our roster in midstream, which was like changing the tires on a bus going 60 miles an hour. We've accelerated these guys coming to the major leagues by at least half a season. We needed these young guys, and they came up with the goods. They've really saved us.

After 12 years, ... somebody might say 'You know, those guys down there, they certainly know what they're doing.'

It's just enjoyable to watch guys throw. It was a beautiful day, and everything went smoothly. There was nothing out of the ordinary, so it was a good day.

It's a special story. You look at the hometown guys like Kyle Davies, Jeff Francoeur, Blaine Boyer and Brian McCann, and to see the role they're playing on the team right now, there couldn't be a better story in baseball.

It's going to be real exciting seeing all of the guys compete. It will certainly be a spot of great interest for all of us.