Russ Adams Quotations

Sixty or 70 at-bats is no time to reach for the panic button, because this is a game of cycles.

He doesn't talk as much as (Hudson) did. But it's all really the same techniques we're using. It's all about repetition and getting to know each other. We're out there every day before and after practice getting our work in and the work has paid off.

We talk about footwork more than anything -- getting your feet in position to throw. He gets rid of the ball really quick and I think that's one of the reasons why, because his feet are always in a good position.

He's got good stuff. You can see his confidence is rising. It was good to get him off the mound because he was rolling and we couldn't do much against him.

He (Kazmir) has good stuff. You can see when his confidence is rising. He's not afraid to throw the off-speed. It was good to get him off the mound. He was rolling.

It hit me good. I was a little worried that it was going to be sore. But there really wasn't any real damage to it. It's going to be fine.

I think this is the type of off-season that they were looking to have. I think that they hit it right on the nose as far as what they were looking to do. You got your own expectations for yourself as well and when you make those kind of moves and when the organization makes that commitment to try and make your team a lot better, you've got to kind of take that pressure and run with it.

I was just tired of messing with my hair.

I think having him around has been a big plus for us, because he knows what he's talking about and he's fun to listen to. It's good to have him here. Taking groundballs with him and seeing how he goes about his business, then getting to chat with him. It does nothing but help us as young players.

When you're down, you're down. It seems like nothing really goes your way.

We played with scrappiness and fought all the way through. Overall it was a good season learning with how to deal with ups and downs.

We've got a big middle of the order now. It stretches out a little farther than it did last year.

Tonight's game was almost a mirror image of last week's game (when Tampa's Derek Lee hit a two-run homer off Batista in the ninth to give the D-Rays a 3-2 victory),

We had to go through the Toronto airport and wear our dresses to The Plaza, ... People were laughing. I'm sure they had an idea of what was going on.

Boston has the bats going, but the wild card, I have no idea.

It was almost a mirror image of last week's game when they matched up. Last week they got the win and tonight we were able to scratch out a win for Bush. To pitch the way he pitched in both the last two games he definitely didn't deserve to get two losses for it. It feels good to give him the win and good for our club.

This camp I'm figuring out what makes you click and maybe changing some things that I did last year that maybe wore me out or work on something that I didn't do last year that I can do to help myself improve. It's all part of the learning process of figuring out what suits you best and what gets you ready to play at your best.

It was good fun at our expense. We thought that after the plane flew by that that was it. But they have the funds to do more than that. I mean they even had wedding invitations, a D.J., someone to videotape it, flowers, even gifts. It was great.

It's tough to have Dave go out there and throw the way he threw and not produce for him. It seems like we've struggled with that for the past week or so and hopefully we can crawl out of that.

The batting order will take care of itself in spring training.

It's tough for everyone in here, not just the young guys,

It was good to get him off the mound because he was rolling.

Against Cleveland we hit a lot of balls hard on Sunday. Every time we did, it was right at them.

The last thing I want to do is look at my numbers and worry about that. I want to put together good at-bats each night. That's the one thing I can do to help my numbers out.

The feeling I had was that he had gotten cold feet. The tenor of all the changes was to write out all of the strings attached... It was like, 'give me $150,000, no strings attached.' But that money is coming from the state.

I'm waiting for Butter to get here before I cut the rest off.

I guess the thing everybody's talking about is how we seem to have signed every player we've targeted.

But he made it a little farther this time, so he's getting closer. It's just about the toughest thing you can do in sport. It's like making the Final Four - or the World Series.

I don't know how that's going to work out. That may be one of the things we fight about. I guess it will depend on which batting practice group we're hitting in.

I don't know if I'm working harder, I'm just trying to get my work in each day. I think it's important in the spring to focus more on work than trying to prepare for the games. Getting your legs in good shape and making sure that you're ready to go when opening day comes is really important. Working hard down here is the only way that you can achieve that.

The good thing is we have all spring training to work together.