Ted Lilly Quotations

I would have liked my curveball to be a little sharper. I've been working on it this spring. The location of my fastball is good and that is my number one priority.

I felt good, it was fun to out there and face hitters again. I was a little shaky the first couple of hitters but it got better.

I think I realize how necessary it is to prepare for a long season. I thought last year I would be able to catch up and get myself ready to go to start the season. But I was just never as prepared as I needed to be.

I thought we really got the important pieces to kind of put together the club that I believe is capable of winning the division.

Really, my expectations were to just give us a chance,

My command was pretty terrible, obviously. I can't remember the last time I've hit three batters in one game, walked two guys on top of that and pitched behind in the count so much. None of that was good.

Those are the games I love. They're like wars. I feel like if I win, I survive. If I lose, I die.

The organization expects me to be a significant contributor and I certainly expect that of myself. When I go into any season, the last four years, I believed that I was going to get the ball 30-32 times, if healthy. I want to be one of those guys who wins 20 games. That's always been a goal of mine. Even after last year, I still have those types of high expectations.

Every year, they're going to have a pretty potent lineup. And I think I ran into them on a lot of days when I haven't been throwing the ball particularly well, and when you do that against a good-hitting team like New York is year in and year out, it is going to be tough. Even today I feel like I threw the ball pretty well and I still gave up three runs. I mean it's just a tough club to really go out there and control.

No question, it was a trying year. Mentally, it was the toughest year of my career. I always felt like I could find a way to pitch myself out of a hole, and last year, I don't feel like I ever did that.

A lot of times, they feel that pressure.

It's kind of nice coming into camp and doing everything the rest of the group is doing. I started throwing a little bit sooner to get myself ahead and better prepared to come in.

It's nice coming into camp and being able to do the things the rest of the group is doing. I don't want to have to play catch-up in Spring Training again.

It was nice to go out there and feel completely healthy, to pitch decently,

It was a check-up. Nothing special. It was scheduled. I'm fine.

I want to get ready for Friday or Saturday, Saturday would be optimum. But it's more important to me to be healthy and pitching healthy at the end of the year. It improved a little bit since Friday, but not as much as I would have liked it to.

It's nice to try to figure some things out right now, especially coming off the year I had last year. I needed to have a full spring training to come out here and kind of get tuned in and to try and get back to where I was in 2004.

I just wish I was more efficient and that definitely starts with command. That's kind of my No. 1 thing coming into spring training, locating the baseball.

I don't think ... I know it's a big year for both the club and myself. But it seems like every year that I've had in my career is a big year, whether it be the first one when you're trying to break in and prove yourself or the second one to prove the first one was no fluke, whatever the reasons.

I definitely was more conscious of making sure I didn't take any chances on doing something that would set me back. I think the last two springs were kind of fluke-ish. At the same time, I'm more conscious of it, but I don't want to worry about it so much that I don't live a normal life.

I'd still like better results than there were (yesterday) but the main thing is we hung on and we won and that's nice,

You can't pitch around them every time. They're not the only two good hitters in their lineup.

The main thing is, it's not something that I can injure any further. I'd like to get on the mound one more time before Saturday.