Jim Tracy Sit Quotations

I don't really think he'll get better from the sidelines. But I think we're getting to the point where you'd certainly like to think we'll sit here and see some improvement.

We didn't bring him here to have him sit around for periods of time. He needs to play some.

We didn't bring him here to have him sit around for lengthy periods of time. If that was the case, why would you bring him to the big leagues? He's not going to get any better by watching. He's got to play.

When the first pitch of the game gets thrown, we've got four games to try to win. I'm certainly interested in doing that now that I am sitting in this office.

Challenges are something that I like very, very much, ... I like hearing people say or maybe think that this is a situation you don't have a chance to succeed in, I'm very challenged by that.

Those are young pitchers who made the adjustments, learned how important it is to get ahead in the count. There isn't much I can say positive about the first 3 2/3 innings of this game. Oliver had a decent first inning but after that there was no command to speak of.

Is he not a guy going into day one who is considered a Gold Glove candidate -- and a Gold Glove candidate that can go out there and get 200 base hits if he uses the whole field and hits intelligently with the situations that are in front of him?

He doesn't realize what a huge backer he has sitting here. I respect him to the nth degree for the way he's handled himself.

He got 13 ground ball outs, and that's good for a nine-inning game. That's an indication of how well he pitched. That's a very positive sign ... It's March 18th, and you want to see your pitchers starting to sharpen.

It's going to be just another game to those guys because they've been given at-bats. That's why they've been given at-bats, so that in a situation like this, they're ready and not rusty.

He has handled the situation very professionally and he's made a big fan out of me because of that. It's great to have a player like him on the bench that you can put into the lineup and the other team knows he's a significant factor to contend with.

I'd like to hope so. But in order for that to happen, we have to continue to come out here every day and play with the same type of intensity that we have played with. And we will get to that point.

I'd like to hope so. But for that to happen, we've got to continue to come out with the intensity we've shown so far. And I believe we will.

I could sit here and talk about those things until I'm blue in the face, but those are things if you're going to become a good club you have to pick up on and capitalize. Thus far, we've not been able to do that.

I think that what we do, as far as the handling of this situation and dealing with it, will go a long way in determining that factor, ... I'd like to think this is something you can deal with and keep a black mark from the (Dodgers) name.

That's an aggressive play, ... but as I said to him, when you're trailing in that situation and you would have had first and third with no outs, you have to be 100 percent sure that you make it.

Ian Snell made an adjustment from what he was doing early on and got the ball down to where he could be very effective. He forced the opposition to have to swing the bat. He got himself some early-count outs. As a result, he kept his pitch count in order and was able to go through the fourth inning.

The one thing I noticed about this team while watching from the other dugout is that it swung and missed too much. The approach had to change collectively, in my opinion, as far as each and every guy approaches his at bats. You need a group of players that understand that in a given situation it's pretty important for them to try and put the ball in play, and not swing and miss.

We have two kids there. Both are very competent kids -- smart enough to understand what we're talking about -- and they will figure it out. We've got to find opportunities for both of them. We'll take it a day at a time and go from there. As I've said all along, with these two guys on the club, I don't want to see either one of them sit for too long a time and not participate. It's advantageous to both of them to do it that way.

I'm not sitting here suggesting that guys don't get hits on an 0-2 or a 1-2 pitch ... but ordinarily, on 0-2, you don't see balls get hammered. When you come up through a minor-league system, you know early on that when you get a hitter 0-2, a ball sitting right in the middle of the plate is not a very good location.

To summarize for you, both guys passed (Saturday). It doesn't make any decision over the next few days any easier. But that's what you hope for. When you're in a position where you have to make choices like this, they're not easy. It's a great problem to have.

There wasn't any point in this series where he had to overdo it with our bullpen. You couldn't ask for a better situation going into Colorado.

There isn't a day you would sit here and not want a starting pitcher to go out there and perform the way he did today,

That was a part of the reason. There was one situation in particular that Kent picked up on. For competitive reasons, I'm not going to say what it was.

Two perfect pitches to bunt -- they are fouled off and we left our guys stranded. (Chicago) created a two-out situation and got a base hit that scored a run. It's huge.

That's a lot for nine innings, let alone five. He showed command, mixed his pitches, changed speeds -- there were a lot of positive signs.

I saw better life to his fastball, much better life. I can't sit here and tell you what the velocity was, but that will come as he builds himself up. But the life on his fastball, it was there tonight.

We were talking about four different people as possibilities for one spot in the rotation. It makes that situation that much more intriguing in my opinion.

We've got to find opportunities for them. I don't want to see either of them sit for any period of time and not participate. We can't let these guys sit for days on end and then ask them to do something special in the seventh or eighth inning.

We still have some games to play in 2005. The landscape could obviously change one day to the next over the course of the winter. I really don't feel like sitting here and expounding on what I think it's going to look like.

I haven't convinced myself that he's played his last bit for 2005, but I do know today he should sit back and relax, ... He's quite a professional player and a professional person. I believe we've pushed him about as far as he can be pushed, and he's responded in every single case.

The challenge is something I like very much, ... I take a lot of pride in people saying this is a situation where you don't have a chance to succeed. I'm really challenged by that.

The best way to approach a player with his type of ability and talent is to feel like you've developed a type of environment to allow his development to continue on its natural course. With what we have done this winter, we have put this young man in a position to where his natural progression as a Major League Baseball player has a genuine opportunity to take place without heaping any unexpected expectations on him.

We've given him a substantial role due to some situations that've come up, ... and he's responded very well.

I think you bring the best out of your players when you sit and study and look very closely at what their capabilities are and then try to find situations where their talents have the best chance to come out,

This is not a platoon situation with Jeromy Burnitz. Jeromy Burnitz is our right fielder.

Both guys are going to catch in situations and games that make the most sense for them and the club.

I'm not going to sit there and second-guess my players. It's a youthful player. Let's be honest.

It was just sitting in the zone. Three runs, and we're going to play catch-up from the top of the second inning on.

Obviously, we're being tested early. You know, we were in a position to win all three games. We didn't get any of them, but the effort is there. It's part of the challenge of the game. You've got to get over it, get beyond it.

Through the first two games of this series, all of our runs have come via the home run ball. We were not able to, when we tried to get something going, sustain it offensively to put ourselves in a position where a base hit or a gapper could score a couple of runs for us.

When half of the team is the pitching staff, there are some intangible things that are important. We can sit here and talk about hitting all we want. But that won't help the other part that is vitally necessary to the success of the Major League team, and that's the interaction that takes place between two guys 60 feet, six inches away from one another. That's just as important as anybody's batting average.