Jim Tracy Guy Quotations

What we're seeing right now is, in my mind, identical to what we saw last year, when it took him a few starts to get untracked, and then you see one quality start after another. His teammates recognize that's he gonna leave everything that he has on the field, and it's very easy to step up for a guy like that.

If this kid maintains the same type of mentality and approach that he possesses right now, it's a matter of time before you start strongly talking about the fact that he is a candidate to come here and start a Major League game. I look at this guy as being a very good starting pitcher some day.

He had two perfect pitches to bunt. That's the guy you want up there to get the bunt down. You get the bunt down, it makes them have to make decisions. And we had a guy coming up who's a contact hitter who can drive the ball to the outfield to drive the run in.

He may not have seen live pitching, but he's the type of guy who wouldn't take long to resurrect his hand-eye coordination. I don't think he hit 700-and-something home runs by accident. I think you would have to be aware of him.

He's a guy we'd like to get our hands back on so we can start getting him busy with some of the things we have in mind -- namely, stretching him out.

His record wasn't all that impressive, but I've seen this guy do very well at times. And I think the opportunity to acquire somebody in the Rule 5 draft ... it's not all that often you get somebody whose resume from the previous year shows 141 innings.

He's going to get the ball in the ninth inning. We'll see how it goes. We've got a guy who is a complete novice in that environment. But what I see is a player that an opportunity has been created for him and he's seizing the opportunity.

He's part of that organizational depth chart and you like to see a younger guy like that go out and perform well against major-league competition. His outing was very encouraging and it was obvious he was more comfortable this time.

I won't say where they are going to start. But he is the type of guy we are looking for to hopefully place in between two left-handers that have somewhat similar stuff and not give opposing clubs an opportunity to see the same type of stuff on consecutive days.

Every team needs people like that. It's not just what he does as a third base coach, and I happen to be believe he's very good at what he does. Having this guy as a buffer between my office and the clubhouse ... that's huge.

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?

Think about the ... significance of ... how many at-bats he takes this year with men on base because the guy (Casey) hitting in front of him is going to be on base. There's going to be a number of times that he's going to come up to the plate with people on base and have the opportunity to either extend the inning, put a game away or extend leads. All those possibilities will be there.

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.

As a two-hole hitter, this guy has the capability for doing great things for us offensively.

That's just how well that guy pitches. He just dominated the game.

You're not in a horse race with this guy either. For him to come out here today and do the things that he did, get his work in, I think he's going to go home today feeling like he had a very productive day.

This is about the time he should get started. You're not looking for this guy to be out there for two- and three-inning stints. It's completely unnecessary to do that with him.

You don't want to see a guy go 3-2 on a hitter all the time. (Perez) attacked (yesterday) -- that's what I want to see.

For a guy to come in here and work to improve his versatility, to put on that catcher's gear ... I admire that. I had a 15-minute talk with him, and I told him so. Like I told him, it takes a hell of a lot more than nine players to win. ... I appreciate the demeanor he's shown coming into this camp.

It's great to get him back in camp with us. I saw a guy on TV who really liked the arena that he was in.

In a perfect scenario, you'd have Joe hitting sixth. But if it's not perfect, I could see him hitting fifth, somehow behind Casey and Jason Bay. This is a guy who knows how to keep the offense moving, hit to all fields.

I'm very in tune with that. When a guy gets on a roll and stays on a roll for a little while, you ride that out.

I like what he's done, ... The guy can hit, there's no question about it.

He's the same Sean Casey I've watched over the last seven or eight years. We're talking about a guy that knows how to hit. It's just that simple - he knows how to hit.

He pitched like an ace today -- and he had the demeanor of one. I saw a guy who was extremely interested in wanting to be the ace of the staff.

This is a guy that as we go along you're going to find him pitching a lot of very meaningful games, games of major significance. That's who he is. That's who he's going to become. That's going to be a very easy thing for him to do because he's a person who's not the least bit shy about wanting that type of responsibility.