Ron Gardenhire Guys Quotations

When we get men into scoring position or on base, it's like we go into defensive mode instead of offensive mode. I don't know how to get guys out of it.

We're getting down to a few numbers where we can work it a little easier and not try to get everyone in. We want to start stretching out our players and take a good look at some of these guys that are battling each other and battling for positions on this team.

We're battling, and we got some big hits. Our fans saw a pretty fired-up bunch of guys out there today.

We knocked the fire out of the ball. The guys swung the bats pretty good, and that's fun to see.

This winter we talked about getting the clubhouse back. The guys we got are clubhouse people.

I don't have to have a lefty. If one of these guys comes in and proves he can do the job, then good, that's a bonus.

Castro is going to catch the ball. You saw that when Castro made a play up the middle near the end of the game, and he made it look easy. Not too many guys can do that.

I'm a little biased, but I think he's the best. There's other guys that have better numbers à but to me, it doesn't get much better than Johan in this league. Not much better than him.

If Buck sees him throwing 84 mph on March 6, he's going to have a heart attack. It's an issue, but people have to deal with it. There are going to be pitchers who are notorious for not getting going until right at the end of spring training. Guys aren't going to be locked and loaded; that's almost a guarantee.

Having guys pull for each other, everyone grabbing an oar, you can have a lot of fun. It's an old T.K. saying, ... 'If everyone grabs an oar and moves his share of water, we'll be OK.' That's what we're after.

Guys are trying. Guys are out there playing. You've also got to score some runs, too. Our starters haven't been getting it done. Our offense has to pick them up.

Guys aren't ready to throw every day. Guys aren't ready to throw four or five innings.

He's got the contract thing, the whole package. When you're in your contract year, you start thinking about it. Guys that can play a little bit usually get after it pretty good. We figured he'd be on a pretty good mission.

Hopefully tonight is the start. We'll have to see what the other guys do behind it now.

This was a good win for us. To come out and score some runs and get a lead, we haven't done that very often. It was fun. The guys got to run the bases.

I wouldn't be afraid to start any of those guys on Tuesday.

I think we're fine. Health-wise we're not where we need to be. We're 7-11 and played without our top two guys (Shannon Stewart and Luis Castillo) for four games now. ... Of course, we haven't played worth a flip on the road, and that's what's disturbing. You're not going to get anywhere doing that.

J.D., we're looking for a little more consistency from him. People talk about him being passed by, but he has the chance to be a good pitcher in this organization. He can't wait to get the ball. We like guys like that. He doesn't come in with a chip on his shoulder.

Our guys battled. Their guy was just a little better.

That always goes a long way, guys rooting for each other, pulling for each other, not pointing fingers.

It didn't feel good, so that's a little scary. A groin muscle can last who knows how many days. He's one of the guys we count on off the bench to pinch-run, and that is our speed guy off the bench. We don't really have much off the bench as speed guys go, besides him.

That wasn't the prototype guy you like coming off the bench. You like a veteran, but he was one of our better guys doing it. He had quality at-bats in that role. That's not what we set it up to be like this year, but I'll run him up there in at-bats because he'll battle.

That's the least of my worries as I see it. I'd like to see some guys banging the ball around and more quality at-bats. That will come to. It's early.

I would just like to get a list saying these are going and these guys aren't. It's kind of like flipping a coin daily to see who is going to play in this thing.

We joke around here a lot, but we have a lot of holes to fill. We have a lot of business to take care of, ... It's hard to get them in order. We need someone to end the ballgame. And then we need someone to set him up. But we have to figure out a way to get to those guys. We don't need those guys if we can't get there.

Those guys can play. I'm not worried about it. No matter who you put out there, you're going to have a talented individual out there that can play.

We've got quality guys competing for spots on the 25-man roster that can fill in at many different positions. These are versatile guys that know how to play the game and defensively stack up with anyone out there. I think we'll be just fine.

You know we have a good clubhouse. We just had some people who were frustrated. It wasn't about guys hating each other. You know, winning really heals things.

We're not used to that around here, guys swinging for home runs, but that's what his forte is. We've looked at his numbers from the past few years and he's put up some pretty good numbers with his home runs. That's what he does. He's going to do that -- we hope -- a lot, and that's what we ask of him, is to swing.

We definitely need those guys to hit, that's the middle of the lineup. We need our middle guys to start banging the runs around.

We'll take them any way we can get them. The guys are showing a little life.

Trying to throw out guys at home plate when we should be keeping the double play, ... It's the mental part of the game, and that's where we have to toughen up again. We're going to put forth a big effort.

We've had a bunch of young guys in that role in the past. He was looking for a job. We always respected him. He's done enough damage to us over the years, so we figured why not bring him over to our side.

We won one game here. We didn't quit, we didn't lay down. We just didn't play great baseball here. The guys are trying. You're facing a team that's hungry.

Scary. Some teams might be able to get away with it, because they have depth. We're sending all of our best players over there - or some of them. I don't know how we're going to replace those guys if something happens. But you just have to live with it.

Radke is going to be in the rotation, Silva is going to be in the rotation, Lohse is going to be in the rotation and we're just trying to get them through it. We're in the first month of the season, so you've got to keep giving these guys the ball. What they've done around here and how well they've done around here for such a long time, you just have to keep giving them the ball.

Our concern is, how many guys are we going to have to throw our games? We've got two split-squad games early, and now we're losing another pitcher.

That's not the way we do things here. We have too much respect for Joe. If we did that, the guys in that clubhouse ... let's just say they would be very upset, knowing what Joe's gone through to get back here.

This is pretty neat. I'm sure getting back together for these guys is nice. It's a wonderful thing.

They're very quick. When those guys in the middle catch the ball like that, that's pretty good.

A lot of people thought we were going to the World Series last year. They just didn't realize how young our lineup was. And when we got a few guys hurt, it really hurt us.

It's a big list every day. It's probably no different than most teams. We've been beat up. We had a big one with Torii, and other guys off and on. We've had our share of injuries, that's for sure.

I took it personal, and it wasn't really personal. So I learned from it. And I think Kyle did, too. I always have liked Kyle. ... Anytime you get guys with a fire inside of them, that want to win, that want to be out there on the mound, people are going to butt heads.

It was a very nice series for us, after coming off a tough road trip. We came back home and did what you have to do to get righted. Guys are now getting into a bit of a groove and playing good ball.

It's another disappointing loss for us. The guys are battling. We've got to win games, and we're going to try as hard as we can. I expect this team to go out full bore and win. We'll never stop trying to do that.

It was a big situation like this, these guys coming into town, a big Friday night and he withstood everything. That was fun to see.

It wasn't a perfect science earlier in the year with our pitching staff and Joe. There were issues. We sat down with the pitchers and we sat down with the catchers about how different guys like to pitch. That was something he had to learn.

I want the whole player back. You have to guard against letting him get out there and trying to force too much or letting him do too much early. It's nice to see and I'm really happy that he's back out there running around, because when it happened, there was a lot of talk that some guys never come back from this. It looks like he's beating the odds right now.

They've had some guys step up and play very, very well for them,

I'm not going to punish a guy just because he's going to the world games. It's quite an honor. But it does make it a little bit more difficult. I'm not going to evaluate him while he's in the world games. I'll be evaluating my guys here.

I'm not jittery. It's not the greatest thing in the world to start out like this. I'm not jittery about it. I think these guys can play a little bit and we'll be all right.

Being on the bench for these games won't help them get ready for season. We are thin at the infield spots, so we are very happy to have these guys stay here.

But if guys aren't even close, you've got to start looking at maybe making changes. You definitely like to give them at least a month into the season and see where we're at.

He plays one position. He doesn't play the others. The other guys all play more than one position.

These guys haven't grown up together. So it's a little more trying to feel each other out and see what happens.

The game turns. They throw a barrage at you. They have guys who can slap the ball and guys who can put it into the seats. They have guys who can do everything.

All of the guys are excited to see one another and to realize that the start of Spring Training is right around the corner.