Dave Duncan Quotes (74 Quotes)

I would guess that he hasn't grinded it out from start to finish. Is he capable I don't know right now. I do know he's got the physical ability to be a starting pitcher. But you don't win a lot of games picking and choosing the games you want to really put everything into. You put everything into every start.

I think he's getting there. He made a lot of good pitches today. The ball was down for the most part. He got the ball in on the right-handers when he needed to and he got his split-finger over the plate.

Unless something changes tomorrow or Friday, I expect he'll be out there.

He had a good, solid year. I'm happy the organization recognized it. It will be a good experience for him to spend some time here and see what it's all about. This is one of the steps that is part of the process of establishing yourself as a player.

It's big because for these guys to come in and do the job that they're being asked to do early builds confidence in them and for us as well. You hope that it happens enough that it snowballs a little bit and these guys establish the attitude that they need to have.

These guys pay attention, ... All of these guys are interested in it so that makes you pay even more attention to it because they'll come to the bench and we'll talk.

Nobody has eliminated themselves from anything. They both looked good today, and so has Adam Wainwright.

All of those guys competed equally. Any of them wouldn't have been a bad choice. From start to finish, Hancock was the most consistent throwing strikes.

We don't want people coming up just to sit around.

I know the last couple of weeks we hadn't pitched as well as we're capable of pitching,

He's someone you don't know. It's a concern. I'd like him here to see him throw and get in shape. I also understand sometimes things happen. But my preference would be that he be here.

It's a never-ending process. As long as you're pitching, you're trying to learn something new. Anytime you can add a pitch, if it's a quality pitch, it's just another weapon that you have to work with. It's one more thing the hitter has to deal with.

He was struggling with his delivery and his control. His pitches weren't sharp. But I told him it's a great sign because you're going to have 10, 12, 15 games during the season when it just isn't working. A lot of guys give in to that. But he didn't. He kept battling.

He's shown that he has the ability to pitch at the major league level. Opportunities come in different ways. When you get them you have to take advantage of them. If he makes our ball club he'll probably appear in the middle of the game as a situational type left-hander.

He's not getting the results that he would like to be getting. But I look at it a different way. I look at the overall quality of the pitches that he's making. Right now, he's getting no breaks. You take four ground-ball hits Friday, really resulted in four runs. Is that poor pitching, or is that bad luck He's not getting the breaks right now.

He's just got to be consistent. In order to pitch in the big leagues, you've got to be consistent.

I thought last year was a miraculous year for him. And he definitely earned my respect last year as to what kind of pitcher he was, what kind of person he was, what kind of competitor he was.

You can't always do what you would like to do, so you just hope the situation presents itself. You're aware of how much they're throwing, how hard (the starters) are working. That influences what you do. But we're still going to play the games and try to win them.

His approach was better and his execution was better. I thought his stuff was good. I kept seeing those radar gun readings and I don't think they were accurate.

When you have a number of guys expressing concern, naturally you share their concern. And there's not much you can do about it other than get frustrated and maybe scream and holler a little bit. But you certainly can't change it. You'd like to think you're getting a fair shake. It has the appearance of being one-sided. And over the course of the game that kind of weighs on you.

He's a location and change of speeds pitcher. It takes a little time during the spring to get all of your pitches going and get comfortable with them. He's doing good.

Shows you how talented he is. Last year he won 15 games ... re-establishing himself,

He knows what information I want, and I know he's accurate. I work off Chad's base.

His stuff is there, it's just going to be a matter of time. He'll get into the swing of things.

The only thing I want to pay attention to is his confidence. Knowing Matt Morris, I don't think he's going to lose confidence and not feel like he can go out and compete against anybody.

Arm-wise, he looks all right. It would be nice if we would be able to see him some more before he leaves. If somebody were to ask me, 'Do I think he's in condition to pitch' it would be a bare minimum of work that he would have to put in to be ready.

He throws four pitches for strikes, he keeps the ball down, gets a lot of ground balls and he's a strikeout pitcher. He's got a lot of innings pitched in the minor leagues and ... he has developed the consistency that's needed to pitch at this level. We feel it's important he get his feet on the ground up here (in St. Louis) for the time in the future when he's a starter.

All the pitches they got hurt on were belt high. I don't like it, but I understand it. Next time out, we hope to be seeing guys take another step forward, making more quality pitches, get them in that mode.

I like our staff a lot if we get out of spring healthy. No matter how good you think you are, that's always the big question.

We're going to try and do that as often as we can between now and the end. He had a good day (Monday), and that's a positive. Confidence comes from succeeding. He can build confidence this way.

If he feels better he'll go out there tomorrow. We'll go from there.

It's hard to identify who's No. 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Because at different times, each one of those guys gets on a roll. And at that particular time, he's the No. 1 guy for us. ... Every one of them has had their periods of time when they threw as good as anybody.

He pitched more like he did when he was pitching more aggressively taking advantage of his strengths, staying away from getting in trouble with his weaknesses,

I think we have the makings of a good bullpen. It always takes a certain amount of time when you have new people to figure out exactly how they're going to fit in best with your club. We've played six games. I don't think that's quite enough time to have it figured out yet.

I'll chart anything that I want to know that I think is important. I've had people question it. Sometimes, I've tossed out stuff that I've charted as being not important. Who can say one way is better than the other

I'm sure by the time the playoffs get here, Ray King will be fine. Because we're going to give him as many opportunities as we can to pitch in those situations, and he's good enough to get the job done.

Mulder really deserved this game today, because he's probably had the opportunity, or been in position, to win four or five games that we let get away from us after he's been out of the game. It's nice for him to get a special win, and I know this is special for him.

These guys are going to have to step up and be the pitchers they were the majority of the season for us to have a successful postseason,

We thought Marquis would be very valuable to us in the bullpen. He can be used in a lot of different situations, and often. I would be surprised if he doesn't pitch quite a bit yet in this series.

He's going to get every benefit of the doubt.

Getting them all the amount of work necessary is important as long as the three of them are still competing for the job. We're going to try our best to give them equal opportunity. We'll figure out a way to do it.

You get into competition, the juices start flowing.

He had a good set of eyes to watch guys in the bullpen. His biggest strength was always his consistency. He could throw a ball for a strike pretty much anytime he wanted to.

There's an aura that surrounds certain guys, whether it's truth or fiction I don't know, but it's the way they're perceived by the opposition,

We're not afraid to use Hancock. As long as he's pitching the way we think he should pitch, which is aggressive and keeping the ball in the bottom of the strike zone for the most part, he can pitch in any part of the game.

I feel about pretty much the way I felt at the same time last year. You're waiting for someone to step forward. Typically it takes a little longer than six or seven games down.

I thought he threw the ball well. Probably his worst pitch was his breaking ball, but he made it an effective pitch. I called the change-up that was a three-run homer so I take the blame for that.

He shows you a good, live arm. For what we're asking him to do, he's in shape to do that, as long as we don't push him.

I'm seeing Mulder exactly the same way I saw him last spring. Location-wise, he's kind of all over the place. But his stuff is a little better than it was.

Unfortunately, the toughest competition comes the last two weeks of spring, and I'm not sure where we're going to be (with the starters). It would be nice to be able to see them all in the toughest competition of spring. Will we be able to I'm not sure yet.