Jim Leyland Quotes (214 Quotes)

He pitched really well. He had good stuff, and Vance did a tremendous job. I thought they were a pretty good combination.

I knew yesterday he was going to be zeroed in today. He was fired up and ready to play. I knew on the first day he'd try to put on a little show.

I'm very concerned right now about getting this club 100-per cent healthy and ready to go. That's why I'm not in a very good mood today.

I don't pay attention to that stuff. We've turned the page on all of the things from the past.

He's a very smart hitter and he doesn't try to do too much. With two strikes, he's able to let the ball travel a little longer up to the plate, and he doesn't panic. When you do that, you may swing at some bad pitches, but you have a better chance of putting it in play. That's what our whole club needs to do better. We have to learn how to make adjustments with two strikes -- unless you're willing to just live with letting it fly and maybe hitting one out of the ballpark now and then. But in the long run, that won't get it done. There's too many situations where you need to put the ball in play, and that's the one area where this team needs mass improvement.

No human being doesn't get tired sometime. Sometimes they can push through it. But I intend to see that guys get time off.

I thought he threw the ball extremely well. He pitched, he didn't just throw it. The other day he threw the ball, today he pitched. That's the major difference and you can see it in the results.

I'm glad I took the job. I hope I'm still saying it in August.

I'm just looking at a player as a player for no specific reason right now. They all got something going for them. There's nothing wrong with, maybe, some competition that, maybe, they didn't expect. There's certainly nothing wrong with that.

It's been a long time coming - 42 years. People ask me, 'Did you ever get called over in the spring to play in a major-league game' The answer is no. If I got called over, it was to throw batting practice.

We obviously played the wind better than they did. We hit too many lazy fly balls, and today, they just happened to be home runs.

I would like to play him at third base some. I know you think I'm nuts. He's got good hands. I'd like to play him in left field. This guy can be a real key for us if he's willing to pay the price. Don't sell this guy short. This guy has talent and I like him, and I don't care what anybody else says.

I just want us to be aggressive if the time is right.

I really like what I see of him. Great range. And he's laying the bat on the ball. Don't get me wrong He's a defensive player. But I like what I'm seeing.

I don't know if I would feel confident playing him at short for an extended period of time.

I wouldn't be afraid to take a couple of them. If we had some injuries and stuff, I wouldn't be opposed to taking some of them. I've said it all along and I meant it -- I don't care if they've played. That doesn't mean anything to me. They've got talent. It might take them awhile to catch up at that level, but I don't worry about that.

This is a big home stand, but it's awful early to say it's huge. We just have to continue to play good baseball. If we do, we'll win games.

He (Thome) looks healthy and strong, he's tuned up his body a little bit. Not having to go out on the defensive side probably helps. Early on, it appears he was a great pickup for them. He's a threat to hit it out anytime.

A simple play, but the difference in the game. Happens all the time. Those are the little things.

He's got talent. Now it's crude, don't get me wrong, and I'm not trying to push the process along. He's just a kid. They (the Tigers' minor league staff) have something to work with.

I'll travel. I just think it sends the right message.

I'm not criticizing anybody, I'm not picking on anybody. You've got to give teams 27 outs. If you give teams 31 or 32, particularly a team that has the horses like the Yankees, you're going to get beat.

You get in a catch-22. A club like ours that needs to get re-established -- we have to win every one we have a shot to win. But I'm not going to do that at the expense of hurting our pitchers, because in the long run it will blow up in our face.

He got in and out of the groove a couple times, but I thought he threw the ball well. I thought he made some good pitches. He got out of sync on a couple pitches, but I was very pleased.

I think, in this case, it might be more important for them to know me. I'm going to know pretty much, I think, what they can do. But there's a real serious side of me that takes things serious, and the answer to all these favors and everything is not always going to be yes. That's when you find out if you're all together or not.

In fairness to Dmitri Young, if you're going out there and asking him to be Brooks Robinson and you don't think he's going to make an error now and then, you shouldn't do it. What you do is pick your spots. I think he's a pretty good athlete, I think he's got good hands, and I know he can hit. I've always liked him.

You gotta look at the other side of the coin. We got the (balls) up and had 11 runs or something and held them to three, then obviously, your pitching had to do a pretty decent job today.

If he can pitch and locate like he did today, there's no league he couldn't pitch in. But obviously, you're looking for consistency.

Nobody. And put that in big, black, bold print.

It's your heart, blowing out of your shirt, that's what it is. Nobody's calm in that situation. They may say they are. They may look calm, but their heart's pounding.

I can tell he's a really good player. We need him, big time.

He's got more than one way to get a guy out. He's a four-pitch guy who's versatile, who throws strikes and who walked fewer guys than any closer (established) in baseball.

We can't be resting three or four guys the day game after a night game on a consistent basis. That's just not going to work. You don't want to do have to do wholesale changes. Eleven games into the season, and I'm worried about resting guys.

Barry needs adversity. It's what drives him. I never saw a player who could turn adversity and turmoil around him into his advantage the way Barry does.

I'll take that situation every time.

To be honest with you, there's not a guy in this clubhouse that knows for sure if they're ready.

He said he was driving (from Miami) and said he'd be there (Saturday) morning. I was very impressed with that. He showed me something.

The ball was flying out there. That's probably not going to happen again for a long, long time.

He was fine. He went after them real good. He's a real aggressive kid and we don't want to take anything away from that. You have to make sure when situations come up that you don't try to be too aggressive.

The guys that can are still going to hit with power. What I think Slaught brings to the party is we're going to try to create the total hitter. That's one thing I think our club definitely needs.

Tremendous execution. A lot of good things happened on that play for us.

We didn't stop the bleeding. You give them the credit. They hit some good pitches and we made some bad pitches.

That's a no-brainer. He's one of the best baseball men I've been around. When you get somebody of that quality that happens to be such a close friend, that's even nicer.

Be on time. I also insist that they all be on the bench during the game.

I was going to keep him under 100 no matter what. I'm not a big pitch-count guy, never have been, but it's early in the season, so we'll watch him a little bit closer.

He's really a good guy. He's an intense guy and so am I. We have a lot in common, I think. I'm pulling for him.

Makes a big difference. Players always make the difference.

He's a defensive player, don't get me wrong. Actually, he's been swinging the bat halfway decent down here. But I've just been impressed with the way he's handled himself.

We played a good, clean game. It wasn't a sloppy game. But I'm not into that, either. We're here to win.

We got good starting pitching again. There's no such thing as momentum in baseball -- you are only as good as your next pitcher.