Joe Maddon Quotes (227 Quotes)

Spring training performances are totally skewed most of the time.

Let's see how it goes. I don't know yet. All I know is that he was really impressive today. I'll never come down to that evaluation this early in camp, but all I know is that he's on the right track.

He's got a fine arm. He had a pretty decent season last year. Walk to strikeout range the walk was a click high.

I think I made the most trips to the field for an Opening Day manager in his first game for a variety of different reasons.

Nick's done a great job at shortstop this spring. He worked on it (before he came to camp). He's done a fine job.

When it gets down to the dirty end. We'll sit down and make our best guesses at that point.

Mr. Hendrickson was pretty incredible. Great job. He was in command, gosh, right from the first moment until the very end.

Somebody needs to find out the logic behind this, because I don't get it.

Jackson really did up some people. We know what we thought, but we think that even more now. That was a tremendous performance on his part, but his day is coming. It's getting closer.

To command it at 40-something, that's not easy.

He just drips with intangibles. He just oozes with the stuff you need to be good as a group. Above everything he does skillfully, that's what I love the most. He's a guy who does make a difference in the clubhouse.

Regardless of where I was, I'd make that same statement. But based on what I heard, the 70 thing, the 81 thing, it absolutely had to be said.

I don't think it's ever overrated to have an established closer, but there are other ways to get it done too. With the situation that we're looking at now, there are some people there that may become that. This may give that other person the opportunity to become that. He may be here already.

When we have our organizational meetings, we don't just talk about numbers, we talk about agenda. About each player, we ask, what is his agenda Is it himself, or the team

I'd just like to see him go out there and put together some innings and some pitches. Again, his stuff is phenomenally good. We've just got to get him to pitch a little bit more and be a little more consistent with his concepts on how to get batters out. But, physically, this guy is very, very talented. We'll get beyond the other part. Eventually he's going to figure out, mentally, exactly what he wants to do in regard to pitching these games. And when he does, he's going to be very good for a long time.

Some pitchers can be very liberal when they evaluate themselves. The most impressive thing he did today was that he admitted he missed his spot.

I absolutely love it. This place rocks. The 'Pit' rocks.

By tomorrow, we will have somebody. Another player will be here by tomorrow. We're still playing one player short as of Thursday night. And the player could be Sean Burroughs, yes.

He's going to want to test it, so we felt it best to back him off and make the decision for him.

If he throws that many pitches going into the sixth inning, that's nice. He should be ready for seven innings next time out or possibly more. Everything was good, his mound presence. He looked comfortable. Everything kind of flowed today for him.

It just hit the bat and went out. It's just one of those baseball things that happen sometimes in the ninth inning. When it happens for you, you're very happy. When it happens against you, you're not quite so happy.

Right now, they're putting themselves in jeopardy, kind of. I think Hendrickson, by pitching on Saturday, is going to be fine. Mori, I'm a little bit more concerned about, because he can only play long toss at this point. Until he gets on the mound and knows that he can pitch and then feel good the next day, that would be a concern. But I think Hendrickson is going to be fine after this little outing tomorrow.

Their guy topped us. But I thought Seth was outstanding.

I don't even have to see stuff like that. I stand by the cage and I watch how somebody uses their hands. And when you get a big person who uses his hands well, they normally have pretty good power. And he's a big guy and uses his hands really well.

Thank God for modern transportation.

They believe we are still in the game as it gets tight and late. There's a good feeling in the dugout.

He busts on any authority figure. He's been really nice to me so far. I'm waiting for him to break it out.

J. P., part of bringing him over was because I thought he was a good catcher defensively also. He does not have the strongest throwing arm in baseball. But he throws well enough. The other part of his game was really good. And I thought his offense was better than what people were giving him credit for. ... Those two guys together, I think they compliment each other. I think they're good for each other. So they're both going to play a lot.

He's so easy to talk to on the phone, and you're standing over there meeting him for first time in front of a bunch of people and that was easy, too. He's just such a nice man - everything he's supposed to be.

We thought about it and based on what he did last year, which is part of it, we feel good about it.

I'd like to see what he did the other day, again. I thought he was really aggressive in the zone Sunday. I thought he threw strikes. I like the look. You know certain guys have the look. He had it the other day that confident look 'I know what I'm doing. If things go poorly, I can battle through it.' If he can just maintain that composure with the same type of stuff, that would be great.

I said you're feeling pretty good because you've been taking your time. Continue to take your time.

We aren't going to surprise anybody. Everybody knows that the Rays are a very good offensive team, so the meeting prior to a series against us are going to pick up on that. We're not going to ambush anybody like we did the second half of last year. We have to adapt.

It's a makeup situation, someone who likes to do that. Guys that like to get the last three outs don't mind being the guy to get the last outs. Furthermore, if they don't get it tonight and they get bumped a little bit and lose or give it up, they can come back the next night and get it done.

It all felt good. I really thought we were going to figure that one out somehow. We just couldn't finish it off either side. So, again, we came after it. We went after it hard, stayed with it. We're going to keep pounding on that door until we break it do

He looked nice. I think he's going to leave today feeling pretty good about himself.

I've always wanted to meet this man. He was my dad's favorite. He is everything I thought he would be.

He does I don't think he's ever been hurt, so he doesn't know that he heals fast. This is new water for him. In talking to him he's never pulled anything so it's unusual. That's nice that he said that, but we'll wait until Thursday and see how he feels and what the doctors say.

They swung the bats pretty good today and when we made a mistake, they did not miss it. That's what I saw. And we made several mistakes.

There's no meetings going on. Just walking around talking to everybody like I normally do. We just have to weather the storm, and as this starts to dissipate, we'll be fine.

That's the premise, play the game right and you have a better chance to succeed.

I was trying to question him on the mound, and he kind of said that it's happened to him before, but then he said that it's never happened, so I was having a hard time. Because when it was in the forearm and then it was in the thumb, so it was just really too strange to leave him out there. That's what I thought.

I liked them both today a lot. They both did a great job. I thought Hendrickson threw extremely well at the end.

We didn't see him last year. I can't wait to see him. Everything I hear is good.

He's going to play several positions. He's all for it. We're going to give him primary work at third base, but he's also going to get work at first base and in right field.

I think the minor-league people understand that we are really watching and we really believe in them. We believe in growing our own from our own soil. I think that's been made very obvious to the minor-league side.

We'll take that slowly. It's such a weird injury, you just don't know. And the guy's all muscle and bone, there's nothing else there.

And I said that's not right. I should be over there playing baseball, ... So I retired from football.

We're pragmatic. We are realistic. We understand the whole concept of playing in the American League East, but that does not mean we bow down or be anybody's doormat. You don't have to do any of that. We're coming to play to win every game, every night. That is our goal.

He started as a middle infielder and actually became a corner guy because he's kind of a big guy, but he's got some agility. He's got really good feet, and when you have good feet you can do a lot of different things.