Joe Maddon Quotes (227 Quotes)


    He has the mentality of a closer. He has an easy delivery which is part of the deception to the hitters. He is like an old-time Bryan Harvey.

    We'll just have to wait and see. We're not going to try and do anything in return.

    I just felt he is the right man at this time.

    He just threw a lot of pitches. They will wear you out. You have to get ahead of these guys and make them swing the bats early because they will pitch count you. They are very capable of that. They have several very good hitters in that lineup.

    You probably need a seven- to nine-man pitching staff among starters to really get through a season. I would say seven, maybe eight. You're always looking for what's going to happen, Plan B, Plan C, Plan D, in case of a breakdown.


    This guy's a baseball player and he'll do anything it takes to get out on that field on a nightly basis.

    He had some really sharp pitches. He was just a little bit up on occasion. He made some really nice pitches down and away. He spotted the ball in a couple of times. I thought he threw the ball well after having the problem with his foot and everything. He was fine.

    He's got great control, great command of all his pitches and, when he gets it all together, he can be a great pitcher. He can be excitable, but I'm OK with that.

    We had seven walks today. You saw a little bit of patience. When it got tight, I saw a little bit of patience and it was fun to watch.

    He's won two games with his glove already. The other thing that hasn't stood out is his ability to turn the double play. He's turned two double plays that a lot of people don't turn.

    I'm very happy with our guys right now. I'm very happy with how they're going about their business. I know what's expected of us based on what's been written, etc. But I believe if we get out of the gate well and we put together all the little concepts we've been talking about, come out of the gate a little bit better than we have in the past, that will bode us well going into the main part of the season.

    When they don't get good swings on a pitch, you really gotta stay with him right there. He just kept throwing strikes and mixing his pitches well. He went after them aggressively. It's just good for morale to see that one guy can turn things around in nine innings basically.

    You watch him during BP, he's very strong. It doesn't surprise me he's hitting the ball that well.

    To command it at 40-something, I swear that's very hard to do. I know it gives the hitters something else to think about. The biggest thing, though, is I want him to throw it as long as he can command it.

    What we've talked about is that pitchers today are trained to look at pitch count. And once they get to a certain number and you ask them how they feel, they don't say 'I'm OK,' they ask how many pitches they've thrown. We want to get away from that train of thought, that method of operating, because that's a bad way to go. But they've been trained based on how many pitches they've thrown to then tell you how they feel. We want to take that away.

    Every team that goes in there wants to beat them, regardless of where they are in the standings at that given moment. I think most professional baseball players really respond well to playing there.

    There's no such things as 70 wins being a good season. I don't get that. Eighty-one is just OK. Why would we aim so low I just don't understand that.

    I like guys who are able to use the whole field like (Huff can). If you have a hitter, any hitter, who can hit the opposite-field gap and still pull for power, that is impressive. And that's what he's capable of doing.

    I really want to put forth the thought that we're aiming high. That's the main thing we're going to talk about, aiming high. The danger in aiming low is that you might hit your mark.

    He's on a level with Barry Bonds, as far as hitting ability. He's just so hard to pitch to. ... We're just going to keep trying.

    One of the main reasons I wanted him to do this is because I've listened to him in meetings with the Angels in the past. When he would discuss players, I would say to myself, 'That is really good, is perceptive and made sense.' That's where he made his first impression on me. And then I started talking to pitchers. Veteran pitchers, as well as young pitchers, all spoke highly of him.

    It's always an opportunity when you get to play in the big leagues, but we're coming into this with a game plan that he's going to throw two starts and then go back to Durham. That's the plan. But it is an opportunity, no doubt. I would be lying if I said

    I'm good with him being there. I'm good with him supporting his family and his country -- because I believe it's absolutely sincere. There's not a thing that's contrived about him at all. I'm all for him.

    He was having a hard time throwing a strike. I felt it was the right thing to get him out of there.

    I think that may. Absolutely. That kind of action can not be tolerated.

    I like the concentration. This team is not known for that.

    We definitely want to give him a good look. There is competition within the rotation and that's a good thing. Bringing Jackson on is wonderful for the organization. If you talk to a lot of Dodgers they'll tell you some excellent things about this guy, and the fact that maybe he got to the big leagues a little too soon.

    I look at (makeup) first of all, guys that like to get the last three outs. And furthermore, if they don't get 'em tonight and they lose or give it up, they can come back the next night and get it done. For me, that's really an important issue with the closer.

    This is just purely hypothetical. If he's the fifth starter with the second day of the season being an off-day, you won't have to use him until the second time around. So you can get a little simulated game or something more on the side, a bullpen session. There's different things you can do to take care of that. If he just stays well, there should be no problem. If he gets to the point where he's hurting again, that would obviously cause an entirely different scenario.

    I've never really seen this fellow pitch. The last couple of two or three years, he's had some decent numbers, actually. ... He moved to the 'pen eventually. If you look at his overall numbers, they're a little bit skewed, because it seems the last couple of years, he's been better. I'm anxious to see what he looks like.

    At this point, feeling well seems to be the main criteria. You can assume that at this point.

    This was a real intense game. I think it was a growth moment for our group.

    We're going after an attitude. And an attitude is a decision. You learn how to win.

    When he goes out to the mound, the pitchers truly listen. If he comes in the dugout and has something to say, everybody stops. I like that. I'm seeing Toby gaining confidence, like a quarterback. I like what I'm seeing. It leads to more leadership qualities.

    I've seen Burroughs in Spring Training with the Padres. I always liked the defensive part of his game. Offensively, his power numbers haven't shown up yet. He's got a great bloodline. I look forward to seeing him on a more consistent basis.

    Honestly, everybody liked him in spring training. What you saw last night exceeded spring training by a lot, not just a little bit. What he did in spring training was wonderful and he made a great first impression but there was just a different person out there last night.

    What did George Patton say It's how you bounce after the fall. We'll look to see how high he bounces the next time.

    I believe he's going to be fine. I truly do. I'm not worried. If he wasn't healthy I'd be worried. But he's healthy and I'm fine. It's happened to a lot of good pitchers in the past. I know he's a young man, but I have a lot of faith in him.

    I went out there very slowly. You just don't know. You just don't want another bit of bad news.

    That might have been our best performance of the spring. I'm talking about pitch count, strike throwing, in control and command of the game. He did a great job.

    The mental at-bats are really good. That's what I'm liking.

    Michelangelo aimed high. He talks about if you aim low, the concern is that you might hit the mark. So were not going to aim low, were going to aim high and see what happens.

    He was cutting his delivery off in the end, which really prohibits good command. You try to do too much. He wasn't missing by a lot, just on the inside edge a little bit. That kind of compounded on him and he was really never able to get that rhythm and groove.

    You expect these things to happen during the course of the year. And I expect us to play well even when an injury does occur. It's very simple. I've talked about the importance of a good bench. When you have a good bench, you can play through some of those situations. Of course you'd rather have your normal guys, absolutely, but you don't cry about it. You just move forward. The guys that you have pick up the other guys who are gone.

    I like the way he began that game. I thought he was throwing the ball pretty well. The velocity was good. The location was good. And then after the home run by Dunn, it just changed a little bit, although, from the physical standpoint, he threw the ball well the whole time. From my perspective, I liked what I saw. It's just the quality of pitch diminished a little bit.

    You have to get good pitching to beat the Red Sox, period. When they have pitching like they do, you can't expect to come in here and just try to go toe-to-toe with them and beat them 9-8 all the time. You're just not going to do it. So we got a good pitching performance and won tonight.

    There's no artificial goal-line for him right now. I just want him to get well because when he gets well, I want him to stay well and I don't want him to push it.

    We're going to wait and see. I really don't know yet, but I'm not extremely optimistic. It's so early in the year you don't want to push anybody.

    Then hopefully, by the time we go on the road, he might be ready for us. Maybe by the Oakland series.

    You come over here, there's a pretty good crowd here, he's got the right lineup out there. I thought he did a nice job. He was ready for it. He was really prepared for it. You could see it in his face.


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