Joe Maddon Quotes (227 Quotes)

What I'm trying to do and what I'd like to do is ease it on in there. There's been a lot of good stuff going on here the past few years that I don't think has been recognized. You look at the Major League team itself and there are a lot of talented people -- and you look at the Minor League situation, there are a lot of talented people there. You put all this together and there's a lot of good stuff going on here. What we want to do is be able to augment what's been going on.

I've been around it a lot. It stinks when it happens, but it happens to every team in Major League Baseball, and, unfortunately, several times a year. So that was our first. We've got to get by and move on. It stinks, but it just happens.

I've never subscribed to the grass-is-greener-somewhere-else theory. But this is different because it gives me an opportunity to do what I've always wanted to do, manage.

I like the group that was there last year. For me to come in and get to know everybody, at least the opportunity will be there.

One of the terms thrown too loosely is when you say someone is 'classy.' But when I think of the Yankees, that's what I think because of their ability to sustain excellence for that number of years and the way they conduct themselves. There's none of this verbal rhetoric battles stuff going on with the Yankees. It's all about their performance on the field, the way the players conduct themselves, the way they interact, the way they play the game. I see class, and I see respect.

I love it, I love it. I really think it's great. I'm really looking forward to us expanding our Latin American horizons. I think it's a wonderful thing for the Devil Rays organization.

Those things, every guy I've ever known who had one never gets well quickly. They think they're OK then they try something and whoops. Or if they sneeze, laugh, or cough hard, they feel it. It's just one of those things you have to be patient with. Every guy I know who has had one of those takes a little time.

I think it's better that way, actually. He doesn't have much time to think about it. He's a little bit excited. I told him that's OK, being nervous is normal. The only thing I asked him to do was not change anything. I just want him to pitch like I saw him pitch in the spring.

It's best just to back him off and make the decision for him at this point and have him just relax a little bit. It's a long year. We have a lot of games left.

We're just looking to see if we can get someone in the right place more often. If you look at the charts, he rarely hits a ball on the left side of the field in the infield, rarely. It might be a pop up now and then. ... He can bunt if he likes. You know, God bless him. It's just a matter of you've got all this information, why accumulate all this information then not use it I don't quite get that.

It's so easy to be negative. But I don't know of any situation that ever became better without a positive attitude. I just don't know how that happens. To go out and heap more pressure and more negativity on a group of people seems to invite what you had in the past.

I'm trying to think of young hitters who have that command of the strike zone at a young age, and I haven't had many. That's really unusual. That's something that normally becomes nurtured, that eventually becomes part of somebody's game plan.

We're not going to worry about it -- it happens. We'll put it back together and move on.

You can only compare yourself to yourself. When you start getting involved and comparing yourself to someone else, that's always dangerous. I'm not going to be something I'm not. I don't believe in that. I don't want the players to do that. I really don't appreciate people who do that. This is what I am, this is how I am, this is what I have, this is what I believe in.

If players are around 30 and take good care of themselves they might be productive for five or six years. What's wrong with that

It was just this convoluted conversation on the mound in front of 30-some thousand people. I just couldn't get a good feel for it at that point so I had to do something. It was just really too strange to leave him out there.

He's given us an attitude. The true blue-collar baseball player.

Again, the biggest thing I'm looking for is strike-throwing right now. See what their command looks like, getting ahead of hitters, putting hitters away, those kinds of things. It's really hard to be overly critical at this point. It's early and I want them to get their feet on the ground. And the practice game and the workouts are one thing, but getting out there against live competition, as we all know, is different.

We talked last time about how high you bounce after the fall. He bounced very high today. It didn't surprise me.

I saw how it elevated pitchers internally. They just felt better about themselves. And we need to elevate our pitchers. It's contagious. Good hitting is contagious. Good pitching is also contagious. Guys want to keep up with the club.

Because of the schedule, coming to Boston and then going to Texas - two really good hitting ballparks - we just thought we'd be better off with an extra guy in the bullpen now. We're just looking for just a one-shot deal on Saturday against Texas.

The whole thing is just ripe to be a very good thing.

I thought (Monday) was spectacular. I thought the place looked absolutely great. Very bright. Very clean. A new twist. Very nice for the fans.

It's tough to watch in the beginning. But I am not concerned at all. I'm not upset.

When you have a good pop-up hitter, that's kind of nice. Believe me, catchers want to be comfortable making that play. It's embarrassing for a catcher when you don't make that. They like the realistic spin and Ramos does it well.

We've got to see them in the game as Spring Training progresses. We're actually looking to see the hitters who are in better shape. Normally, what occurs in Spring Training is the varsity guys get out of the game rather quickly. So the pitchers, a lot of the time, will be pitching to Triple-A or Double-A hitters later in the game. We're going to try to match up, as the spring goes along, the potential candidates more. Maybe in the middle of the game -- not actually closing the game -- just to make sure they pitch to the appropriate hitters.

If the team is doing well, it's hard to blow up the chemistry. I'm not into that. If there's any kind of crack in the armor and this kid is ready, there's certain guys when they're ready, you want to bring them on. You don't want them to go stale on the vine either, too ripe. You have to be really cognizant of that also.