Mark Shapiro Quotes (176 Quotes)

It's a unique evaluation opportunity. I was excited to see him get that opportunity that point in the game, in front of his countrymen, we couldn't simulate that type of atmosphere. It was cool to see.

We know this commitment will not change that.

I hope we have built some (fan) trust through our decisions of the last three years. I say bear with me, hang in there and trust that we have a very bright future in 2006 and beyond.

It's similar in that both times we signed core players who we wanted to keep together for a run of championship baseball. That's what's most important about what's happening here now. We want to keep this team together.

I think this industry got drunk on roller coasters. Big roller coasters simply do not get the return on investments that they used to.

We were looking for a bigger playing field. Folks expected to walk into clients without investing lots of money, but the so-called 'low-hanging fruit' wasn't there.

At Six Flags, our mission is to surround the best rides in the world with entertainment from the fields of music, theater, sports, film and television. We want to be about more than rides -- Six Flags must be about a wider, more fulfilling experience. We also look forward to recharging our broad relationship with Warner Bros. through such great brands as Looney Tunes and DC Comics.

We saw the same things from him that we've seen in the past. A tremendous athlete, strong hands, a passion for the game. There was nothing different.

I love his demeanor and the way he carries himself. He plays with a great sense of presence and confidence.

This is a crucial year for him. He has to produce the way he's capable of producing.

It's a very tough division. There aren't going to be many easy nights at all when you play in the division this year. There's going to be lots of beating up on each other. Chicago and Minnesota both have exceptional pitching. Detroit's lineup is as deep as any in the major leagues, if they are all healthy.

That, ... is the hardest thing in the world for a GM.

That wasn't the plan. The plan was if you win 88 in the AL Central, you're in the mix. Not win 93 and be out of the playoffs.

There are two relationships that are crucial to success. One is the GM-owner, and the other is the GM-manager. If there's not alignment in vision in where you're trying to go between either of those two relationships, then what happens is wasted energy, frankly.

That was a heck of a time to go on vacation.

The expectations for our team have been higher every year. Our players are ready for it. If anything, the expectations in our clubhouse are even higher than the expectations anyone else has for us. That's what you live for. You want expectations to be high like they are now.

I didn't feel like we were going to keep up our end of the bargain of playing time that we had communicated to him. I didn't feel like we could and still put the best team on the field.

What I've tried to do is just focus my attention on the team and feel if we keep winning, at some point it will happen,

It's funny now because, at the time, I was criticized for it being so far away. Our actual research back then suggested it was a very ambitious time frame. We were very fortunate to be able to do it. It's not easy to turn over an entire team.

We just played consistent in between the tackles and turned out the first downs. It was a pretty clean game for us.

I had nothing to do with that. I was in the room, but I was the assistant general manager. I didn't make any of the calls.

The talent is obviously there, but we want him to get comfortable so that he doesn't think that he has to have a day like that all the time to impress.

Part of what makes Peralta even more valuable to us is the fact that he plays up the middle.

You just hope to get back to that level and get in. These guys don't need to focus on getting better.

This club has the ability to have a better record than they have. This club has a chance to win a lot of games over the next two months and make it very interesting.

We always look at dependability and reliability as being two main criteria. Beyond being a dependable person, Jason is among the elite in the amount of innings he's provided his teams in recent years.

We will make a very competitive offer to Kevin Millwood, ... We will step beyond our comfort zone.

Fred and the crew have set the Monday night standard. We want to build on it and at the end of the day have a grand celebration.

He is the master of ceremonies.

We're very comfortable going into spring training with the club we've got right now.

At no point did we look to move Coco. We had a clear sense of his value.

We've had serious discussions. We like the player and think he'd be a good complement to our club. It's not a done deal, but at this point we're optimistic.

He told me that at the end of last year. I guess it was supposed to make me feel better.

I have mixed feelings. Charlie is a guy across the board that everybody here cares about deeply. But we're also excited about the opportunity he's gotten.

Particularly down in the zone. But it was a great camp by him. He left here knowing he'll be back to help us.

It's an undesirable side effect of a good trade.

There's some things left in his swing that he could still improve upon, but nothing dramatic. He's not a finished product right now. But he's going to be a good player.

Our original plan in the off-season was to slate the No. 5 spot in the rotation for a younger player (Jason Davis or Fausto Carmona) and to spend money to upgrade elsewhere. When we were unable to get some other things done, we saw an opportunity to improve the team by signing Jason. The young guys still could end up playing a role for us in 2006.

He's a cornerstone guy. He's come a long way, defensively. From a leadership standpoint, he's a guy that's come light years and keeps coming every day. We're ecstatic about who he is and how he plays.

If we didn't have a third baseman, we could go with him, but he needs time at Triple-A to finish himself off.

I couldn't recreate the 1995 Indians.

I'll take the same number of extra-base hits 56 from Casey Blake. A better on-base percentage than last year's .308 mark and a better average, and that's fine for right field.

We're obviously not playing the kind of baseball we're capable of playing right now. But we've got 142 games to go. We're still .500 (10-10). It could be worse, but I think it will get better.

Obviously, this is a unique and significant commitment on behalf of ownership. Grady is one of our more unique guys. The level of commitment is distinct on both sides.

It was acknowledging that we lacked upper-level prospects. That was a middle-of-the-road move, trying to contend and rebuild. But it was the last middle-of-the-road move that we made.

The best option is when a player picks it up himself by his level of performance. He genuinely has a passion for the game and plays on a daily basis like he enjoys it. That is representative of the attributes we want in our players.

At some point this year he's going to help us in the bullpen. He's come a long way in the last year and had a good training camp. He just needs to work on commanding his fastball better.

Last year was a breakout year for him in terms of command. Hopefully he can help us during the year at some point.

We have a lot of versatile players. We have the ability to adjust. We have a lot of guys who could play a lot of positions.

We probably would not have done that if not for the other trade, though we like Jason quite a bit. But we would not have taken Arthur off the club if we couldn't add another pitcher to work in an eighth-inning role.