Brian Graham Quotations

What a great thing to have your first-year kids learning lessons from a guy who played the game like that.

Last year, the velocity was down and I'm not convinced he was 100 percent healthy. He looks a lot better this year. He's thrown the ball well and it's nice to see him at the point he's at right now.

Sean's velocity and command were good through the first two innings, and you want to see him keep that up for longer stretches before he takes the next step. It's a process you've got to go through.

Mike Johnston is a competitor. He's a guy that cares about his job. I have confidence that he's going to get back to the big leagues.

Neil's coming along just fine. It won't be long before he's taking batting practice and catching.

Certainly, the coaches deserve a lot of the credit because they've kept these guys going. In addition, the rest of the team has maintained the level of play that's necessary to be successful.

Burnett threw well. For us to see the velocity come back is real good.

He was throwing the ball well with command of four pitches. He wasn't throwing with the velocity that we saw in college, but from a performance standpoint, he definitely was on the track we expected.

He has exceptional stuff. And he knows how to use it.

He felt he was comfortable from a developmental standpoint and had gotten enough innings in. I think that's his best role.

He's a bullpen guy. I don't think there is any doubt that's the role he's best cut out for.

He is very mature in terms of his poise, his composure and the way he goes about his business. Any time a young player can get this kind of experience to kind of expedite his development, it's a great spot for him.

Jose Bautista needs at-bats. He's shown he has that power, that he can hit at Class AA, which was exactly the right level for him last year. If he does the same thing in Indianapolis this year, then he's earned the chance to be the everyday third baseman in Pittsburgh.

I think they stepped it up, and we didn't. They were putting high pressure on us, and we were just falling back.

Patrick was just a wonderful person. He was the guy who lit up the room.

Michael worked ahead in the count most of the game, and we made some plays behind him. Wilson has been coming on lately after struggling early in the season. We are counting on him to be a big stick.

You just have to know something like that to have a good at-bat in that situation. Our purpose in doing this is to see where they are and adjust our teachings accordingly.

We've got some great arms in this organization. It's a little bit scary if you stop and think about it.

We've been extremely honest and straight with players in terms of development and why they're staying at certain levels. Players need to perform. They just don't get promoted based on potential. It's performance-based, same as in the big leagues.

We were just letting (Montoya) dribble through the middle, which was bad. He was a good player.

This season has been very gratifying and extremely satisfying as well. The player development system validates itself when players come to the big leagues and not only just get there, but perform well.

The experience at the higher level for pitchers is invaluable. For example, the idea that when he attacks a batter inside with a fastball and then tries to double up with a fastball and the guy hits it. You need to start recognizing and realizing hitters' tendencies as a pitcher, and you need to pitch off your experience.

We've had a couple bad spots on defense, but it's been pretty solid overall. We had good starting pitching, hitting and solid defense. It was a very good team effort.

Tom can be emotional. This reminds him of how to handle this situation.

You have a room full of about 60 college guys and you couldn't hear a sound. It was devastating for us,

We felt that because of our own catching situation and this was a left-hand hitting catcher, that if he was healthy, it's a very small price to pay to get a player who could potentially be a big leaguer some day.

We should be more used to the play. Last year, the younger kids got beat up. But this year, we should be tougher.

Eldred has a much better plan this year. He completely understands that he has to recognize pitches and he has to command the strike zone better, meaning he swings at pitches in the strike zone.

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You're playing must-win situations with the pressure of succeeding, and there is no tomorrow,

You're looking at someone who has that leadoff ability but also could get you home runs. We see Andrew as having a power kind of swing, and we want to make sure we give him the opportunity to develop that.

This guy does a lot of things well. We have to decide where he fits best and where his best development slot is. It's not a matter of where he plays. It's gotten down to a matter of where he hits in the batting order.

They're the next wave; they're definitely the next group of some good young pitching we have in this organization.

They've endured the call-ups, the injuries, and the players who have come up from Double-A to Indianapolis have done a nice job,

The reports on Correll was that he could be a platoon outfielder in the big leagues some day, given his chance.

They're all young, and they all can hit, run and play defense. That's the best thing about them from our perspective. They're three-dimensional players, and that's going to benefit them and us in the long run.

That's quite a difference from the regular season where the development and the major emphasis is, 'If today doesn't go so well, then there's always tomorrow.'

There was a need early on with the Pirates that you had to bring guys to the big leagues because you had to have people to fill positions.

Not right now. I don't think anybody's going to know who's the best player or players in the country until next year. Everybody has his own favorites, of course, but it might take until April until there's some kind of consensus.

I like the fact that the players are here mentally prepared to work hard and make the team. This is the most focused camp I've seen in four years.

If you push a player to a level above his ability, he goes into survival mode and he doesn't get better. All he does is try to play to survive regardless of how talented he is.

His fastball is above average in terms of life and velocity, he has a hard breaking ball and the changeup has become a solid third pitch. And when his command gets better and he's able to throw his pitches where he wants, he can be a really good all-around pitcher.

You can't put a time-table on anybody. Sometimes it's necessity. Sometime it's the right circumstance. But I'm fairly confident that you're going to see all of them eventually. That talent in these guys is just too great.