Sparky Lyle Quotations

He's definitely got the tools. He's accurate and he could hit with any of the big hitters on the tour.

He's going to play the rest of the way out.

We had a lot of success last season with guys that came with major-league experience. I'm glad to see that we're going to have about five pitchers with big-league time with us to start the year.

Jeff has been a big part of our success the past three years. He's been one of the top offensive threats each year and he continues to be the best third baseman this league has seen.

The thing is you (pitchers) can't be messing around with the guys in the front of the order. Eventually, it will catch up with you. They could be the best at those positions (in the batting order) in the league.

We always try to get some new players because they bring a freshness. But we're not going to not take somebody (back) if the new guy isn't that good.

It's very hard to repeat because your team gets dismantled every year. The biggest thing for us last year was winning the first-half title, and that will be our goal again.

Sylvester was very good. He threw the ball hard.

That's how you get to learn pitchers, and he is adapting to that very well. Brett is very astute at what he's doing. He's taking it seriously and getting a good read.

The best part of it was we shut their offense down. I knew we had the pitching to do what we've got to do and what we can do.