Von Hayes Quotations

He was throwing free and easy, he wasn't struggling with getting his velocity up and basically pitched with a lot of confidence.

With Suzuki, we should have quicker games because we don't have to hold the runners on as much as we used to. Kurt's going to give us something behind the plate that we didn't see last year. That's not taking anything away from the people we've had but times don't lie. His times throwing to second base are consistently around 1.9 to 1.92 (seconds).

It's amazing. Here I thought guys were going to be really tired. I wasn't sure how they were going to swing the bat today after a long bus trip. We got in about 4:30 in the morning (Saturday) night. We didn't take any batting practice. We just took a little infield, went out there and played. It's incredible the way they swung the bat.

He's pretty much solid in those situations. Tonight you've got to turn the page and know that next time he comes out he's going to get the job done.

That was huge. It's been no secret that they've been pitching around some of the guys in the middle of our order. Those are the guys at the bottom of the order they're going to try and make beat them. (Friday) that's exactly what they did. They went out and got the big hits for us.

I like what I saw. He came in with 100 RBIs, and you expect a little bit of a letdown at the next level, but Danny didn't miss a beat. He came out swinging the bat and he helped us win the championship. He was very composed, very impressive. He's got a lot of heart and a very bright future.

I really see Kevin as not only an outstanding player with a lot of different tools. Kevin has leadership qualities. He's a hard-nosed player, the type of player a lot of guys can look up to. That's what I look for him this year is to go out, play hard and be a leader.

He's made some adjustments. He hadn't played in a while and he missed all of last year basically. He's a good hitter, we know that. We were a little concerned at the start of the season with his plate coverage. We talked about it a little bit, saw it a little bit in spring training. But sometimes you have to let guys find out for themselves.

He walked into my office yesterday after San Antonio's game and said his passion is elsewhere, so he decided to retire. We wish him well.

He was struggling right of out of spring training with coming back for the third year in Double-A. When he got off to the slow start I think he was just questioning his passion for the game. His main decision was he wanted to spend more time with his family and move on to a different livelihood. We have to deal with it and wish him well.