Ron Gardenhire Talk Quotations

He gets a little lazy at times on the drills. But he knows what he's doing on the mound. He's a good fielder; he just gets a little sloppy at times. We talked to him about that. He's handled himself very well.

J.D., we're looking for a little more consistency from him. People talk about him being passed by, but he has the chance to be a good pitcher in this organization. He can't wait to get the ball. We like guys like that. He doesn't come in with a chip on his shoulder.

Poise? I don't think we're talking about poise here. I think we're talking about a 97 mph fastball with a curveball from hell.

Andy watches it all the time, now we're talking to individual pitchers about doing it. They do go watch it when they come out of the games. They watch themselves a lot. It's not so much a concern about tipping pitches but making better pitches.

Andy watches it all the time. Now we're talking about it with each pitcher.

A lot of younger players didn't have as many ties, or any ties, with Puck, like some of us have. But they all still need to understand what he was all about and why we talk about him. He played the game the way we want to play the game.

It's always nice to get out and talk to the people who help support us all year long.

This winter we talked about getting the clubhouse back. The guys we got are clubhouse people.

We've talked about it. He says he'd like to do more. That would be nice to see.

He said he was working out, on a diet, and was going to get to feeling better. He was talking about getting married.

He said he was doing better. He talked about being on a diet, working out, getting to feeling better, and talked of getting married in June. It was fun to see him again.

Why do you bring up his name? He's on that side. I don't want to talk about J.C.

To me, starting the season with people less than 100 percent is very, very scary. I'm not talking about a little bit of a sore shoulder or something you play through, but I'm talking about muscle pulls and those types of things. Those come back and all of a sudden you're out.

It's a good start. I don't know about clicking. If we can continue that, I'll talk to you in about a week.

We talked about it and moved them over a couple steps last night, but we're going to have to do better than that. You have to make adjustments based on who's pitching. If the ball goes through that hole a couple of times, then why don't we just move over so we can stop it?

We talked about a lot of things, things that weren't handled very good and we got it straightened out. It was a good conversation. We'll go about our work.

We just talked about being a winning team, and what we're all about here. Pitching and catching the ball is what we do best. It's what we work hardest at. We have a chance to win. We can say that where a lot of other clubs can't. Well, they might say it. But they can't say it like we can.

He busted his butt down the line. He was out. Shannon probably talked a little too much. It's frustration.

When he got in a couple of jams, he made some pitches when he had to. But he pitched, and that's what we've been talking about. It's something that he's learned, to not overthrow, and now he's just pitching.

I want the whole player back. You have to guard against letting him get out there and trying to force too much or letting him do too much early. It's nice to see and I'm really happy that he's back out there running around, because when it happened, there was a lot of talk that some guys never come back from this. It looks like he's beating the odds right now.

You take the good and bad when you're talking about a power hitter. We're looking for someone who's going to hit those three-run homers and get you back into a game or blow the game open. He's a guy that has that ability.

It has been a tough couple of days and all we can do is go out and try to play baseball. We know that the Puck-man would want us to go out and do this for him. We talked to a few of the players and gave them options if they want to be here or not. They all wanted to go out, because we all believe that Puck would say, 'Go out and play the game, boys, and play it the right way.' And that's what we're going to try to do.

Walks will kill you, and we talk about that a lot. Our pitchers believe in that. Silva really believes in it, obviously.

I don't want to talk J.C, we're talking Twins baseball. Me and J.C. are fine. We've done our business.

The story has always been with him that he's a sloppy practice guy, but a good game guy. He's gotten better at his practice now, and a lot of people talked to him about that, working on some drills. He's grown up a little bit and made his presence known this year in camp.

I'm sure there'll be a lot of people talking throughout the year about Puck. You can bet that we won't ever forget him.

It's a work in progress. He's getting an opportunity. He's got to take advantage of it. Everybody has a chance in camp, all right? So there's no sense talking about does he have a chance.

I don't think we're talking about poise here. I think we're talking about a 97 mph fastball and a curveball from hell.

He didn't even move. He just stood there at second. I talked to him in the dugout and he said he thought the ball was going to go foul. You still would be running. To me, that's not a good enough answer. So I just put the other guy out there and we move on.

We had a long talk for about 25 to 30 minutes like two adults, and everything is straightened out.

We had a long talk for about 25-30 minutes like two adults and everything is straightened out.