Willie Randolph Great Quotations

No. I'm sure he pretty much knew what he was getting into. Who knows, he might go out and have a great year this year.

Just because you have a nice feel coming into a city doesn't mean you're going to carry it over. I wasn't thinking just because we scored a lot of runs in Arizona that we were going to come here and do the same thing necessarily. We got after it pretty good there. But that's a great hitters' ballpark, a different pitching staff.

He's going to start in Triple-A. The experience is great for him. The more experience he gets at this level, he benefits from it. He loves to compete and he's not intimidated too much.

You know he's going to do something special, ... but because we haven't won a lot of his games, we kind of lose that. I've said it about Roger Clemens: When you have a great pitcher like that, it's not always automatic.

We'll see how it goes. But I like his body. He's got a great athletic body, of course. I watched him a little bit in BP, and he's got quick hands and he's got speed.

I'm sorry to see him go. He's been a great player for a lot of years. Obviously, it was a decision he's thought long and hard about. It's a very tough decision.

I felt good about the match-up. Bonds is a great hitter, but my closer is one of the best in the game.

He did a great job of playing a little Houdini act there. He had more or less a C-plus game - a C-minus game, maybe - and was able to make big pitches.

He did a great job of a Houdini act out there.

There is little question about David becoming a great player. But it will be interesting to see how he adjusts this year. He won't be a surprise to anyone anymore. The pitchers know about him, and they will make adjustments. I want to see how he adjusts.

We think we can help him in some cases. He's always had a great arm. Mechanically, there's always something a pitching coach can pick up to tweak a little bit. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't.

The thing I liked about today more than anything was we picked each other up. I really thought the pitchers did a nice job of picking guys up and we had to scratch for some runs, but the bottom line is that Billy came in and closed it on a great throw by Carlos.

He just reminds me of one of those rare kids who understands that they have a great opportunity, and they want to grab hold of it, seize it and not look back. He knows he still has to do it over a consistent period of time.