Jim Hendry Work Quotations

Obviously, Dr. Kremchek's reputation speaks for itself. We have (glowing) reports and reviews from us for his work with Dempster and Scott Williamson. Plus he has a general concern for players from the other clubhouse over the years whether it was a significant injury or not.

I don't know who he meant. I clearly wouldn't think that Todd Walker would have any reason to tell you I've never not told him the truth. Whether I'm right or wrong, I've spent 27 years of my life telling players what I felt was the truth at that time. My decisions don't always work out, but they're never done with any deception toward the player.

He has physically never looked better to me. He's probably 10, 15 pounds lighter than last year and is just in great shape. He's done as much precautionary preparation work as anyone could. He has already been throwing and gotten ahead of where he usually would be at this time.

Our stance is always to try to work with the player's representative to a conclusion of fairness if we can. Hopefully, Mark will have a great 2006.

I think he will bring a ton to the table and a presence on the field and off. You never go to work thinking he's going to be available.

It didn't work the way we all would have liked for Holly this year. But it was never out of lack of effort by him. He gave us a heck of a first 40 percent last year and never got back on the field after the injury.

We're certainly glad to have it done. Our stance is always to try to work with the representative, John Boggs, to a conclusion of fairness to avoid the process if we can. This was something we wanted to do, and hopefully Mark will have a great 2006.

A lot of guys older than him have turned their careers around. The talent is still there, the work ethic is good and it was a situation where coming back here and taking a chance, for his sake or ours, to get out of the gate better wasn't worth the risk.

It's obviously not a place we wanted to be. For a lot of reasons, it didn't work out the way any of us wanted. You just have to adjust and move on. There is no sense taking the month of September, hanging our head and feeling bad about what happened the six months before. We're going to try to get some people more playing time.

He's one of the most respected pitching coaches in the game. He's got two World Series rings to show for that. I think he's got a tremendous work ethic. Nobody at the ballpark is here longer during the day than Larry. He spends countless hours trying to get them better. I think he's totally dedicated trying to get everyone to maximize their ability.