Jim Tracy Saw Quotations

What we're seeing right now is, in my mind, identical to what we saw last year, when it took him a few starts to get untracked, and then you see one quality start after another. His teammates recognize that's he gonna leave everything that he has on the field, and it's very easy to step up for a guy like that.

He got out of his game. He got out of what helped to get him off to a great start. I saw a much longer swing in Houston. I saw a very short wall in left field and I saw somebody that was trying to reach it way too often.

I saw better life to his fastball, much better life. I can't sit here and tell you what the velocity was, but that will come as he builds himself up. But the life on his fastball, it was there tonight.

Paul did a fine job. He displayed the characteristics necessary to become a consistent starter at this level. I wouldn't be surprised if you saw more of that in 2006.

Tonight was, in my opinion, dramatically better than what we saw in Florida. In Florida, he battled, but his fastball command was erratic. Tonight, it was crisp, it was good to both sides of the plate. It's a big step forward for him.

You can't help but be pleased by what you saw out there. As a matter of fact, it's too bad that we didn't have additional pitching that could stay out there longer. That's how much fun I was having.

It's great to get him back in camp with us. I saw a guy on TV who really liked the arena that he was in.

(Sunday) I did not see Oliver pitching. I saw him just throwing and relying on stuff. If you do that and you fall behind in the count, you're not going to have much success.

I didn't see a dead arm. I saw some pitches with a lot of life and a lot of movement. The problem was that Oliver didn't do that consistently. Until he gets a consistent arm slot, he's going to continue to struggle to throw strikes.

He pitched like an ace today -- and he had the demeanor of one. I saw a guy who was extremely interested in wanting to be the ace of the staff.