Jim Tracy Takes Quotations

Those first five or six innings, you cannot make mistakes like that on this level and succeed. There's no way. You can't have it.

Zach's doing what he needs to do to get his work done. It takes time -- that's all part of spring training.

It will depend on how things go through the weekend, not only here but what also takes place in San Diego. Once we get beyond (next week's series at Arizona), we'll see what the landscape is.

When half of the team is the pitching staff, there are some intangible things that are important. We can sit here and talk about hitting all we want. But that won't help the other part that is vitally necessary to the success of the Major League team, and that's the interaction that takes place between two guys 60 feet, six inches away from one another. That's just as important as anybody's batting average.

For a guy to come in here and work to improve his versatility, to put on that catcher's gear ... I admire that. I had a 15-minute talk with him, and I told him so. Like I told him, it takes a hell of a lot more than nine players to win. ... I appreciate the demeanor he's shown coming into this camp.

Think about the ... significance of ... how many at-bats he takes this year with men on base because the guy (Casey) hitting in front of him is going to be on base. There's going to be a number of times that he's going to come up to the plate with people on base and have the opportunity to either extend the inning, put a game away or extend leads. All those possibilities will be there.

Sometimes it takes one at-bat in one game for the light to go on. You can accomplish a lot by doing what we were doing with Duffy today.

What takes place between the pitcher's mound and behind the plate is vitally important to the success of a major-league team. I think Ryan is realizing that more every day.

The Cardinals are a tremendous model, ... They're interesting for this reason -- they can kill you with the long ball. But what takes place with that club in between that long one being hit is what's most damaging about them.