Starters Quotations | Page 4

Saturday we got to look at a lot of our new girls. I'm happy with what we saw. We lost seven starters after last season but I think we've got things where they should be.

Our defense has really stepped up after losing all four starters from a year ago. They have done a fantastic job and helped to preserve wins.

Our eighth and ninth guys in our rotation were starters today and they played really well. It was a sloppy game, but we keep finding ways to win. We knew not to overlook Hickman County.

The most important thing is what the returning starters think, ... Can they get themselves together and play basketball? You've got to grow up right now. These things happen in sports.

On defense we again return three of four starters from last season. We should be able to put a very experienced group on the field at all times. With Ginny and Amanda Winn returning from injuries, we are returning two of our more experienced players, which will give the defense a huge boost.

DePodesta said Cruz's recent play compares favorably with his earlier years. His .783 on-base plus slugging percentage is higher than that of Dodgers starters Cesar Izturis, Jason Phillips, Jason Repko, Oscar Robles, Jose Valentin and Werth.

As far as their character, you can't beat either of those two guys, ... Both of them bring something and having two starters is a positive. You don't have to worry about the first guy going down.

The bullpen and starters have been strong all year. This series the hitters are picking us up.

That's what we're used to around here. That's what we're going to get. We have too many good starters to let that happen.

That's who we are. If our starters ever had a problem, they all know we're all ready. We'll all take the ball. Whether we feel good or not. . . . We want to pitch, we want to pick each other up. It's kind of like a little platoon down there.

That's what she's in there to do. She's only an 11th-grader, and since we lose four senior starters she'll be playing a lot next year. The more I can get her in, the better off we'll be.

That's not a good feeling because you feel like you're in a corner trying to punch your way out instead of throwing haymakers. When your starters are getting it done, you know you're in every ball game.

That's just a matter of us instilling that confidence in him. I'm gonna keep talking to him. We can get it done. We don't get it done in the same fashion as the starters do, but we can get it done.

You see guys now who are hitting .400 who, come September or July, they're going to be hitting .200. And there are guys who are notoriously slow starters who, as the season gets going, they'll play up to their career averages. We have guys who are not performing well right now who have good track records, and they'll be there when all is said and done.

You're not going to find many fourth or fifth starters who can give you 200 innings,

You're confident (when he's on the mound. He's one of the top five starters in the game. You don't expect to lose that game.

This is by far the best team we've played down here. We battled with them but their pitching was a little too much for us this early in the season. They had their numbers one and two starters pitching and they dominated us.

This is a tremendous accomplishment for this group of kids, because there are a lot of good teams in our conference. We have several three-year starters as seniors in our lineup, so I'm really happy for our girls.

This is the freshest I've ever felt after a game. Having some depth is so much better for us. When we're in there, we can give 100 percent, have more enthusiasm and energy and fresh legs. There's definitely more competition on the team - it forces the starters to stay on their toes and practice hard. But it's good for the defense.

This is one of the best pitching staffs in the league this year and that halfway proves it. How many starters did we have who had 200-plus innings?

This is the best team they've put on the field in a long time. Their young starters are struggling and learning how to pitch. We were called up early just like them. (General manager) Branch Rickey said if we're going to lose, we're going to lose early in our careers and then get better.

This game will play into those decisions, no question about it, ... We've got a pretty good idea what we're going to do on opening day in Minnesota in terms of who the starters will be, but the competition is still pretty tight at those three spots.

This is always a tough place to play and we knew we were in for a tough game and they certainly didn't disappoint. But I'm very proud of our players. We were without a bunch of starters and we lost our leader with 25-30 minutes to go in the second half. The young players showed some character.

They return all five starters from last year and they play very good defense. We got them twice last year, so we'll see what happens.

They've got 20 starters coming back and are going to be real good. They had tentatively scheduled Brenham, but Brenham dropped them. We had talked earlier and said if we couldn't find a game, we'd play them because it's been a good series between us.

They've been mentally and physically tough even though they're first-year starters and a little bit undersized, ... I'm proud of that and the way they keep their focus.

They've been going a real good job up front opening holes. We've got some new starters on offense, but we're still going to be a dangerous team that can beat you in a number of ways. For us seniors, many of us have been playing together since freshman year and now it's time to go out on top.

They tore us up in the first half. They really shot the ball well. Their starters are tall and there was not anything we could do about it.

They start big. They've got five starters that are 6-2 and they're real physical, they play good man-to-man and they put good pressure on the ball. I think we've got to make sure we take care of the ball and rebound.

They scored a bunch against our reserves during the fourth quarter. It was Elmwood Park's starters against our reserves, but I wasn't going to make a change.

They say it benefits teams with deeper pitching staffs, but I don't know. In the old system, you had to go to a third starter or end up using a kid on short rest because you had games Monday through Thursday, then the championship on a Saturday. Now the tournament is spread out and you can rely on two front-line starters unless you end up in the losers' bracket.

A lot of our starters are used to this atmosphere. They had already been here last year. It wasn't really anything new. Nobody was really nervous, because they knew this was the time to step up.

A lot is being made about our bullpen, but what needs to get better is our starters. Our starters have to pitch more innings.

A lot of teams are using emergency starters this time of year, ... but we have two 'openings' in our rotation instead of just one and, right now, they come back to back.

They had to play us four more minutes without two of their starters. We had five starters on the floor. ... We liked our chances.

They don't come around here that often. He's one of the rare four-year starters to ever play here. He's probably one of the best student-athletes talent-wise.

They had all this hype, 11 defensive starters returning this year, and all their papers said they had the best defensive backs in the land. So now I guess we have the best D-backs in the land.

They are a very good football team, ... They have 17 starters back from a playoff team and they have seniors and they're good.

You don't want to really hurt someone's development. We'll have to make that decision if we think it's beneficial for maybe one of the young starters to pitch out of the bullpen.

There will be competition at all positions. No starters are set in stone.

This is what you want. You want the big contract, and you want the people to show how much they want you. That's what Billy did today with those guys. He accepted them. It's important, because have some chemistry with each other. Sam and Kyle, they're starters on the team. I like the look of our team, and I like the direction we're heading. I'm just looking forward to trying to win a championship with them.

They?re an unbelievable high school team, at every position. They?re going to be hard to beat. They have five starters who are college players.

They're kind of a scary team. They have 13 starters back from last year and a talented quarterback. If you let them hang around, they can get excited and you can have a real scruff on your hands.

They're both three-year starters at defensive line, so that has made a difference for us, ... But I like the size of Port Huron's line.

They're a very good team and they have a great inside game, force a lot of turnovers and are the only team with three senior starters this weekend.

They remind me of Boston College a lot. I think they have eight starters back on defense and I think six or seven on offense.

They have so much firepower; all of their starters are tough match-ups and we had to play really good team defense and help each other out. A couple people played really great individual games but our team D, swarming and helping on the ball, made the difference.

It's just great to see our starters going deep in games and our bullpen getting some confidence. Now, all we need to do is keep grinding, get some hitters back, and I think we'll be fine.

It's a two-way deal. If we're not pitching, the starters are doing well. But if they need a right-hander in relief, I want it to be me.

It was close throughout. They got a 10-point lead on us in the first half; I think I had four starters with two fouls. Our shooting was not good. I think we were seven of 23 from the field in the first half, and it's not like they weren't good shots.

It was a quality win against a good team. I'm really proud of how we've picked it up defensively over the last 10 games. ... I thought the contributions from everybody were really good. Our starters defensively set the tone early and they stood up late.

It's a big weekend. If we could take three out of four that would be great. We have eight of nine starters back and I think our pitching staff is improved over last year.

It's a crosstown rival. It's Jets -Giants, like Mets-Yankees. It's a big game. But mostly it's a big game for us because the starters will play well into the third quarter and it'll be a measuring stick to see where we are as a team.

It's a good teaching day, a fundamentals day, and an evaluation day. And there's a lot to evaluate. We have eight defensive starters back, but we have a new system, so we're looking for the guys with the athletic ability to help out there. We're sorting personnel, getting to know the freshmen, and figuring out where players can best fit in the program.

It's a real bonus to not have to play your starters 40 minutes a game because these games are so intense. But that fourth or fifth game you get bumps and bruises so it's great to have plenty of players.

I told the girls I was very proud of them. I'm not disappointed in them at all. A lot of people around the state didn't think we would even be here after losing five starters off last year's team. So, I'm very proud of them.

I told the girls before the game that starting off strong could be a key. I thought Mexico had a little advantage having won in this sectional last year and having all of their starters back.

It's very comforting to look in today's starters and see his name.

It's one of those unique circumstances. All of our starters are key parts of their respective countries. And I think we're more comfortable on how they are going to be used than we were the last couple days.

It's the first time in about a year and a half that we've been fully healthy. Other starters have picked up playing different positions (during the season). We're pretty versatile because of the injuries early.

It's always good to have the core of your offensive line returning. Experience counts at that position. We have four starters back and some other guys who have played. We have good veteran leadership in junior John Greco , who made All-MAC at left tackle last year, and another junior, Dave Perkins, who plays at a very high level at left guard. This will be their third year together as starters, which is very important.

It makes a tremendous difference when you have three top-of-the-line starters you can run at a team like the Cardinals.

It's unbelievably high. All five starters are in the top 10 in the league in free-throw percentage.

It's tough when you don't play and then it's time to get back in the swing of things. We won 15 games last year and the starters didn't play much at end. That was tough to get back into the flow. We've had four or five games this year that mattered down the stretch, which is why we're playing well.

It's tough to tell you, aside from Randy and Moose, who the other starters are going to be. Right now we're just digesting all the information and hope everybody gets through all these games without a problem.

Even when they don't have all their starters in there, they're not on all cylinders, they're still a great ballclub and they know how to win. To come out and play a pretty solid game like we did tonight is good for our mentality the rest of the way.

That's our biggest question mark at this point. We lost eight starters at some key positions. We have a lot of inexperienced guys and we're waiting until the last minute to see who comes along the most for us. The defense has been the hardest to reconstruct.

That just shows how much depth they've got. They don't miss a beat when the starters are out of the game.

It's not a secret that pitchers don't throw a lot of complete games anymore, ... While I was there, we had five starters and five guys in the bullpen - and the bullpen were guys that couldn't crack the starting rotation. ... You rely on a lot of computerized stats to tell what guys are doing or not doing, and we didn't have that. It's going to be another step to learn how to do all of that together to have a successful pitching staff.

Eight of our 14 starters were freshmen or sophomores, so we're going to have a pretty big nucleus of our team back the next two years. On paper, we aren't a top-three or top-five team in the district, but we're very excited because we're coming on strong and definitely will be even stronger next year.

Each of our five starters had a hand in the scoring that opening run. We have a very balanced attack. The unselfishness and teamwork was on display both on offense as well as on defense.

Everyone from the starters to our key reserves off the bench are playing at a high level right now. Getting Addie back makes us even better.

Everybody off the bench was equally as good as their starters and they just wore us down and broke us down defensively. We weren't taking care of the ball. We started throwing it right into their hands and they had easy points.

The biggest thing is everybody has to be consistent. We had some ups and downs last year. Guys are coming in early, getting ready for the season. We've got some veteran guys to fill in the bullpen. Starters have to step up and get us through six or seven innings and give our bullpen a chance to finish it.

The bench has been great. And that creates that vicious cycle. When the bench is playing well, they play more minutes and the starters get more rest.

The bench did a great job. The other starters did an unbelievable job just to make our night special. I think they consciously wanted to go out there and play hard for us, and to win another game in the conference.

That first week of the season, without having an off-day, you never know how far the starters are going to go. So we may need that extra arm down there.

It's great. Seven starters is awesome. We got a lot of Venezuelan players in the big leagues. I'm going to watch the highlights.

It's great. We've got three good starters (including junior right-hander Matt Smith), and he's a solid No. 2 hitter. He laid down a couple of great bunts (Tuesday). I feel like we have a complete team again.

It was a nice win for us due to the fact we lost all six starters from last year.

It was a good game. I thought Griswold played well. Our depth was the difference. Our second group played very well when our starters were struggling.

It was a good game for us heading into next week. Our starters all got 24, 25 minutes of good work in. But we also know that now it is tournament time and we're not going to continue to beat people by 30 or 40 points.

I've got to replace eight starters and I'm playing some seniors for the first time. We'll go as far as our defense takes us.

I've got a good bunch of guys back from last year. Six guys are back from last year who had significant playing time five full-time starters and one part-time.

I've got 24 guys and I'm going to play everybody. You don't have to worry about keeping the nine starters happy. They're playing. I want the guys on the bench to always be ready at the beck and call.

No need to bring me in. If I go two weeks without pitching, I'll never complain. That means our starters are doing good.

Not all of our starters are 22 years old, but we do have four of them that are 24 or less. We have to allow a little bit of time to allow these guys to have the opportunity to stabilize themselves.

Not having two starters in your lineup was definitely a blow.

It was a game where I thought both teams played hard. I think Matt Painter is doing a just unbelievable job. You lose four starters and you can still put a team on the floor that competes and plays hard and causes problems. I don't know another team in the country that can lose four starters and compete at all.

It was over the first four minutes of the game. The starters only played the first quarter, so they'll be rested for Saturday.

It took us the whole first half to get used to the pace that they bring. We have nine new starters out there, and the second half was encouraging. I know we have more. We have to learn how to play 80 minutes, not 40.

The varsity returns eight starters on defense and seven on offense.

They can shoot the basketball. It's all five starters too and they are gonna shoot it. There would be no threat of the shot clock violation if we had one with this team. They will make two-three passes then shoot it.

They are, in my estimation, very important to the team. Because the things they do we wouldn't have the starters doing. They give themselves up in practice by becoming other players. They educate themselves on the other team.

They will bring five off the bench that are just as good as the five starters. Then your starters start to get tired, and you can't counter. It can be chaos out there.

They work well together as a team. We lost a lot of starters from last year and have a lot of new faces. Hilo is really deep. But everybody is working hard.

The returning starters have the experience, and they know how to win and have the ultimate goal of being on top.

This is a unique part of our schedule where we have Trigg sandwiched between St. X and Warren Central. But we've got nine starters back from a defense that gave up just over seven points a game last year, so I feel comfortable.

On a team like this, I can be satisfied with that role. This team is capable of a lot of good things and they need a guy like that. It takes pressure off the starters if they're having a tough day and those late-inning relievers don't need to be in earlier. I'm hoping that I can be the glue between the cracks.

It's never easy when you lose that many starters in a year. Fortunately, we have a very solid program here at Jackson. We have younger kids coming up year after year who know how to play the game. Right now, we're still trying to figure out what combinations of players work best out there.