Dusty Baker Quotations | Page 4

We've got to get our bullpen shored up and do what we can until we get our big boys back.

We've got to do what we can until the big boys get back with our starting pitching. Hopefully, we'll do better when we get home.

With only five extra men, you try to save them in case you get back in the game.

Without his 5-0, we wouldn't be close to where we are. He's not gloating or reveling over what he's done, he just continues to do what he's doing.

Without his 5-0, we wouldn't be close to where we are.

When we hit it hard, it was right at somebody. He (Lowe) got strike one low and away. He had good stuff today.

When we hit it hard, it was right at somebody,

We want to win. I always want to win. It's a big year for all of us, a big year for the organization, a big year for the city, a big year for the staff, me, different guys on the team. There's no more pressure than usual.

First I have to see him out of the bullpen. I do know Ryan Dempster is my closer.

Every time I think about giving him an off-day, he hits two or three home runs. Maybe I'll start thinking about that off-day. You don't want to give him time off against the Cardinals.

Every time I think about giving him a day off, he hits two home runs. Maybe I'll start thinking about that off day for him.

Todd did a good job playing first base in Spring Training. He likes playing first base. He'll play first most of the time and second base some of the time.

We had a hard time holding up our end of the bargain.

We've had a total letdown in that area. It bothers the heck out of me, it bothers my coaches, and it bothers the players when it happens to them.

We all feel responsible. Sometimes the players have to take some of the responsibility, too. It's the responsibility of all of us, coaches, players, everybody.

We all turn in a roster and see how it matches up.

To me, and he may not like it, but I point to him all the time as the way to be. It's not his personality to accept that, but I single him out, which I don't do that often. I say, 'Hey, this is how you want to go about your business. This is how you want to perform. This is how you want to work on fielding, hitting, bunting, everything.

We have a couple of guys already in the process of being developed. You just have to choose one that's the best, and...

We want to get him in the position to give him the best chance to make the club. He worked hard last winter. We know he can help this club. I can tell he's helping some of the young guys and the veteran guys about how to go about their business and how to play this game.

We were one of the better teams in the league on the road. That's usually the toughest part of the equation. We need to play well at home and establish home-field advantage and superiority.

You hope it's just a minor setback. We have to stay positive and keep our fingers crossed.

You hear from being sub-.500 to the World Series. I don't think anybody really knows. There's a lot of variables here, a lot of variables that can go well and work. I don't see many variables that would cause it not to work.

With his health conditions of the past, we sort of considered that it might be better if he doesn't play. It's not necessarily final at this point but he's leaning toward that.

You hate to see it end in a tie.

You hate to say wait-and-see, but that's how it is, ... We're counting on him big time. At this point, I can't say in which capacity. We're hoping as a starter. If not, we'll do the next-best thing for him and us.

You hate to have a guy have back problems, then he starts changing his arm angle and compensating for it and you end up hurting something else. His teammates, they really convinced me he had had enough.

We hung a slider and Albert doesn't miss sliders too much. He doesn't miss pitches up in the zone.

We hung a slider and Albert doesn't miss sliders too much, ... He doesn't miss pitches up in the zone.

We certainly don't need to start having this now.

We're going through a real tough stretch now. We've got to find a way against two tough pitchers the next couple of days to try and get out of this.

We scored a lot of runs in a lot of different ways. We executed the hit-and-run. We had almost everything in there besides stolen bases.

Very well could be. He's a lot better than people think right now. He's doing outstanding.

You don't know what could transpire. You might need both of them. Some of it depends on the progress and health of the other guys.

You guys are asking me stuff that he's not even answering.

You have to quit counting, man. I'm serious, you have to quit counting. We have to start at the next one. If we keep counting, it will keep compounding and growing, just like when you're in a slump.

You get a good setup man and sooner or later someone is going to want him as a closer. You got a good middle guy and you or somebody is going want him to be a setup man. You see bullpen guys move in this game more than any other players.

You'd think he's left-handed when you watch him throw. He's one of the best athletes I've been around. People are surprised when they see him run. This guy can fly.

You'd rather have too many than too few.

We are very impressed. That's not the issue here. The issue is for him to play and to prosper. And to get better at some of the fundamentals of the game. The only way to get that is to play.

We are still leaning probably toward 11 pitchers. Anything can happen these last couple days. But you don't want to tell somebody something and then say, 'Oh, so-and-so got hurt, and you're back on the team.

We didn't know when he was going to be back in the first place. This is just a bump in the road.

We didn't just give him the job. He earned it.

We didn't help ourselves. We had some chances. It's very aggravating to leave those runners out there. That was the ballgame.

We didn't help ourselves. We had some chances, ... It's very aggravating to leave those runners out there. That was the ballgame.

We had Roger in trouble a couple of times, but we managed only one run. Roger knows how to pitch, and he knows how to win.

We wanted him to get that victory, but we needed it badly. He didn't get it, but he gave it to us.

Boy, that was a great comeback victory especially after we kind of gave it to them in the (sixth) inning with those two runs.

Besides, ... I knew his family had come down to see him, and I wanted to get him in the game.

Be more specific of who you are talking about. Yeah, I talked to Walk. We got it straight.

Big Z had trouble feeling the ball. He couldn't feel it in his fingers. We were hoping to get five innings out of Z and then go to the bullpen.

Big weekend for Sean, Jerome and Glendon. We have to get some guys going and preserve our bullpen. The better our starters can be, the better for all of us.

Everybody talks about small ball, but you have to have the personnel to play small ball.

Everybody talks about a fresh start, but it seems like whatever reputation you have follows you to the next job, the next place, which really isn't a fresh start. I certainly don't condone the things that have happened and transpired in the past but everybody deserves a fresh start.

Baseball's not separate from the world. (Racism) is real. Nobody wants to talk about it. You don't hear guys talk in depth too much, especially minority guys, because you get accused of playing the race card.

At this point, it's hard to imagine him not pitching forever.

D-Lee is still finding his stroke. When those guys really start swinging, we'll have a very potent offense. Our offense is pretty good. We just have to cut those walks down.

Competition sometimes will make you sharper than you believe you are. Anybody who watched those games, you could tell it was serious competition.

Duke was masterful. That's what beat us. It looked like Duke was fading some, we had some action, but we couldn't get that big hit.

There's progress. He's going to try to push it a little bit this week to find out exactly where he is. Hopefully, he'll be on the field doing some fielding and throwing. He's doing some light running. The running part is the difficult part. He's working around the clock.

There's good years and there's bad years. There's great years and there's good years. There's fair years and poor years. ... He only had 15 (great years) in a row. Maybe it was time.

There's good years and bad years -- there's great years and good years. This might be one of the great years. ... I don't know anybody who stayed on top and excellent every year in their career, but he's done a pretty good job of it.

There's no miracle drug that will make that thing go away right away. We'll just play it day by day.

is in the process of making a decision. We should have an answer in a couple of days. It's not about Kerry as much as about where we are realistically.

I've been going through this for a long time, either chasing somebody or being chased. This is the most fun part of the year. You derive energy from it. When you're in the race and have something to play for, you have some energy. I enjoy it a lot. This is what I manage for.

I've been perceived in more false ways since I've been in Chicago. Perception doesn't bother me.

It wouldn't send me a message. It's his career. It's not my career.

It wouldn't be the worst thing to get rained out today. It's hard to root against the water they need here.

I understand how they feel. I was sitting there last year seeing things I haven't seen since junior high school. I completely agree with them.

I've seen some greats leave the game. You never want to see them leave and you'd rather see them leave on their terms and leave on top. It's not over with yet. You don't know if somebody is going to offer Sammy a job here soon or what is going to happen. But Sammy has been one of the great players of the game for a long time and a guy who meant a lot to Chicago and a lot to the game. ... I just hope he gets a job somewhere.

I've never heard anybody booed in St. Louis.

I've never seen or heard of an assault with a belly. ... That's a tough sell in court -- assault and battery with a belly.

I've never seen him that wild. Anybody is capable of losing their control. He doesn't lose it that often. I don't think I've seen him blow one ever. We'll just take it and savor it.

It was very symbolic. It seems likes we get in that situation and we don't get anything. It's very frustrating. We had a great chance to win that game.

It was a perfect scenario, too -- day game after night game.

The throw wasn't high enough to do that. But we want our guys to be aggressive on the bases. He knows he made a mistake on that one.

The things I want to see out of him is baseball experience and work on fundamental instinctive stuff -- running the bases, hitting the cutoff man, knowing when to run. I've heard that when he gets thrown out, he stops running. When you get thrown out, you need to be more daring.

I've always said it's harder to get a good leadoff man than anything,

I've always been a big believer that the general manager, who is my boss, he should be signed before me. That's how it impacts me. One down and maybe one to go. Or I should say, hopefully one to go.

I've always been told, 'You start the year hurt, it makes for a long year.

Sometimes when you're 40 years old, it taps you on the shoulder and it's time to get out.

Sometimes change is good, ... Sometimes change is good for everybody involved.

Sometimes he has great command of the strike zone, and the next time ... It's a matter of being more consistent. He is throwing the ball good.

Sometimes he gets overly creative. When you're young, you're going to try stuff.

Running is the hard part. It's getting close to having to make a decision.

Right now, we're very satisfied with where he is. If something was to happen with his knee, this was prime time to have it happen.

Pressure is what you put on yourself. You can't do anything about what the Sox did. And you can't do anything about the last year of your contract.

Probably not. Once you hurt something badly, you know how to pace yourself. Is that helping his cause? You don't know. He really hasn't had a situation yet where he has had the need to go full-out.

Or maybe before, who knows? It's how he feels. He's not going to go out there and embarrass himself. You can count on that. I'm just glad we got him.

The one outing doesn't necessarily put him in there or delete him from it. He'll have quite a few more outings before we make a decision. We'll evaluate him on his progress. He said he learned from it and it won't happen again. He was upset at himself at how he pitched.

Some people get better looking as they get older. Maybe he's one of those guys.

One good memory I have here is in 2002, we beat the Cardinals to go to the World Series. They've had some great teams here. They usually have a lot of speed. I'm curious to see what happens. Sometimes you change stadiums, change atmosphere, and it changes things.

Once you get it, keep it, and hope it stays for awhile.

The money doesn't make you play. You play for the love of the game. A lot of times you see money change people. But I don't see anything changing him, and if it did, his dad would take care of it. They're good and humble people. He's still their son.

An older club tends to get it together later than a young club. Just like spring training. Young guys, two weeks, they're ready to go. Where the older guys, it takes them longer to get their timing.

The bullpen hasn't gone the way we scripted. Guys were going two innings and you can't use them the next day. They told me Aardsma was throwing the heck out of the ball in Triple-A.

Back in our day, they called this 'salary drive,' ... Try and continue to have a good year and win as many games as you can win. You are playing for respectability right now. What I'm looking for is you play hard and play for love of the game and respect and try to finish as high as you can.

As long as Hank doesn't mind, I don't mind.

That's what you want, to be better than .500 on the road. That's usually the toughest part of the equation, but we didn't play well at home.

That's not overrated. One thing's for sure. Good hitting really beats bad pitching. You can count on that one.

That's not only bad for baseball, it's not good for him either,