Jose Oquendo Quotations

Vazquez was working too fast and he was pitching a little too high in the strike zone.

I expect him to play. He'll definitely be in the lineup -- at DH, unless he says otherwise, unless he says, 'I can play first.' I'll leave it up to him.

He is a great athlete. He has tremendous range. He has a good arm. A couple years ago, Womack worked hard and got better. With (Spivey), it doesn't end with spring training. You keep working all season. That's how you make big improvements.

We swung at too many first pitches. We'll be talking about that to the team because we need to address that.

Gonzalez did a good job. He came out aggressive in the strike zone, kept the ball down and moved it in and out.

He's his own guy, but being around those type of people has to impress you. You see people you admire, like Rodriguez, and it has to be a positive. But watching him, he's just as good as those guys. I know he was impressed by the guys he was looking at, but he also felt like he belonged. He did belong.

Guys were aggressive on the bases and swinging the bat. I hope that continues into the second round.

This was a good win for us, but it's not over. The game tonight is over but the rest of the round is not, so we have to think of our next game.

We'll be aggressive. The more runs you score, the better. Every run counts.

That's the only one that took me by surprise. We all expected him to be there. He's a regular in Cincinnati. He's not competing for a job. But you can't say anything. This is voluntary. A guy has a right to say no. But he would have been good to have on the team.

We hope he can do something tomorrow. We'll see how he feels after he does some hitting work in practice.

The passion is going to be a lot more than in the first round. This is what people were looking for. There's a lot of rivalry between islands. Fans are going to take it like a fight. We're going to take it as bragging rights and respect each other.

There has always been a tradition of competition between the islands, because they are so close to each other.

Be sure to ask him about Puerto Rico beating Canada.

Bernie, he's a clutch hitter. That's the way he plays. He's proven it through the years. He hit a tough pitch back the middle. He's professional who makes clutch hits. He's always done it.

As soon as they get together, that's the first thing. We're going to introduce them, and we're going to introduce them around the bag.

These are very proud people. They are proud of their heritage and haven't forgotten where they came from. I don't know how it will be received here, but it is something big in Latin America.

The things that I know from watching him in Milwaukee and Arizona, the thing we're going to work on is to charge harder. He kind of plays deep a little bit. He has tremendous range and a tremendous arm. Sometimes he has to charge the ball more and not lay back.

I wanted to give him one at-bat, because a lot of people came out to see him. But then I planned to go to Eduardo Perez. It meant a lot to him. He'd had among the fewest at-bats on the team.

They know how to throw strikes. And I want them to throw strikes. That's what I've been emphasizing. And they did a great job getting ahead of the hitters.

They have a lot of good players that any team in the United States would be happy to add to their rosters.

This is what the event was made for. The fans are going to take it like a fight. For the players, it's all about bragging rights.

There's a lot of rivalry between islands. When we get together in the States, we all talk about bragging rights and we have fun with it. The fans are going to treat it like a fight.

It's a good opportunity for me. First of all I'll be managing superstars over there and there will be a lot of exposure.

They were pretty solid. The pitchers got their work in, and the guys did a good job behind them.

That's a strong position. If we miss one guy (such as Posada), we'll have somebody who can replace him.

I'm going to be careful with him. He's probably going to be in the lineup, unless he says otherwise. He's probably going to be a DH for us, unless he comes out and says he wants to play first base. I'll leave this up to him. He has experience enough that he knows how much he can play. I expect him to play.

He's proud of what he's doing. He's not afraid to make a mistake. He trusts his ability. I believe he has always been confident in his defense, and he's getting the same way with his hitting.

I didn't expect to use that many relievers but sometimes that happens.

He threw strikes and my boys were anxious.

If he needed to throw the ball to a spot, it was easy for him to do.

The guys played aggressive baseball, but they were also being selective at the plate, unlike (Tuesday) when they were swinging at many first pitches.