Troy Percival Quotations

There are a lot of good people in here, and they've got a chance to have a good clubhouse. Just let Tram run with it, and I think he'll do a good job.

Let's just say I'm lucky I'm holding this in my left arm. My right arm would drop it right now.

I feel very fortunate for everything I've had. I worked hard to get it. I feel I earned it. I just wish it would have ended a little differently. I don't have any negative feelings about it at all at this point.

He's got tons of credibility. Just the other team knowing you have a Jim Leyland on the other side, they know you're going to play the game the right way, you're going to play hard and you're not going to quit until that 27th out is made.

He's going to be a good manager. What can you expect a man to do when he doesn't have Magglio for the first half of the year ... you trade Urbina and then you lose me.

He liked the way the scar tissue looked to be healing.

has done a heck of a job to keep motivation to go out there and try to win.

Just watching him be able to adapt to the different stuff he's had over the years and still go out one of the top guys out there ... it's not easy to do. Guys who throw 95, 96 have an ego about being able to do that. He just went right into, 'Hey, you know, I throw 87 now. This is what I've got.' And he goes out there and gets it done just as well as he ever did.

I'm hoping to have one last good year.

To me, the true test of a closer is once they've had a good amount of failure and they can still handle the job.

This team should be able to win the division. It has as much ability as any I played on.

With scar tissue, you don't know how it's going to heal or what's going to happen with it. Dr. Yocum told me, 'Once December comes, you might throw two balls and know you've got no chance. Or you might go out and throw for three weeks and it won't bother you.' But it's not something where it's 100 percent yes, you're going to be there, or 100 percent no.

I've been in some camps with some great relievers, but not quite to this extent. I went seven months without picking up a baseball, and I'm still struggling out there right now.

The Tigers took a chance on bringing me in. I was healthy when I got here. It just didn't work out.

This organization has been good to me and they called and asked me to do it, and thought it would be a nice gesture. I was honored because this is a big deal for the organization. This solidifies that they're a powerhouse in this league.

About every third or fourth day, I feel like I can be out there and throw. Not back-to-back days right now, but that might come by the end of spring. I'm throwing it at 100 percent; it's just not going at 100 percent. That's frustrating.

It's just the way we've played the game all year long,

It's not doing bad. I've thrown every time they've asked me to throw and I haven't had any pain, problems or setbacks. I didn't start throwing until early January, and it's OK. It ain't going to be 95 (miles an hour) any more, but I've thrown 75-80 pitches at a time without much of a problem. It just takes me a couple of days to recover. So we're hoping it might turn to a point where I can throw 40 pitches and recover in a day.

It's not difficult (to stop pitching), because I just physically can't do it. That's not something I was looking forward to, but I knew that was a pretty good reality before I came down here.

It's doing a lot better than it was. I'm back to normal everyday stuff. I haven't gotten to where I think I'm comfortable enough to start picking up a ball and start chucking it yet, but I still have the whole offseason to get that ready and come firing in the spring. I'll know a lot more on Friday when Dr. Yocum looks at it.

I've got a lot of respect for those guys. That's a lot of writing and lot of watching games. It's baseball, and I love watching it, but I love being in uniform more.

I'm going to try it this way. We'll see how it goes.

I knew Dr. Yocum would be honest with me, so that was a good sign. All I can do is hope the arm heals up. Now I get to start lifting weights and doing some rehab, so it's a step in the right direction. But I'm not going to get too optimistic.

I'll say this. Any team that wins using a closer by committee better have a fantastic offense.

I always wait for something miraculous to happen. I probably don't think it's going to happen, but I'll keep doing what they ask me to do.

He's very even-keeled. He knows the game. He puts faith in his players. He doesn't try to do too much.

I felt that the team deserved that effort. And just for me, personally, I wouldn't have been able to live with myself if I didn't try, if I didn't come and know for sure that it wasn't going to work.

If I have surgery and I have to sit out next year, I'd be done. Either he'll say this is going to heal up enough to pitch, or we're going to have to do surgery ù which I don't want to do. With surgery, I have no chance and I'll miss all next year because it's a minimum of 12 months.

I don't want to get my hopes up too high, but I'm just hoping that Dr. Yocum will tell me that it's healing up to a point where I can start lifting weights. I'm tired of running. That's all I've been doing.

He's not going to want to do any surgery. He liked the way the scar tissue looked to be healing. The strength was coming, so I'm basically in a pattern where I can start doing some rehab stuff, some strengthening stuff, and then start throwing in December. Then we'll go from there.

He's not going to want to do any surgery.

He's Mr. Clutch. He's been Mr. Clutch for us all year long.

I believe I can. That's not my decision. There's a lot of good arms here in camp and a lot of guys who can help the squad. I'm just going to go out and show them what I've got and take it from there.