Jeff Bagwell
Jeff Bagwell
Jeffrey Robert Bagwellis an American former professional baseball first baseman and coach who spent his entire fifteen-year Major League Baseballplaying career with the Houston Astros. Originally, the Boston Red Sox selected him from the University of Hartford as a third baseman in the fourth round of the 1989 amateur draft. The Red Sox traded Bagwell to the Astros in 1990; the next season he made his MLB debut and was named the National LeagueRookie of the Year. The NL Most...
ProfessionBaseball Player
Date of Birth27 May 1968
CityBoston, MA
I thought it all went well. I was just trying to get the (bat) head out. In general I guess I did. I hit the ball on the barrel, which is good. It's coming. I just need to keep hitting. It takes awhile to get those muscles strong again.
Second guess all you want. I think that's easy to do in that situation, but I think it's a little unfair, too. I feel like I can help the team, I really do. I feel like I'm going to give a good at-bat. I'm a lot stronger now.
When I came back, we decided to give it a try and see how I would do. I told them: I can give you a good at bat and I think I can help the team. I can hit a home run now. I can get a base hit to right field. I'm just a lot stronger -- and I've been in these situations, runners in scoring position.
I thought it all went well, ... I was just trying to get the (bat) head out. In general I guess I did. I hit the ball on the barrel, which is good. It's coming. I just need to keep hitting. It takes a while to get those muscles strong again.
I said I wasn't going to embarrass myself, and I felt like this was a joke. I don't have a problem with my work ethic. I don't have a problem with determination. But I can't control what's going on in my shoulder.
Over any short period, pitching can carry a team. We've got the kind of pitching than can give you the chance to win game after game after game.
I think the teams are to blame. They start out by giving guys out of high school millions of dollars and contracts that guarantee they'll be in the big leagues by a certain time. Then they coddle them all the way through the system. They get used to having things given to them rather than having earned them.
I wouldn't say I'm all the way back, I'm just pinch-hitting. I'm capable of doing that.
Just to get out here, get back on the field, I felt like it was a little bit of a trial camp today. I felt like I almost had to try and prove something, but yet I've got to sit back and say, 'No, I don't, I just have to get ready for April 1.
You just know it. The group just believes in each other. It's a special group.
That doesn't count. To be honest with you guys, I'm not really looking to throw. I guess everyone else is.
Locating on the outside corner, getting confidence with his outside fastball, hitting his spots, ... When he does that, he's tough to hit.
I wish I could've done a little bit more.
It feels better as I do it. The key is during the course of a game, is it going to stay like that? Or at least that it stays the same, not regresses.