Jim Tracy
Jim Tracy
adjustment ball count early forced fourth himself kept opposition order pitch swing
Ian Snell made an adjustment from what he was doing early on and got the ball down to where he could be very effective. He forced the opposition to have to swing the bat. He got himself some early-count outs. As a result, he kept his pitch count in order and was able to go through the fourth inning.
advocating approaches ball continuing couple guys pitch smart swung taking time
I'm not advocating taking a ball on the first pitch every time up there. A couple of times (yesterday), the first pitch was there, and we swung at it. But I'm continuing to see these guys take smart approaches to hitting, and that's encouraging.
anxious ball club days deal follow forward history looking pirates pittsburgh players proud somebody understand
I'm looking forward to spearheading this ball club to back to some of the days when the Pittsburgh Pirates were somebody you really had to deal with. I'm very anxious in making the players understand there is history here - history for them to be proud of and history for them to follow up on.
ballpark games hits six three win
First and foremost, you aren't going to win many games in this or any ballpark with one run. We get six hits from three people, and that won't make it at any park.
balls beginning best breaking command fastball progress threw
It was the best Snell has done. I'm beginning to see some progress from him. He threw enough breaking balls for strikes. He had much better command of his fastball tonight.
ball complete created guy ninth novice opportunity player
He's going to get the ball in the ninth inning. We'll see how it goes. We've got a guy who is a complete novice in that environment. But what I see is a player that an opportunity has been created for him and he's seizing the opportunity.
afraid attack ball certainly close paying pitcher
If I'm a pitcher and I'm paying close attention, I'm certainly not going to be afraid to attack somebody's bat. I want the ball in play -- because they're going to make plays.
ball bunt coming contact drive guy hitter outfield perfect pitches run
He had two perfect pitches to bunt. That's the guy you want up there to get the bunt down. You get the bunt down, it makes them have to make decisions. And we had a guy coming up who's a contact hitter who can drive the ball to the outfield to drive the run in.
ball bring bullpen determine game gets handle hit losing mistake pitcher pitching record side watch
That's his game to determine at that point. You take him out of the game like that there, you bring in the bullpen and a mistake is made, a ball gets hit in the gap, and he's the pitcher of record in the losing decision, and he got to watch it on the other side of the dugout. I don't handle pitching that way.
approach approaches ball change dugout far given group guy missed noticed players situation swing swung team understand watching
The one thing I noticed about this team while watching from the other dugout is that it swung and missed too much. The approach had to change collectively, in my opinion, as far as each and every guy approaches his at bats. You need a group of players that understand that in a given situation it's pretty important for them to try and put the ball in play, and not swing and miss.
against ball basically breaking club last pitch tough until
I thought he battled. He didn't have his breaking ball until his last two innings. That's a tough club to pitch against with basically just your fastball.
ball beat change fortunes
You've got to do better than that. If you are going to change the fortunes of your ball club, you've got to be able to beat these guys.
balls early good guys hits hitter middle pitch plate sitting suggesting
I'm not sitting here suggesting that guys don't get hits on an 0-2 or a 1-2 pitch ... but ordinarily, on 0-2, you don't see balls get hammered. When you come up through a minor-league system, you know early on that when you get a hitter 0-2, a ball sitting right in the middle of the plate is not a very good location.
balls early good guys hits hitter middle pitch plate sitting suggesting
I'm not sitting here suggesting that guys don't get hits on an 0-2 or a 1-2 pitch ... but ordinarily, on 0-2, you don't see balls get hammered. When you come up through a minor-league system, you know early on that when you get a hitter 0-2, a ball sitting right in the middle of the plate is not a very good location.