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IF ONE MORE JOURNALIST WRITES "THAT'S BASEBALL," JEFF BERRY WILL EXPLODE

"You leave players way too vulnerable. I can tell you Major League Baseball is less than it was before this. It's stupid. I don't know if this ends up leading to a rule change, but it should. The guy is too exposed."
-Buster Posey's agent Jeff Berry on the collision between his client and Marlins outfielder Scott Cousins that led to a severe injury to the catcher's ankle.

"I don't know how frequent they are to warrant any rule change, and certainly sometimes when there is something that happens it is unfortunate, but I don't know if there's enough there to rewrite the rulebook."
-Angels manager Mike Scioscia on collisions at home plate.

"I'm sorry Buster got hurt, but that's the chance you take. That comes with the trade of being a catcher. It was a good hard slide. If he would've had the ball waiting for him, he could have really given it to Cousins."
-former Reds infielder Pete Rose.

"It's awful, but it's part of the game and you have to play it as hard as you can. That's why I'm here. You wish his legs could come out from under him and he could roll over, get up, dust himself off, maybe even say something to me mean. I'll take it, but you don't want to see his leg get broken. It's the worst."
-Marlins outfielder Scott Cousins on the play.

"If you go helmet to helmet in the NFL, it's a $100,000 fine, but in baseball, you have a situation in which runners are [slamming into] fielders. It's brutal. It's borderline shocking. It just stinks for baseball. I'm going to call Major League Baseball and put this on the radar. Because it's just wrong."
Berry. (Jorge L. Ortiz, USA Today)

HIS MAJOR STRENGTH IS GIVING INTERVIEWS

"Someone might have said, 'Well, you should have had more stock portfolios, whatever'… I don't know shit from shinola. I never bought a stock in my life. That's not what we're good at. You can say, you should have had the money in U.S. Trust or Citibank or whatever. In retrospect, you can say yeah. And call that stupid or lack of judgment."
-Mets owner Fred Wilpon reflecting on the lawsuit filed by the victims of Bernie Madoff.

"Bernie didn't want to be in the public eye, which I can now understand more."
Wilpon on why Madoff didn't accept his offer to own part of the team when he became majority owner in 2002.

"I did talk to Frankie Rodriguez and I said, 'How did you avoid getting mentioned in that article?'"
-Mets general manager Sandy Alderson on a New Yorker article in which Wilpon criticized David Wright, Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran.

"Not by his formula, if you believed his formula of what he did with puts and calls. Markets going this way and markets going that way didn't affect the basket of stocks he was allegedly buying. We had no feeling that that was unusual. There were times when his returns were a little higher and times they were a little lower. I think generally he used to say he would double [the return on] Treasuries."
Wilpon on whether the returns were too good to be true. (Tom Verducci, Sports Illustrated)

THE LOOK OF CONSTIPATION ON BOB GEREN'S FACE SIGNIFIES IMPERFECTION ONLY

"There's just no communication. Two games, on the road, bring the closer in a tied game, with no previous discussions of doing so. And then, tonight, in the seventh inning, I get up. I haven't stretched, I haven't prepared myself. If there was some communication beforehand I would be ready to come into the gamewhich I was, when I came into the game, I was ready. Just lack of communication. I don't think anybody really knows which direction he's headed."
-Athletics reliever Brian Fuentes criticizing manager Bob Geren's bullpen management.

"Bob was never good at communication, and I don't want to speak for anybody else, but it was a sentiment reflected in many conversations during the two years I spent in Oakland, and even recently when talking to guys after I left. For me personally, he was my least favorite person I have ever encountered in sports from age 6 to 27."
-Rockies closer Huston Street on his relationship with Geren while he was in Oakland.

"If you look at our club the last month and a half, our pitching has been fantastic. We haven't scored a lot of runs, so it makes it challenging at the end of games for managing decisions or relievers coming in, and we expect perfection in an imperfect world."
-Athletics general manager Billy Beane on the criticism of Geren. (John Shea, San Francisco Chronicle)

IT WAS CERTAINLY NOT A PITCH COUNT ISSUE

"I wanted to be doing the job for 20 years. But I'll look back on this grateful that I took the risk and had three weeks of fantasy baseball play-by-play experience and enjoyed every minute of it."
-former Rangers play-by-play broadcaster John Rhadigan, who was replaced after two months by Dave Barnett.

"We just felt like for the overall broadcast, John could help us at pre- and post-game coverage. That job had not been filled and he's a big asset there and helps the entire package."
-Rangers executive VP for communications John Blake on the move.

"They said that there was a lot of negative feedback and that the learning curve was just too great to overcome."
Rhadigan on what the team told him. (Mel Bracht, The Oklahoman)

THE REST

"The security guard says Major League Baseball has determined that the shirt constitutes profanity. He tells me to get another shirt, cover it up, turn it inside out or leave the stadium."
-Rays fan Melton Little, after Tropicana Field security guards forced him to remove his "Yankees Suck" t-shirt. (Keith Morelli, Tampa Tribune)

"Instead of having the bat model be 'AG28' or something like that, with my initials or my number, I talked to them and we were able to get Psalms 27:1, which is my favorite verse, the verse I like to go to. It talks about, 'The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; whom shall I be afraid of?' It really just tells me if there's any situation where I feel any kind of pressure, I just look at that psalm and feel God's in control."
-Red Sox first baseman Adrian Gonzalez on his relationship with Trinity Bat Company. (WEEI.com)

"I threw my glove out there the first time because if I didn't like any of them, I was just going to go play with my glove. I felt sorry for the infielders. They had a little target out there."
-White Sox infielder Omar Vizquel on playing first base for the first time in his career. (Arden Zwelling, MLB.com)

"It's definitely a strength; he has that tunnel vision about him. You're seeing the next hitter, maybe the next three guys, but you're not here for the camaraderie, for the fun of it all. He's here to dominate, and that's what he tries to do, day in, day out. I don't agree with itthat's his style, not my stylebut it obviously works for him."
-Cal outfielder Vince Bruno analyzing the approach of UCLA starter Trevor Bauer, a top prospect in next month's amateur draft. (Jon Gold, Los Angeles Daily News)

"I walked in and said, 'Promise you won't think I'm crazy.' And he looked at me like, 'I know that you are, so I can't promise that.' He was expecting me to tell him I wanted him to hit lower in the batting order, I'm sure. I said, 'I'd like you to hit leadoff.' And he gave me that Longo smile. And I said, 'I really believe this can help.' Then I gave him my entire explanation of how I wanted him to approach it. We'll see where it takes us."
-Rays manager Joe Maddon on asking Evan Longoria to lead off. (Bill Chastain, MLB.com)

Alex Carnevale is a contributor to Baseball Prospectus.

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gdragon1977
5/30
"If he would've had the ball waiting for him, he could have really given it to Cousins."
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No wonder Pete has such a bad gambling history... personally I'd probably bet on the guy with the 80 foot running start almost every time in that collision
eighteen
5/31
Yeah, no surprise Charley 4$$hole thinks going out of the basebath to cheapshot a catcher who doesn't have the ball is a "good, hard slide."

Hey, Rose, your bookie's on Line 1.
eighteen
5/31
No one could possibly be as stupid as Fred Wilpon's trying to look.