IT'S LIKE MAJOR LEAGUE NEVER HAPPENED
"It was an outstanding April. The Indians have been playing baseball for 111 years. They've had so many great teams here. It's hard to believe that none of those teams has won more games in April than we did. I told the coaching staff, 'This is something to be proud of. No one can take it away from us.'"
–Indians manager Manny Acta.
"We're not hiding the fact that if we are going to continue this we're going to need everyone contributing. We're going to need everybody in the lineup to play to their capabilities. We're going to need guys in our rotation to stay healthy and pitch well and we're going to need our bullpen to do a good job because we are a better club than we were last year. We're going to need everyone at full cylinder to keep playing this way."
–Acta.
"This is a lot of fun. It helps to have my teammates hitting."
–Indians starter Fausto Carmona, after getting the win on Thursday.
"It will give everybody else more opportunity to get to the playoffs. When I can't change things, I just adjust to them."
–Acta on his desire for a new playoff system.
BUT WHAT ABOUT THE SOLID GOLD BINOCULARS FRANK WANTED?
"The investigation is going to show that the Dodgers have a cash requirement in 2011. This is not something new. This is something we shared with baseball a long time ago. It's been part of our financial plan, our financial model."
–Dodgers owner Frank McCourt on the cash he needed from the team's television contract.
"He obviously would prefer that I wasn't here. That's OK with me. I understand that. I think we can get this done. I think we've come a long way in a couple of days here."
–MLB-appointed overseer of the Dodgers Tom Schieffer.
"We met with baseball back in May of last year and outlined our plans going forward, and we received their blessing for our plans. At the time, we were told we were a model franchise as far as our financial performance was concerned."
–McCourt.
"One thing I want to say—I'm sorry. I apologize that my personal life spilled over and affected them. I'm sorry about certain lifestyle decisions I made. I'm sorry if I've been the cause of embarrassment for the community, for the team, for the fans. I'm sorry to my boys, my family, and I apologize how they all have had to endure this."
–McCourt. (Ken Gurnick, MLB.com)
TAKING OZZIE SERIOUSLY IS A $5 FINE
"He understands. He's very contrite and I think he gets it. He's accepted all of the responsibility that has come with the action. We're mindful of the fact we don't have our manager and we have to be respectful of the umpires, and maybe even respectful of them to an even greater degree right now as a result of what they may be feeling at this time."
–White Sox general manager Kenny Williams on the MLB reaction to his manager's post-ejection complaints on twitter.
I'm with them 100 percent, not because I'm here talking to you guys. We talked about baseball, what we want for this game… We don't want this game to go where it shouldn't be."
–White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen on the two-game suspension.
"I think Major League Baseball is there to be the caretakers of the game. And they have to do things for the whole of the game and this kind of falls into that category where if you let this whole social media thing get out of control—none of us know what the boundaries kind of are right now to all of this and how to navigate our way through it."
–Williams.
"If I'm sitting in Joe Torre's chair, I'd make the same decision he just made. That's with the mindset it's in the best interest of baseball."
–Williams. (Meghan Montemurro, Northwest Herald)
HE ALSO OFFERS THE WORST RIGHT FIELD DEFENSE IN BASEBALL
"He might have learned something or whatever, but he has ability. It ain't a fluke, like he did this and now he can hit. I think he could always hit before."
–Blue Jays hitting coach Dwayne Murphy on Jose Bautista's recent success.
"I can understand why anybody would be skeptical. We've all lived through it. But in today's day and age, there is testing; Manny Ramirez is the perfect example. There's no doubt in my mind Jose's been tested a lot, and there's no doubt in my mind that he's clean. I'm happy for him, because he's a great guy and he works."
–Mets assistant general manager J.P. Ricciardi.
"We liked his plate discipline, and he was an outstanding opposite-field, line-drive hitter. Our reports were good on his makeup, and he was a guy you could project. But I don't think you could project what he is today."
–MASN analyst Mike Flanagan, who was an Orioles vice president when the team selected Bautista in the Rule 5 draft. (Tyler Kepner, The New York Times)
I CAN HEAR NEAL HUNTINGTON'S SOBS FROM HERE
"I'm not trying to take my offense into defense. They're two completely different games. Whenever I can't produce a run at the plate, I try to save a run on defense. That's pretty much the mentality I've always had."
–Pirates third baseman Pedro Alvarez.
"Maybe there's a connection, I don't see one. Guys do a pretty good job of separating their offense from their defense, so I don't think it matters where you play a guy that determines the outcome of his offense."
–Royals manager Ned Yost.
"I take a lot of pride in my defense. I think it's one of the things that got me to the big leagues so I love that. But I can't give back that homer."
–Blue Jays infielder Mike McCoy, after hitting his first career home run at Yankee Stadium on Saturday. (Gregor Chisholm, MLB.com)
THE REST
"He was tough to talk to last year. I guess I really didn't know what he was going through. All I could do was help the best I can. It was frustrating last year. You kind of knew what he was going through. He had a lot on his plate—a lot of things that probably distracted him from playing the game. From the fan's perspective, they'd probably like to think it's just a game and you're always able to leave personal issues aside. But sometimes you can't."
–Dodgers third baseman Casey Blake on Matt Kemp's disappointing 2010. (Ken Gurnick, MLB.com)
"I went back and looked at his numbers last year from April 30, and he had five RBIs last year and he has 15 now. He was hitting 20 points higher than he is now with one home run and he has two. He's still driving some runs in for us compared to last year."
–Astros manager Brad Mills on Carlos Lee's production this April. (Brian McTaggart, MLB.com)
"Velocity is important, but the biggest thing right now is for Brandon to feel comfortable out there and trust letting it go. There's a mental hurdle a lot of times when someone comes back from a surgery. Hopefully the velo follows. If and when it does, we'll look at the next steps."
–Rangers general manager Jon Daniels on reports of Brandon Webb's velocity sitting in the 78-81 mph range. (Richard Durrett, ESPN.com)
"Because of our revenues and the competition we face, the amateur draft is arguably more important to us than to any other club, and this year's draft is easily the most important in our history. The number of high picks we have is literally unprecedented. It's a tremendous opportunity for us, and we're devoting more energy and resources to the process than we ever have."
–Rays vice president Andrew Friedman on this year's amateur draft. (Marc Topkin, St. Petersburg Times)
"That guy should never work in baseball again. It was that bad. Gloria's suggesting sensitivity training. Come on, that's going to change him? It was like something switched in his brain, and he wasn't sane."
–Giants patron Todd Achondo on Roger McDowell's incident at AT&T Park in San Francisco. (Gwen Knapp, San Francisco Chronicle)
——
Alex Carnevale is a contributor to Baseball Prospectus.
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