“I put a lot of pressure on myself to get off to a good start. I got off to a bad start and it snowballed on me, and I just got deeper and deeper into the hole. I was proud,, though, that I didn't go all the way into the tank. I came back to salvage the season a little bit.”
“It was definitely one of the most frustrating years of my career. It weighed on my mind a bit. But I was satisfied with the way I rebounded from it. I was able to overcome a lot of adversity.”
“Expectations don't bother us, because we expect to win ourselves. Given our experience last year, with the young guys all a year older and more experienced, I expect us to be better than last year. It wouldn't be a good situation if nobody expected you to be able to win. But our fans and the city expect us to win, and so do we.”
“I don't think, as players, we can sit here and worry about that drought. You just have to keep getting better and more consistent every day and not worry. Obviously, making the playoffs and winning the world championship is everyone's goal. But you can't play with that anxiety of not winning it for a while.”
“It's very psychological when you begin the season. It seems like guys are too impatient and don't realize how long the season is. You fret when you don't have to. You start to doubt yourself. I've been in that position one too many times. But so far I've been fortunate enough to have good at-bats.”
