Notable Quotables: Dealing in Dayton
By jseiner24
By Jake Seiner
Dayton pitching coach Tony Fossas on Cincinnati Reds prospect Ismael Guillon (Dragons’ Guillon building confidence):
“For the last two or three starts, his bullpens and pregame have been right on the money, and he’s still — his bullpens are still better than the way he’s pitching. His rhythm and tempo have been really good, and he’s not thinking about anything.
“In games, he’s pitching very aggressively and his tempo is getting better. You can see in a pitcher’s face when he’s building confidence. That’s what he’s doing right now. That he’s getting his confidence back tells me a lot about this young man. He had some games earlier this year that might’ve had me running to the mound.
Fossas on coaching players with unusual deliveries:
“I’m not a big guy on changing deliveries. I don’t play with that with a young man who has been throwing all his career a certain way. I believe it’s difficult to change a delivery. There are so many different, unorthodox deliveries out there. If I wanted to teach a perfect, prototypical delivery, I can do that.
“I pitched for a long time and I didn’t have a perfect delivery. Certain guys, you just try to make them better with what they’ve got. You don’t change too much and you try to create confidence for that player. I remember when I was a young player, my delivery was always being changed and I always struggled then because I was never comfortable.”
Pittsburgh Pirates’ Alen Hanson on winning Florida State League All-Star Game MVP (Hanson homers, named All-Star MVP):
“It’s an honor, especially with the way I started the season. It wasn’t quite the way I was expecting to start, so to get the opportunity to be an All-Star and perform like this is a dream come true for me.
“It was one of the best times so far in my career, actually being able to be at the All-Star Game and to be in the Home Run Derby with guys I know from back home, I enjoyed every moment. I enjoyed it as much as possible. And to cap it off by having the game that I had at the plate and to win the game, it was fun.”
Texas Rangers’ Neil Ramirez on managing baseball’s mental side (Ramirez fans 10 in RoughRiders’ win):
“Sometimes, I speed up a little and leave the ball up in my delivery. Having the intent to throw the pitch where I want it and with the stuff on it I want is what will keep me in the strike zone. I can’t try to miss bats too early. If you get ahead 0–2, then you can take your shot, and after that, then you come back into the zone. I need to be efficient with my pitches, not try to do too much. That’s when I get in trouble.”
Atlanta Braves’ Cody Martin on midseason promotions (Martin tosses gem in Triple-A debut):
“It’s fun. It’s really fun. You’re meeting a lot of new guys. It’s exciting. You can get into a lull with things when you’re with the same team for so long. By the midway point, it’s just a grind every day where you’re doing the same thing — it gets monotonous. Getting here two days ago, it put some pep in my step. I’ve been having an awesome time with these guys and I just want to keep contributing.”
