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TIM LINCECUM IS NOT AN ANIMAL

"I would say we're moving to expanding the playoffs, but there's a myriad of details to work out. Ten is a fair number. The more we've talked about it, I think we're moving inexorably to that."
-MLB commissioner Bud Selig.

"Personally I think it's kind of funky, just because the game has been this way for so long. Why mess it up, other than for monetary purposes, and that's probably what he is looking at. That's like, 'OK, don't worry about us as human beings or players.' "
-Giants starter Tim Lincecum on commissioner Bud Selig's plan to expand the playoffs.

"It doesn't seem very fair, and personally I don't know where his head is at. It doesn't seem right to me. I don't know, man. I don't see why you need to fix something that isn't broken. Players like it the way it is. It's dog-eat-dog. People know they need to win 11 games to win the World Series. Nobody wants to have to worry, 'Oh [expletive], now I've got another [expletive] team in the [expletive] mix.' Now we have to worry about what that takes and what they're going to do. What if the wild-card team is not deserving of getting in?"
Lincecum. (Cam Inman, Contra Costa Times)

"In my opinion, it gives franchises and cities something to look forward to other than just eight out of 30 teams getting in. And it's usually the same eight. For us, small-market teams, it gives you an opportunity to backdoor your way in and get a city excited to play in the playoffs. I think it's good."
-Rays third baseman Evan Longoria.

"I think it's good for baseball. As long as it doesn't get crazy and get too watered down. It's never going to get to the point where you show up and you're in the playoffs, but I think it's good for baseball. There's been no decision made on how to do it, for sure. They're just throwing a bunch of stuff around. But I think it'll be good for baseball. Basically, to me, baseball is like any other business: you try to give your customers what they want."
-Tigers manager Jim Leyland.

AFTER ALL, THEY DID PAY HIM ALMOST $4M A YEAR

"It's obvious the organization needed to be tended to, paid attention to, and I know it wasn't easy for the commissioner to come up with the decision that he did."
-MLB vice president Joe Torre, on Bud Selig taking over the Dodgers.

"All this momentum is building, and then all of sudden this letter comes in and says, 'You don't have any money. You don't have this or that.' I think it was irresponsible. To me, if you're going to send somebody out here to take something over, you don't write a letter that says, 'Gee whiz, here's all these problems with you, and here's everything else, but don't worry, later on in the week we're going to send somebody else out.' You do it the same day… What are you supposed to do for four days?"
-Recently-hired Dodgers executive Steve Soboroff on the MLB directive.

"You don't need any rough spots or bad things to happen to appreciate the O'Malleys. They're a terrific family, they're down to earth. You look at what they did for baseball and the Dodger organization, they did things right."
-Angels manager Mike Scioscia on the former owners of the Dodgers.

"I think our team is concentrating on the games at hand. I've talked to them. Donnie's talked to them. They're focused on winning games and that's where their focus should be and that's where we expect their focus to continue to be, as well as Donnie's and mine."
-Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti.

HIS FLAWLESS FAREWELL TOUR HITS NEW YORK NEXT

"Me? No, I got a lot of money. I got a lot of work. If I'm not managing the White Sox, I will manage somewhere else. Maybe Mexico, Japan. I know I will manage in Venezuela. I can do a lot of great stuff in baseball. This job might just have a title. I might go to Fox. They want me. I can do a lot of stuff. Job security, everyone who sits in this chair, all those guys out there, they are in the same boat I am."
-White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen on what he plans to do after he stops managing the White Sox.

"If I get fired, I deserve to get fired. I don't think Jerry or Kenny will fire me just to tell the people, 'We don't like Ozzie,' or 'Look at what we are going to do.' They will fire me because my players will get me fired. That's the way I look at it. That's the last thing that goes through my mind."
Guillen.

"I come to work, put a smile on my face, talk to you guys and do my manager's job and go home and cry. In front of you guys, I'm fine, I'm cool."
Guillen. (Doug Padilla, ESPN.com)

SCOTT HAIRSTON HAS RARELY BEEN THE SOURCE OF SO MUCH HUMAN MISERY

"It has certainly been shocking to us. It was one of the things we had to work on in spring training."
-Mets manager Terry Collins on his team dropping pop flies.

"We don't have a lot of moves to make. We brought in a lot of players, role players, primarily because we don't have at the top end of our system players who can make a contribution right away… There aren't many of those guys."
-Mets general manager Sandy Alderson.

"When you're a pitching staff that doesn't strike out guys, you can't allow the base-on-balls."
Collins.

"When you got one of your pitchers talking during the game about what he's going to do next winter, that's inexcusable. That's a mental error as far as I'm concerned. We're in April and you're worried about next January?"
-SNY analyst Bobby Ojeda on a mid-game interview with R.A. Dickey about his plan to climb Mount Kilimanjaro after the season. (Bob Raissman, New York Daily News)

THIS IS NOT A GAME

"To me, our game is not a sprint. It's not the first three weeks, it's not the first four weeks. It's something that you have to deal with when you're with the Yankees, because guys stay here a long time."
-Yankees manager Joe Girardi on Derek Jeter's slow early going.

"You understand going in that you're going to have to deal with aging veterans…. It's just a difficult point of life, because our mind tells us one thing and our heart tells us another."
Girardi. (Mike Francesa, WFAN.com)

"Those are ignorant people who say that. They don't know the game. I could play 140 games at 90 percent, 80 percent. But that's not the way I play. I play 100 percent. I don't see people saying he's fragile. They say he plays hard."
-Angels infielder Maicer Izturis, comparing himself to Josh Hamilton. (Kevin Baxter, Los Angeles Times)

THE REST

"I think he's a five-tool guy. He can beat you in a number of ways, like with his power, or he can steal a base when you need it. He obviously hits for a high average, and his defense can be real good at times. He's probably, talent-wise, up there with some of the best in the game."
-Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki on Hanley Ramirez. (Ken Rosenthal, Fox Sports)

"The people in charge would prepare all this stuff and the telecast was all about getting all this stuff in."
-Giants radio broadcaster Jon Miller on his experience broadcasting Sunday Night Baseball. (Phil Mushnick, New York Post)

"He's throwing 103 and I don't know what I'm trying to do. After the first pitch, I moved a foot farther from the plate and started hacking."
-Pirates starter Kevin Correia on facing Aroldis Chapman. (ESPN.com)

"My theory is that drug testing in Major League Baseball is working and people are getting away from using illegal steroids. They are moving to legal products such as creatine, but they don't know how to use it in conjunction with their workouts."
-Sports physician Lewis Maharam on a possible cause for the purported rise in oblique injuries. (Christian Red, New York Daily News)

"I'm not sure if they missed a sign or it was a hit-and-run or something. I have to brush up on my unwritten rules. It may be an L.A. and Milwaukee version. I don't know. I just was curious. I was a little surprised but I believe there was a missed sign."
-Cubs manager Mike Quade, complaining about the Dodgers attempting to steal up 8-1 in the fifth inning. (Bruce Levine, ESPN.com)

Alex Carnevale is a contributor to Baseball Prospectus.

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Lespaul1
4/26
"After the first pitch, I moved a foot farther from the plate and started hacking." What a great quote and a terrific way to describe what it would be like for an average Joe to face MLB pitching.