His velocity and location are so good, ... he's one of those guys where you can know what's coming and you still won't hit it.

262

I talked to a few of them. They didn't want to get involved and try to sway my decision. What they've said is they wanted me to do what was best for me and not to worry about anything else.

214

That was a big part of it. With Jim Hendry, he's always been very fair with me. He's a great person to work for. He's going to get it done.

166

With Greg, I think you saw in the second half of the year there's a lot of upside for him.

140

The two months that I'm in Spring Training is tough. The family obligation weighed heavily. We spent a lot of time talking about that. The truth of the matter is during spring, I'm at the ballpark the majority of days for 12, 15 hours. I wouldn't get a whole lot of time with them.

118

Obviously, I think at some point an organization has to look at the importance of stability. I don't think Cubs have ever really spent time doing that. There's always been a big turnover in personalities.

118

Obviously, we need to be healthy.

95

It was a very tough decision. Probably for about five or six days I went back and forth a lot, talking to people. With Dave Dombrowski and Jim, we won a World Series and I had a relationship with both of them. That made it tough, but in the end my obligation was more important.

74

I took the job four years ago with winning in mind, and we haven't accomplished that.

59