J. D. Martinez Quotes

I looked for the same pitch my whole career, a breaking ball. All of the time. I never worried about the fastball. They couldn't throw it past me, none of them.

There's no easier pitch to hit than a splitter that doesn't do anything.

I don't see pitches down the middle anymore - not even in batting practice.

Hitting is business. With two strikes you really protect that plate.

Pitchers make adjustments, and it's up to the hitters to readjust and sort of tweak what they do.

You never hit a good slider or curveball; you just try to go after the mistakes.

If someone throws you a good slider, you're not going to hit it. You've got to always hunt those ones that kind of pop up or hang thigh-high or up.

Basically, hitters fall into a pattern, and once you know what they like, you can set them up for the putout with something else.

In my own case I have frequently faced the pitcher when I had no desire whatever to hit. I wanted to get a base on balls.

I have to go with the approach I had in Triple-A. I need to take a lot of those fastballs I am seeing to left field. Also must gear up for the changeup and take them up the middle.

Ken Holtzman could pitch a game in ninety minutes. Wouldn't throw a breaking ball. And he had a great breaking ball.

For me, the strike zone has always been, If it's something I can drive, it's most likely a strike. I feel like if it's a ball I really can't do much with, it's most likely a ball. So that's just always been my approach.

The biggest thing is, you don't hit the good sliders; you just hit the mistakes. That's what my thing has always been: Just keep hunting mistakes.

When I'm at the plate, I'm not thinking about what I'm trying to do with the bat - I'm thinking about what the pitcher is trying to do with the ball.

Some batters, and good ones too, scoff at the whole theory of place hitting, calling it a myth. They are wrong, however.

My pitching philosophy is simple - keep the ball way from the bat.

To be a good hitter you've got to do one thing - get a good ball to hit.

Joe Torre would tell you to make sure you can hit the ball on the outside part of the plate.

Guessing what the pitcher is going to throw is 80% of being a successful hitter. The other 20% is just execution.

If I can execute pitches and keep the ball out of the middle of the plate, I know I can have success.

All I really try to do is whatever hitter gets in there, I just try to get him out in as few pitches as possible.

Once I found my swing, I feel like if I put a good swing on it, I feel like it's got a good chance to go wherever - left, right, center - it doesn't matter. But I'm not just out here going to swing for home runs of anything. I'm just trying to put a good swing on the baseball.

When I can buy strikes with that curveball, that just lets everything else play up.

I just try to make the pitcher work.

That's when I'm at my best. When I can throw a fastball over in the count, just throw strikes both in and away, it just sets up all my stuff.