J. D. Martinez Quotes

I think I play center field better than I do anywhere else. I have enough speed and enough reaction to know where the ball goes off the bat.

When did it - When did it become okay for someone to hit home runs and forget how to play the rest of the game?

It's a pretty sure thing that the player's bat is what speaks loudest when it's contract time, but there are moments when the glove has the last word.

But as far as I'm concerned, I can still play defense.

I don't want to build a reputation for just being able to take long throws.

Before the combine, there were a lot of questions about whether I could guard multiple positions.

My body of work speaks for itself. I don't need anybody in the media to tell me I'm a good defensive player.

I'm not a flopper. I hate when people say I'm a flopper. I don't flop. You never see me flying all over the floor. None of that. I barely fall down in games.

I think of myself as a great player, but the fans have to decide whether that's true.

I think a player should be evaluated for what he does on the playing field.

I see myself as an average to above-average catcher in the big leagues.

If you take any player in their position, there's nobody better than Mookie Betts in right field. I'll take him over a short stop at their position. That's how good he is.

People are quick to think if you are not playing you are a bad player and it is not that at all.

At 16, I was a slow right-back and wasn't good enough to play centre-back.

I don't like to compare players, particularly to myself.

I haven't done great things for Spain - I can't lie - but when I play well, they should say so. They criticise me for my character, but I also have quality.

What I don't like too much really is individual comments about the performances of the players after the game.

That one thing that people say about me taking plays off, I feel like somebody said that when I was playing in college and it has followed me throughout my career. Because I feel like if we had the film and you wanted to pick one person who was taking a play off on a particular play, you could pick anybody.

Any player who is in a national team is their because he deserves to be.

The likability of any player is always up for debate, and people will always use their own moral compass to judge Luis Suarez, but that's not something I tend to focus on. I concentrate on what he is like with me on a day-to-day basis, and he is a great man.

I played all sports growing up. Baseball was always my favorite, though.

I obviously know how good I was, and people refer to the modern game being tougher.

I think as competitors, that's why we get into this, to gain respect from the guys who have played the game, and you walk away and they say, 'He was a tough cover - that dude was nice.'

Sometimes fans, sometimes even players, they don't know the game sometimes, and they look at numbers, or they use smoke-and-mirrors as far as who's a top 15 player, who's a top 20 player.

I always felt like I'm a good one-on-one defensive player.