Jon Lester Quotes

Anybody's best pitch is the one the batters ain't hitting that day.

As soon as I got out there I felt a strange relationship with the pitcher's mound. It was as if I'd been born out there. Pitching just felt like the most natural thing in the world. Striking out batters was easy.

The difference between a home run and a swing-and-a-miss is, what, an inch and a half? You can throw a great pitch, the guy makes a great swing. And if it's at a guy, it's an out. That's the beauty of baseball, really. There's not just one guy in control.

I had some great pitchers while in St. Louis. At first, they only 'pitched' the ball fifty feet. They had an allowance of six bases on balls, which was neutralized to some extent by four strikes. Later on, the 'throw' became a free-for-all, overhand, or any style the pitcher chose.

If I get two strikes, I'll go to a pitch maybe that will help induce that a little bit.

In baseball I was very singularly focused. If I was pitching it was me versus the hitter.

Everybody here has the ability to throw a fastball down and away or throw a breaking ball in the dirt for a swing and a miss. But are we able to stay in that moment and understand what we're trying to accomplish and see it in our mind before we execute and then make the pitch?

Hitting is timing. Pitching is upsetting timing.

No baseball pitcher would be worth a darn without a catcher who could handle the hot fastball.

It's not fun facing a ball going 97 mph, trust me.

I couldn't throw a knuckleball if my life depended on it.

It just tickles me still when you see Roger Clemens, as great as he is, throw a split-finger and the hitter just swings and misses. They don't see that ball that well. Jack Morris threw an awful good one and Mike Scott. There's a lot of great pitchers over the years that I think that pitch definitely helped their career.

When you can throw 97 miles an hour and put the ball over the plate anytime you want, it's fun.

I don't recall your name but you sure were a sucker for a high inside curve.

Can I throw harder than Joe Wood? Listen mister, no man alive can throw any harder than Smokey Joe Wood.

Show me a guy who can't pitch inside and I'll show you a loser.

Any pitcher who might throw at me should know I'm not giving up my day job or trying to get anyone else's job. I just can't think of anything cooler than being one of the boys of summer!

Once a year, I take my whole wine team down to see the Giants, and we meet the players. I've never seen anyone pitch like Lincecum that can throw the ball and get through the front leg. He has that stiff front leg.

You fool around with different pitches playing catch, but it's not the same when you've got to face some guy with a bat in his hand.

In baseball, I was a pitcher, which I hated because there was no action there.

The pitcher setting up the batter. It's chess, and you play with it.

Never reach for the knuckleball; I just let it come to me.

The three most important pitches I threw in my life were all fastballs.

Son, what kind of pitch would you like to miss.

Balls and strikes are the basic tenet to everything in baseball. From the perspective of hitting, pitching, offense and defense, it's all about the strike zone and how the battle is waged there between the pitcher and hitter.