He's just a good player. He's a good hitter, a good defender and a good baserunner. He's a tremendous role model for all our younger players.

That was big. Sherrill gets a big strikeout against a very good hitter and then Mateo gets one of the most dangerous hitters in baseball in a situation like that.

Matt has been a good big-league player. We'll make the switch to get him some at-bats ... give Jeremy time to regroup. If Matt swings and plays the way Matt can, it will make things interesting.

He's a tremendous offensive player, as complete a hitter as there is in the major leagues. And I'll tell you something else: I see a player that is not satisfied with that.

More and more I see Adrian coming into that role,

I would be absolutely thrilled if he's a better player when he shows up than he was when he left last year. Lopez needs a better focus. He needs to stay in the center of the field with his hitting. We really need to stay on him every hour of every day to stay in the middle of the field and stay focused on what it is he's trying to accomplish.