It's not about the velocity. What impressed me was the movement Oliver had with his fastball in the hitting zone. He pitched great. He pitched like the ace of a staff.

(Sunday) I did not see Oliver pitching. I saw him just throwing and relying on stuff. If you do that and you fall behind in the count, you're not going to have much success.

In a perfect scenario, you'd have Joe hitting sixth. But if it's not perfect, I could see him hitting fifth, somehow behind Casey and Jason Bay. This is a guy who knows how to keep the offense moving, hit to all fields.

What I've been very impressed with -- and I think you need to give a tip of the cap to Lloyd McClendon and [his] staff here -- is that they played the game every time for 27 outs, ... They played with energy. They played hard. There's no question about that. That's a hell of a starting point.

Tonight was, in my opinion, dramatically better than what we saw in Florida. In Florida, he battled, but his fastball command was erratic. Tonight, it was crisp, it was good to both sides of the plate. It's a big step forward for him.

Lefties are hitting .308 against him and righties are hitting .122 [entering Saturday], ... [Derek Lowe], the last three starts, has been brilliant. You need to provide him good defense.