At the top of the cycle you write [policies for] everybody, no matter how bad, and at the bottom you cancel everybody, no matter how good. It's a manic-depressive cycle.

When we came up, we were always told go the opposite field no matter what. If you didn't go the opposite field when I first came up, you weren't going to play. It was said you had to force inside pitches to right field to stay in the lineup.

The bottom line is about the technique. The little things. Fine-tuning what we have to do. No matter who is out there, maybe they're not going to be as good, quote-unquote, as the starters may be, but the bottom line for us is to make sure we're doing the right things.

We have excellent depth. We feel like we can produce no matter who we put in there toward the bottom of the lineup.

He's brought a lot to the sport. The bottom line, no matter how you slice it, is that people are watching because of him. And because of him, they're watching me and James (Cochran) and everyone else. How bad can that be?

AOL was a little light on the top line but made it up on the cost line. There were no surprises based on what we heard on Jan. 7.