It's pretty bad right now. It's real frustrating to be losing all these games.

Right now I'm really feeling comfortable at the plate in the last five or six days. When I feel like that, I don't look for a pitch. I look for something around the strike zone or something that I know I can handle.

There was a point where we were losing a lot of close games. We were right there, but we were losing a lot. The turnaround was the San Francisco game. We were basically playing for last place at the time, and we just found a way to win. It just kind of took off from there, and we just had a winning streak and rode the wave.

With a strike, we have the right to replace them and we?re not going to risk losing any games or risk our major-league partners? interest in development.

They told me they want more homers and RBI than last year. I had a good average and everything, but I didn't have power numbers.

You've got to take it in a positive way. I think he did that because he wanted the team to get better. What do you prefer? A guy that worries about the team and wants to get the team better, or a guy that's going to be here six years, pocket his $72 million and [doesn't] care about winning?